Internet suddenly stopped working, though still connected to the internet

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

What does the Diagnostics show in , System Preferences, Internet and Wireless, Network Preferences?

(I'm on OS X 10.6.x 'Snow Leopard', so the screens might look a bit different in your 10.5.8. 'Leopard' but they work in a similar manner.)

The 'red lights' and 'green lights' should help you diagnose where the problem is.

(My screen capture is a simulated problem, so yours will NOT match this.)

You didn't mention if there are other WiFi devices in your home network that can still connect to the internet. Assuming that none of the devices in your house gets a successful internet connection, then sounds like the problem is with either:

1) the device that connects your wireless router (DSL or cable modem?) to your internet service provider

-OR-

2) physical cables or wiring between your router, your modem, and your internet service provider's connection outside the house.

First, turn your modem off, leave off for 60 seconds, and turn it and back on.

Then do the same thing with your router.

If the devices have no power switch, just unplug the power adapter, wait, and then plug it back in.

It might take up to 5 minutes (in my experience with ATT DSL) for the modem to reestablish a connection, so be patient.

Example: I have ATT DSL. It stopped working. I tested computer, router, DSL modem, cable between DSL modem and router, and the physical phone line from the outside connection port into the house, all with no problems.

An incompetent construction crew in the neighborhood (ironically, installing fiber optic cable for a competitor!) managed to destroy the underground wires to my outside connection port, and ATT had to install new ones. Since it was 'outside' wiring, I didn't have to pay.

Sorry it wasn't something as simple as a bad cable.

You were quite thorough in your troubleshooting before I got involved.

What happens if you plug your computer directly into the router with an ethernet cable?

Can you connect to the internet then?

Is it one specific webpage, or all of them that fail to load?

What error(s) are showing in your browser when you try to connect?

Does your DNS Servers list include 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4?

Those are Google DNS servers, and they often work when other DNS servers are down.

Can you connect to wireless in another location (free WiFi in a coffee shop, restaurant, library)?

This older thread in another forum suggests disabling the proxy server in Chrome: http://forums.techarena.in/technology-internet/1358432.htm

Also try clearing caches, saved cookies, and passwords, from Chrome or your browser of choice.

You might also try dragging the current installation to the trash and reinstalling Chrome or Firefox from a freshly downloaded copy.

This sounds like a similar problem my G4 PowerBook running 10.5.8 has hit this week...

i.e. browsers and program's work fine on my internal network, but any access to the Internet and it's as if I don't have a working connection. This has prevented me connecting to iTunes and all Internet websites, also get connection error while checking for updates. I'm sure I saw an Airport update last week as part of a regular check - so wondering if you remember seeing such an update?

I've tried the tricks some fok have seen work, like boot in safe mode by holding the shift key down during boot and using fixed IP address rather than DHCP. All other devices on the internal and Internet work fine, so it seems something has happened to my PowerBook :-(

Come on Apple, I see several similar issue while wasting a Sunday trying to fix this...

... one problem is even if they do fix it, how do we get it - unless there's a downloadable 10.5.9 how would we get it!

Also, apple support pages tell me 10.5.8 is the last Leapard update and that I should update my hardware!!!

Sorry, if I've not posted in the right place, please tell me where I should post this...

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

Any chance your computer was infected with DNS-changer malware?

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/09/dns-changer-check-and-fix

Authorities took control of the rogue servers last year, but continued to operate them until last week (July 9, 2012) to give people a chance to discover and remedy the infection.

Here's one way to confirm, IF you can get online:

http://dns-changer.eu/

Assuming you got online to visit the site and run a confirmation check, a clean bill of health looks something like this (my IP address intentionally obscured):

Here's a link to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation story:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911/DNS-changer-malware .pdf

And if it's not a DNS-changer infection, you can re-download OS X 10.5.8 Update Combo from August, 2009 here:

Note that this Combo does NOT include the recent update to OS X 10.5.8 Safari designed to defeat the recent Flashback malware outbreak.

http://support.apple.com/downloads/Mac_OS_X_10_5_8_Combo_Update

Message was edited by: kostby

With all due respect to kostby, if this were a DNSChanger problem then substituting the Google DNS numbers would have solved it.

Something that has helped dozens of users recently was to disable IPv6 on your computer.

Select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Network ▹ Airport ▹ Advanced ▹ TCP/IP ▹ Configure IPv6: Off.

Click "OK" and then the "Apply" buttons.

Tad-England wrote:

Come on Apple, I see several similar issue while wasting a Sunday trying to fix this...

... one problem is even if they do fix it, how do we get it - unless there's a downloadable 10.5.9 how would we get it!

Also, apple support pages tell me 10.5.8 is the last Leapard update and that I should update my hardware!!!

I assume you know that Apple doesn't regularly monitor these forums for feedback. That's best done by here http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html, but I doubt they will pay much attention to us Leopard users.

I'm sure you are correct that there will not be a 10.5.9 and I'd actually given up hope of seeing any updates until they surprised Intel Mac users with the Flashback Removal Tool update. So there is hope, but I would not hold my breath.

Thanks, my DNS addreses seem fine in my router and G4, however, I did find the following crontab entry, running every minute.

"/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/QuickTime.xpt">/dev/null 2>&1

I guess it was enough to disrupt internet access, as removing this seems to have resolved the issue.

I'll check out the above to see if I need to do anything more...

Tad-England wrote:

I did find the following crontab entry, running every minute.

"/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/QuickTime.xpt">/dev/null 2>&1

I guess it was enough to disrupt internet access, as removing this seems to have resolved the issue.

Great! Yes, that was the trigger.

I'll check out the above to see if I need to do anything more...

As long as everything is working the remainder can't impact you, but there's no reason to keep the other file or files there.

Look in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ for QuickTime.xpt (as you might guess) and trash it. While you are there see if "plugins.settings" or "AdobeFlash" files are there from a previous infection and trash them, as well. No need to flush the cache as long as everything is back to normal.