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Mac keeps losing internet connection - Resolving Host

I've been using my current setup with no problems.

Out of the blue, my Mac Pro loses internet connection. At least, that's what it looks like. The browser keeps saying "Resolving Host" and just hangs up.

The only work-around has been to go to Network preferences and click Advanced and Renew DHCP License. This only works for a few minutes. Then it goes back to being stuck.


I've got an Airport extreme in the other room with 2 more macs running fine. This computer is a Power Mac running 10.6.8. It's hooked via ethernet into an Airport Express. I've also got an old Macbook downstairs that's working fine off the wi-fi.


Any ideas?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 18, 2014 4:47 PM

Reply
44 replies

Sep 30, 2015 2:07 PM in response to Paul Levy

I think the problem was a corrupted cookies folder in my User library. I guess I previously just deleted cookies within Safari? At any rate while using trial and error copying my library to a clean install, this seemed to be the problem, so I deleted it from my main user and the internet seems to be working normally again. I don't really understand how this affected bittorrent and my Mail's ability to load images from the web but if it works, it works.

Oct 1, 2015 12:23 PM in response to hippehop

It looks like I spoke too soon. After a reboot Safari is working but I'm back to having no images in Mail, Chrome can't connect at all and Skype says "Skype home unavailable." So something is still blocking my connections or mis-prioritzing them. Though I fixed the "cookies" issue on Safari that I mentioned above.


I actually had setup a firewall to only allow these apps to make sure nothing else was interfering.


Since I am having internal hard drive issues and am currently running off an external, I guess I will just wipe my internal and install a new system with El Capitan and hope I can get everything back in order through Time Machine without replicating this problem.

Oct 4, 2015 4:34 PM in response to hippehop

I think I finally solved the problem. The above fixed Safari's cookie error but no other app was connecting. I was researching a different issue and realized I needed to check my LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons which seemed like the type of thing that would be causing this problem. Also a few kernel extensions that seemed extraneous. I deleted the following and now all apps seem to connect fine:


/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.versioncueCS3.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

/Library/Extensions/LittleSnitch.kext/

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARM.df0ab5bbe6f698196fcc21e3c1e66dcb758bd911f4d 637272d9d8109.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.spotify.webhelper.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool.plist


I think that was everything. The likely culprit would be Little Snitch but I wasn't running it (though I did use it to troubleshoot this issue months ago) so maybe something was corrupted and interfering in the background. None of the user items seem like they would really cause this, but it is strange that I wasn't getting the problem when I created a new user but when I copied my user folder over it started again. So I would think it was in the user folder, but who knows. It's working for now.


One other thing, the problem I was having with uTorrent was actually an unrelated problem that had to do with flushing the files to disk, apparently the version of uTorrent I was using gets caught up while writing and slows itself down automatically. But when I mentioned above that it wasn't working, it would say "cannot connect to host" at all and then miraculously would start connecting hours later (like Mail and Skype would). Just wanted to clarify that if anyone uses this for future reference.

Dec 27, 2015 7:49 AM in response to hippehop

Running Yosemite (till tonight) on my MBP.


I've been having this problem for a while now, and this post got me looking at the LaunchDaemons. Wasn't sure about the little snitch after reading what it did, so looked at the others. The one that jumped out at me was my cisco anyconnect daemon which I installed for VPN access. I rarely use the VPN, and think I can do it without anyconnect anyway, so I deleted anything in all those directories that said anyconnect and rebooted.


Problem gone.

Feb 2, 2016 5:17 AM in response to Neal Fox

PROBLEM SOLVED.


I have had this same resolving host issue for months on my MacBook Pro connecting to Virgin Media. To say it has been driving me mad is an understatement. The iPhone and iPad worked just fine as did any other lap top or device that I brought into the wifi zone.

Things I tried:

  1. Cleared browser caches, tried different browsers
  2. Virus scanned the Mac
  3. Changed the wifi channels – tried all channels on the wifi
  4. Turned off router firewall, post scan detection and IP Flood detection and enabled all pass through options
  5. Put router into modem mode and bought an Airport Extreme
  6. Changed DNS to Google 8.8.8.8
  7. Replaced the router
  8. Been on the phone to virgin tech support for an hour.

None of these worked until I read the above thread and pin pointed the culprit to be some VPN software that I had installed 6 months ago. Buried in the Library under LaunchDaemons and PriviledgedHelperTools were files like com.purevpn.macapp and com.purevpn.macapp.plist

I no longer use the VPN software and so removed the files - I had to use sudo rm com.purevpn.macapp to ensure I had administrator rights to really delete the files. I rebooted the Macbook and now all is fixed.

Mar 11, 2016 12:41 AM in response to Neal Fox

mikengray wrote:


I definitely think this is a Mavericks issue. My iMac running Mavericks is the ONLY system in the house that drops the network randomly while all other systems never lose the network. No idea how to resolve this, but here is the workaround I'm posting:

I've had the 'network drop' issue with my Airport Extreme for the last 2 months. It reconnects when I pull the ethernet cable and plug it back in. I've tried downgrading the AE firmware, resetting to factory, etc. Nothing worked. I finally threw in the towel and created a script that monitors my network connectivity and restarts my interface if it senses it has dropped:


##############

#!/bin/ksh

while true

do

yup=`ping -c1 -t2 www.google.com|grep from`

if [[ -n $yup ]]

then echo "Internet is connected!"

else

ifconfig en0 down; ifconfig en0 up

echo "Down at `date +%m%d%Y%H%M%S`">>./dropped.out

fi

sleep 5

clear

done

###############


I know its a workaround, but its saving me the headache of constantly pulling my cable and putting it back in!


Good luck!

-Mike Gray


Macbook Pro mid 2015 Yosemite. Virgin Media Super Hub 2 here in the UK.


mikengray's solution from another thread is the only thing that worked for me. I modified the script as 'ifconfig up/down' required root privilages so this uses the 'networksetup' command. This script seems to do a decent job at reconnecting after sleeping the laptop. Now I don't have to right-click disconnect/reconnect the WIFI every 5 minutes. Also this script keeps a log in the home folder of all the dropouts. Looking at the log for yesterday there are over 100 dropouts throughout the day.


Put this in a textfile 'keepalive-script' in your home folder and 'sudo chmod +x ~/keepalive-script' it in the terminal to make it executable on double-click. I moved mine to the desktop and run it when I log in, leaving it on in the corner of the screen...


#! /bin/bash


# Adapted from mikengray https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5481194?answerId=24226685022#24226685022

# Needs root permissions for ifconfig down/up so using method from

# http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-restart-airport-wireless-from-bash-command-li ne-in-macosx/


while true

do

yup=`ping -c1 -t1 -n 8.8.8.8|grep round-trip` # Relatively hacky way to check

# connection. Pings Google DNS.

# Greps for a line with

# 'round-trip', fills yup

# variable if found.

if [[ -n $yup ]]

then echo "wifi" # We have a connection.

sleep 1 # Wait before trying again.

else

echo "DOWN at `date +%Y%m%d-%H%M-%S`" # No connection! Log the time.

echo "DOWN at `date +%Y%m%d-%H%M-%S`">>~/wifi_dropouts.log

networksetup -setairportpower en0 off # Switch network off.

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on # Switch network on.

sleep 4 # Wait to give time to connect.

fi

done


Apr 21, 2016 5:27 PM in response to Neal Fox

I just bought a new Motorola modem and Airport Extreme. Once I got them set up with Cox/Apple help, my Internet kept disconnecting, being unable to find the DNS server address and showing a "resolving host" on the window. It would correct for a short while if I unplugged/replugged in the above devices. I called Cox this am, and here's what she told me to do: open the AirPort utility, and click on the Extreme picture. The little window that appears with have an edit button at the bottom. Click on it. On that window, click on Internet, then Internet Options at the bottom. Change Configure IPv6 to Link-local only. Save and/or update. This may be unique to Cox subscribers, and it has worked for me thus far.

May 24, 2016 10:02 AM in response to Neal Fox

No fix worked for me after weeks of trying. I wrote a script that works around the issue. It's more or less like the scripts posted earlier, but unlike the above scripts, it doesn't doesn't restart your internet connection (thus causing a noticeable disruption in your connection). Plus the above scripts don't account for other random connection issues like getting disconnected from the router. According to my program, I've had 388 failures (wifi drops) in the last 91 hours, and did not notice a single one. This program will need to be customized for your SSID (because it usually only happens in one location, but I can easily make it work for any), so email me at mac.wifi.fix@gmail.com and I can help you out. I'm not selling the script, but donations are appreciated 🙂

Oct 15, 2016 7:30 PM in response to Neal Fox

The Fix:

  • Disable WiFi
  • Open Finder
  • Press
    Cmd+Shft+G
    to go to the folder
    /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
  • Delete (or move) the following files:
    • com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
    • NetworkInterfaces.plist
    • preferences.plist
  • Restart your computer
  • Re-enable WiFi

The Other Things I Tried:

  • Reset
    PRAM
  • Reset
    SMC
  • Used Onyx to clear caches, run update scripts, etc.
  • Disabled AirDrop by using Terminal to run
    sudo ifconfig awdl0 down
  • Kext Utility to reset kext permissions, followed by...
  • Disk Utility to verify/correct permissions.
    • In my case errors were found, and I had to...
    • Reboot in Recovery Mode (press Cmd+R as boot sound, hold until you see the Applelogo), use Disk Utility, however no errors were detected
    • Disabled FileVault, waited for decryption to complete
    • Reboot in Recovery Mode, use Disk Utility, some errors corrected then
      return value 8
      and was told I had to backup, format, and restore to the drive.
    • Ran Disk Utility repair again and no errors were detected (then I ran it again for good measure)
    • Rebooted and Disk Utility found no errors.
    • Still had WiFi disconnects...
  • Deleted the AirPort plist files (fix above) and WiFi has been stable.

Mac keeps losing internet connection - Resolving Host

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