Level 1

14 points

Connected to Internet But Can't Browse?

This is weird. Rebooted my Macbook Pro yesterday after having it on for two weeks, as an update had to be installed. The update went fine, no dramas, however after waking up my Mac this morning after putting it to sleep overnight (as I normally do), I find that I can't browse the web in Safari, Chrome or Firefox (they all return server not found or something equivilant). The weird thing is that I can telnet any web server I want and issue a basic GET request, and pulls down all the HTML for that page without problem. So it's not anything to do with DNS, firewalls, or my network. It also happens over both a wired and wireless connection.

I anticipate that a reboot will fix it, but before I do that, I was hoping to see if I could find a way to solve this without a reboot, as a reboot can be a bit of a hassle after I've loaded everything and set up my workspace.

Has anyone seen this before, and/or have any ideas?

Macbook Pro 13, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Dell U2410 LCD Monitor

Posted on Apr 24, 2011 5:34 PM

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Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

14 points

Posted on Jul 18, 2011 3:32 AM

Motivated by the regulatory of this problem (about once a fortnight), I managed to find a fix for it. I found force quitting mDNSResponder in activity monitor, and letting the daemon restart automatically fixes the problem. I can only conclude that there's some kind of issue with the mDNSResponder daemon that causes it to either stop responding to DNS request, or fails to lookup DNS records.

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25 replies

bkkrocks

Level 1

4 points

Jun 21, 2014 6:18 AM in response to Wardrop19

Unfortunately, about an hour after I posted my comment, I again lost my browser's ability. to surf the web. :-(

i tried your suggestion again but to no avail. :-(

SIgh....

Guess I'll continue searching for a solution...

Jul 7, 2014 10:08 AM in response to Wardrop19

Guys , I was finally able to fix this !!

Just match the DNS from the wired connection and make sure its the same for the wireless connection.

It should be 192.168.8.1

For some reason mine was 8.8.4.4

Got it changed and it worked instantly !!

BobHarris

Level 9

56,807 points

Jul 7, 2014 5:49 PM in response to shdh87700

8.8.4.4 is a Google DNS server, and is frequently used by may people.

192.168.8.1 is most likely your home router, which would then be relaying your ISP's DNS server.

But if replacing Google's DNS server with your ISP's DNS server works for you, all is good.

Apr 15, 2016 8:16 PM in response to bkkrocks

Ok guys, I think i've found another solution. I tried all of the above including flushing DNS, stopping the mDNS.., rebooting my router and cable modem, etc. It then occurred to me that this could be a routing issue - a conflict of IP could do this. I was able to fix it by going to Network > Advanced > TCP/IP > Renew DHCP Lease. That did it for me, I was able to immediately browse.

Because a lease can last days, rebooting your router wouldn't fix this issue since your mac has that IP in its routing table and so does your router. Doing the renew does because the router releases your lease then realizes something else has the iP you had before, so it'll give you a new one.

Good luck!

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Apr 24, 2011 8:34 PM in response to Wardrop19

Have you tried running network diagnostics via safari?

Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 25, 2011 5:30 PM in response to TeenTitan

No, the firewall was not on, but thanks for the pointer. That safeboot sounds like it may come in useful one day too, thanks.

satcomer

Level 4

1,593 points

May 27, 2011 4:44 PM in response to Alivahur

Is anyone ruuuning the third party program of PeerGardian? It has been doing things that cause this problem.

Mar 5, 2017 12:17 PM in response to Guanaco_sensei

No luck here my MacBook Pro is locked to out side world it cannot see Airport Base station

I am going to System Install

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Mar 5, 2017 12:58 PM in response to Khourshed

Try resetting the base station.

mohonmia

Level 1

8 points

Jun 13, 2017 4:11 AM in response to Wardrop19

I was having the same problem

Browsing all the answer but nothing worked for me, but finally I got rid of this fraistration

Just needed to set date and time automatically

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Connected to Internet But Can't Browse?