Website access problem on Mac after changing host

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ninjahen Author

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5 points

Website access problem on Mac after changing host

I changed from GoDaddy to Siteground for hosting and domain names for 4 websites.

They worked for a couple of day and then stopped working on my Mac, but work on my phone or other people's computers.

They say "future site of something really cool."

Or when I go to the wp-admin page I get a 404 error.

I tried flushing the dns cache.

I tried shutting off my router and have tried my Mac using other routers at other locations.

I tried to redirect the IP and edit the hosts file, but it seems that it's not possible to delete things from the host file.

I have run Onyx to clear things up.

Nothing is working.

To be honest I don't really understand any of the above things or what they are or if I'm doing it correctly.

When I type sudo nano /etc/hosts in my Terminal I get the below back. The 107 IP I believe belongs to GoDaddy and I can't get rid of it. All the other IPs, starting with 35, are the correct IPs. None of these websites work on my Mac.

I've spoken to Siteground and Apple and no-one can help. I spoke to an Apple software specialist, and they can't help either.

I set up a new user on my Mac. At first one of the websites worked, but then I got 404 errors on a few pages and then none of it worked.

I also get notifications that they're 'not secure' but I have SSL certificates for all of them.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. This has been going on for 8 weeks now. :(

I'm using a mid 2015 Macbook Pro, Big Sur 11.7.10

.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 19, 2024 3:51 PM

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Answer 1

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ninjahen Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 20, 2024 9:14 AM in response to ninjahen

For anyone else with this issue, a magical human has just fixed it for me, and I am ecstatic with joy!!

Here are his instructions:

When looking at your desktop, you'll see "Finder" in the top left, next to the Apple.

Click the "Go" menu to the right of it.

In the drop down menu click "Go to Folder"

Type this into the box: /private/etc/hosts

Click "Go."

In the resulting window a "hosts" file will be highlighted. Drag this file to the trash (but don't empty the trash).

Close this window.

Restart your Mac and the websites should work again.

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Answer 2

Mar 19, 2024 3:56 PM in response to ninjahen

Not sure why your hosts file contains all those ip addresses and urls.

Rename that hosts file then make a new hosts file containing the default entries:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost 
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost
fe80::1%lo0     localhost

Reboot and test site access.

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Answer 3

Mar 19, 2024 4:13 PM in response to ninjahen

ninjahen wrote:

Hi - thanks for your response.

How do I rename a hosts file and make another one?

Thank you

Alternatively you could just comment out all the lines that are not in the default hosts file.

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2024 5:44 AM in response to ninjahen

ninjahen wrote:

They were already in there. Then I went in and tried to add the new IP addresses, but nothing happened so I don't know if it worked. I tried to delete anything old, but I can't delete anything, apart from things I don't want to delete. I'm just clicking on things and hitting the "delete" button and the cursor jumps to another area and starts deleting other text. Sorry - I'm completely at a loss and blind in a dark woods with all this.

Why are you trying to "add new IP addresses". I did not advise you to do that. Stop trying to edit the hosts file. Take the computer to an authorized service center and ask them for assistance.

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Answer 5

Mar 20, 2024 5:29 AM in response to ninjahen

ninjahen wrote:

Thks. Unfortunately I don't know how to do that either. I am not tech-informed. Any explanations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

You open the hosts file and make the edits:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

You must have edited the hosts file to put in the entries that are currently in the hosts file.

Or did you install some third party app that wrote the entries into the hosts file? If so, uninstall this third party app.

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Answer 6

ninjahen Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 20, 2024 5:32 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

They were already in there. Then I went in and tried to add the new IP addresses, but nothing happened so I don't know if it worked. I tried to delete anything old, but I can't delete anything, apart from things I don't want to delete. I'm just clicking on things and hitting the "delete" button and the cursor jumps to another area and starts deleting other text. Sorry - I'm completely at a loss and blind in a dark woods with all this.

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Answer 7

ninjahen Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 19, 2024 4:08 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Hi - thanks for your response.

How do I rename a hosts file and make another one?

Thank you

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Answer 8

ninjahen Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 20, 2024 3:13 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Thks. Unfortunately I don't know how to do that either. I am not tech-informed. Any explanations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

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Answer 9

ninjahen Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 20, 2024 5:52 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

I have. They don't know what to do. Apple don't know what to do. No-one knows what to do. The IP address edit was done a few days ago on instruction from a Mac specialist.

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Website access problem on Mac after changing host

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