Connected to Internet But Can't Browse?

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Level 1

13 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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Answer 1

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Wardrop19 Author

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13 points

Jul 18, 2011 3:32 AM in response to Wardrop19

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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Answer 2

Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

13 points

Jun 21, 2014 3:47 AM in response to bkkrocks

Hey bkkrocks, nah, I haven't found out any more information, though I find myself restarting these core services much less frequently these days. I think Apple must have addressed some of these issues in later OS X releases. I'm running Mavericks at work and home, and can't remember the last time I had to kill mDNSResponder, other than to sometimes force DNS to refresh (dscacheutil doesn't always do the trick).

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Answer 3

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

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

Have you tried running network diagnostics via safari?

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Answer 4

Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 25, 2011 1:06 AM in response to TeenTitan

Yes. It popped up automatically, so I ran it. It said that everything was fine. Anyway, I did end up rebooting and of course it now all works, but I do believe I've had this is the past, hence why I thought it would be worth finding out if this a known problem with a known solution or not.

It's probably the stangest issue I've yet to encounter on my Mac. By strange, I mean it doesn't make any logical sense. Why can I telnet over port 80 perfectly fine, but can't do effectively the exact same thing in a "web browser". So odd.

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Answer 5

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Apr 25, 2011 5:23 PM in response to Wardrop19

Do you use the OS's built in firewall? if so, next time the issue happens try turning the firewall off.

if you don't use the firewall, have you tried a Safeboot? A Safeboot will clear out cache files, repair file permissions. It can resolve lots of strange issues.

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Answer 6

Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

13 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.

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Answer 7

Alivahur

Level 1

9 points

May 25, 2011 4:13 AM in response to Wardrop19

Having exactly the same problem. It seems to me that it come after having installed a software for saving data on the WEB. I deleted the software but the problem is still there. Perhaps I did not clean properly all the components because I remark that in the morning, the computer is awake without my intervention.

On the same computer I have VMWare running windows XP and the internet connection works properly.

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Answer 8

satcomer

Level 4

1,539 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.

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Answer 9

Nov 2, 2011 3:13 PM in response to Wardrop19

hi, I have the same problem. Can someone help me? I'm using two laptops right now. I tried to browse the net using my HP and it worked well. Now I have my new macbook pro and it didn't work well. In my mac network settings, it shows it is connected to the server but I when i browse the net, it won't open a page. Can someone help me how to fix thix problem? Thank you.

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Answer 10

jean47

Level 1

0 points

Jan 2, 2012 2:19 PM in response to bart poce

Did you get this issue fixed as I am experiencing the same issues for over a week now. It's very frustrating after having had it working succdessfully for over two years and my ISP is not very helpful in resolving the issue.

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Answer 11

Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 3, 2012 1:40 AM in response to Wardrop19

I've already provided the solution for my problem. Open "Activity Monitor", find "mDNSResponder" and kill it.It will automatically restart and your DNS issues will be fixed. My problem was quite specific. There are many reasons why your internet connection may not be working. I determined my intermediant problem was a result of the mDNSResponder service. Your problem may be different.

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Answer 12

Jul 11, 2013 2:10 PM in response to Wardrop19

Wardrop19, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

This problem has been driving me crazy, and yours is the ONLY solution that worked.

OSX 10.6 on iMac, internet working fine on all other devices, Dropbox and Skype, but not any browser or iTunes store.

My internet has always worked almost flawlessly for years, but sometimes (noticeably after streaming an episode of something), any pages except for gmail, google search (only worked with Firefox, not Safari), and Apple forums would refuse to load.

Rebooting the router/modem, Airport and the computer didn't work, and I've been tearing my hair out for so long. Stumbled on your solution, and while I don't understand why, force quitting mDNSResponder worked instantaneously!

Thanks again!!

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Answer 13

Wardrop19 Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 11, 2013 3:41 PM in response to mfolkerson

I've found the DNS client in OS X to still be incredibly unreliable. In fact, DNS lookup in general is flakey in OS X. Apple really need to focus on some of these core OS issues. coreaudio is another service that can often require a kick in the guts for no apparent reason.

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Answer 14

rgvapple

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2013 8:59 AM in response to Wardrop19

i tried to findout and kill mDNSResponder but i couldn't find it in the activity monitor... the internet is working properly in my dad's alienware... but not in my macbookpro. this is soo frustrating. please help me out.

feel free to ask me any questions regarding my settings

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Answer 15

rgvapple

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2013 9:15 AM in response to Wardrop19

i tried to findout and kill mDNSResponder but i couldn't find it in the activity monitor... even safeboot couldn't help me. the internet is working properly in my dad's alienware... but not in my macbookpro. this is soo frustrating. please help me out.

feel free to ask me any questions regarding my settings

Reply