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Rasstarr Author

Level 1

7 points

Only specific OS freezes on certain internet connections

Everyone - I know this question has been posted by a few others but the fix is specific to a users computer. My issue is happening on more than one mac. So here is the deal:

I work for the local ISP. We have a large wifi network where customers can connect to and get a login screen where they have to enter their information (standard hotspot scenario).

We also have an adsl network which all works on dhcp. The customer receives an adsl wireless modem configured as a router. We have multiple model modems.

Windows OS connects to both networks fine without a problem. Linux OS connects to both networks without a problem as well.

The newer Mac OS 10.7 connects to both networks fine as well however 10.5 as well as 10.6 is having issues connecting to both networks. Whenever connecting to either network with a mac running 10.5 or 10.6 (have not tried previous versions) any mac running this version freezes (colorful ball keeps turning). The only way to get out of this is to hold the power button and shut down. If I turn off the airport so that the mac does not connect to any internet connection it is fine. It freezes on both ethernet and airport connection. Again this does not happen to a specific computer but yet to multiple clients. More and more arising each day. At the moment I have 5 different clients with the same problem.

The one thing I have noticed from troubleshooting is that on our older version modem this does not happen. I am not sure what the difference is in the config of the old and new model modem though as they are both configured the same, only difference being that the wireless security is wpa2 instead of wep however this should not matter as the freezing still happens when using the ethernet connection. I stil have some more testing to do with the modem but this still does not explain why the same is happening on the wifi network. Wifi network is open and authentication is done by a radius server. IP is all dhcp.

Each network wifi and adsl is also on a seperate vlan. Only thing they have in common are the dns servers.

Hope someone can help out with this one. Thanks and let me know if there is additional info required. I will continue to troubleshoot and note my results. Thanks again for any help.

Posted on May 3, 2012 9:20 AM

28 replies

Rhodes1

Level 1

0 points

Feb 15, 2015 11:30 PM in response to Rasstarr

Same problem. Making me nuts. However only on my iMac. On my MacBook Pro I have no issue.

I followed you suggestions, but there is not an "off" option in network preferences/airport/tcp/ip/advanced.

The options for ipv6 are:

automatically

manually

Link-local only.

Can you help, please, please, please.

cc477

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2015 9:35 PM in response to Rhodes1

agreed I am in the same boat. Took my macbook to Macsolution Plus and it ran fine. When I turn mywifi off macbook runs perfectly. Agreed their is no on off button just auto, manually, link-local only. I have a MacBook 2008 V10.10.3

cc477

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2015 9:38 PM in response to Rasstarr

Took my macbook to Macsolution Plus and it ran fine. When I turn mywifi off macbook runs perfectly. Their is no on off button just auto, manually, link-local only. I have a MacBook 2008 V10.10.3. I have Verizon DSL High speed WiFI

Chet_25

Level 1

0 points

Jul 30, 2015 6:37 AM in response to Rasstarr

@Rasstarr, Thank you so much for posting the solution. You saved my trip to the apple genius bar. I literally spent a week fixing this issue and rebooted my MBP at least 20 times. Yay! feeling so happy.Thanks once again! 🙂

BMWM4

Level 1

0 points

Dec 8, 2015 5:25 AM in response to Rasstarr

Dear Rasstarr,

You should change your name to Rock Star...had same problem when I set up my new internet connection at home .. my macbook pro run 10.6 OS version and works fine with any other internet connection.

Your solution has worked well!

Cheers

Dec 8, 2015 5:01 PM in response to Rasstarr

Dear Rasstarr

Thank you VERY, VERY MUCH and may God bless you for giving the solution to your own problem even when no one was there to listen.

Heaven literally answered my prayers today, December 8, by leading me to your 3-year old post.

I tried looking for answers from the discussions but didn't find anything.

I spent 80 euros (home service rate because my MBP only went into paralysis in the home internet but worked fine elsewhere) for a Mac technician to try fixing it but he was not able to solve this problem which started almost a month ago. (Throughout this time I had to manage by emailing on my smartphone - which of course worked using the same internet connection - to download my work documents, sending them by bluetooth to my MBP and vice versa. You can imagine all the time wasted typing on one finger, not to mention the eye strain).

He said, after failing, that the only thing to do was to reformat the entire system and erase everything or buy a new internet subscription.

Another tech guy was offering to have a go at it for 50 euros but I was sure it would be another waste because he didn't actually know about a similar case either so I said I'd think about it and tried once more to search on the discussions.

Before I could waste more money I desperately prayed today and a miracle happened.. I found your post.

So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart !

Dec 18, 2015 3:06 AM in response to Rasstarr

THAN P

Apr 13, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Rasstarr

Glad I found this post! My mother has an iMac and she reported that within a few minutes of booting up, the computer would lock up with the mouse cursor displaying the pinwheel. The only solution would be to manually shut down. This seemed very odd, and was pretty frustrating. Here are the steps we took attempting to resolve:

1. Hired a Mac tech to come on-site. He spent about three hours running diagnostics, and never could figure anything out. His suggestion to my mom was for her to purchase an iPad from him. Ridiculous. At least this tech didn't charge her anything.

2. My mom then made an appointment at the Apple store genius bar. I helped her pack up the Mac. At the Apple store, everything turned on and worked perfectly. This was great, but frustrating. No solution.

3. The fact that everything locked up at home yet worked at the Apple store did lead me to set the computer back up at her house, but not connect online (kept both the hard-wired Ethernet cable and the wi-fi turned off). The computer seemed to work fine in this environment. She couldn't get online, check email or do much, but the computer didn't lock up - I had her keep the computer on for about a week this way, and all worked.

4. At this point, I knew the problem had something to do with connectivity - tried turning on airport only with no hard-wired ethernet - worked for a bit, then locked up. Tried hard-wired only with no airport - same thing. Thought this was odd and didn't think both would fail at the same time. Then I focused on the AT&T Uverse router/modem. Wi-Fi seemed to work fine on all other devices, so the route/modem seemed to not be the problem, either.

5. With no other ideas, I finally just googled "iMac freezes when connected to internet" and that brought me here.

6. I changed the IPv6 option off for both the Ethernet and Airport network settings and - viola! - the system works fine. No locking up. It's now been working fine for about 24 hours!

May 19, 2016 8:46 PM in response to Rasstarr

So I replaced the Hard Drive, upgraded with tons of RAM, bought Diskwarrior 5, done million of Utility Checks and Repair Permissions and Safe Mode boots. Rebuild the Hard Drive. Reinstall OS X. Empty Cache and Preferences. Yet my computer STILL FREEZE! Spinning Beach Ball of Doom!!!

Yet I noticed when the internet (wifi) is off, the computer is fine. Only when I turn on the internet, it starts freezing!

I wasted all that money buying hard drive, softwares, and ram!

You sir ,Rasstarr is the man!

J.G.M.

Level 1

4 points

Jul 17, 2016 9:53 PM in response to Rasstarr

OK Mr Rasstarr, brilliant. Went overseas for three years and came back to old computer with exact symptoms. After a day of futzing finally found your most helpful post. Thank you.

Aug 28, 2016 9:36 AM in response to Rasstarr

Thank you, you're a star! Saved me a lot of headache. I recently changed wifi from Sky to Plusnet so that may have been the reason behind it but it was very bizarre. Thanks again!

tom2lee

Level 1

8 points

Aug 28, 2016 9:58 AM in response to cc477

Hello, wow...

Here posts from 2012, ... to 2015...

I call you back at the actual day we are in aug 2016.

That remembered me that working on my first OSX server 10.5, this was arrived at about year 2011 ... ...I was forced to cut the iPV6 network on my G5 PPC...

There's stuff like that that never work, ever, ever, like the Apple RAID card...

jean

Mar 17, 2017 3:40 PM in response to Rasstarr

Thank you so much for posting this. It has been a true blessing. I have suffered from this problem that you describe for months.

Only specific OS freezes on certain internet connections