Cannot connect to anything apple.com

Question

Level 1

16 points

Cannot connect to anything apple.com

Strangest problem I've seen. In a nutshell, I'm trying a switch from Comcast to CenturyLink. I currently have both ISPs running and can switch between the two. I have several Apple devices (Macs & iOS devices) in the home and when any of them are on the CenturyLink ISP they can connect to apple.com fine with the exception of my main computer, an iMac running 10.11.4. Under CenturyLink ISP, that one machine only will not connect to anything apple.com related. I can't get to the web site, iTunes store and Mac App store will not work and Messages will not work. If I switch back to Comcast ISP all is fine. It doesn't matter if I'm wired or wireless. I've tried safe boot, another user account, flushing DNS; everything I can think of and still under CenturyLink ISP on my iMac it will not connect to apple.com. I've contacted AppleCare support and stumped two techs and now my issue has gone to the engineering team to see if they can see what might be wrong.

In the meantime, if you have suggestions, I would appreciate your comments. I'll try anything at this point and will respond to your suggestions as soon as I can.

I'm on a iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011), 2.7 GHz i5 with 12 GB memory.

Thank you one and all for your help.

Posted on Mar 24, 2016 7:26 PM

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Answer 1

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 24, 2016 7:34 PM in response to macsense

How are you doing the switch from one ISP to another? Do you have separate routers and you are physically changing the connection on your Mac from one router to the other?

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Answer 2

macsense Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 24, 2016 10:05 PM in response to Duane

Yes, two routers. My Apple Airport Extreme that's connected to my old Comcast service and then the CenturyLink modem/router. I go into Network settings on my Mac and switch them back and forth by turning off ethernet and turning on CenturyLink wireless. I also tested it with CenturyLink wired and get the same results; no apple.com.

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Answer 3

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 25, 2016 6:24 AM in response to macsense

What happens if you try Apple's IP address directly? Try http://17.172.224.47

FYI, you can verity that is Apple's address as mentioned in Non-responsive DNS server or invalid DNS configuration can cause long delay before webpages load - Apple Support

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Answer 4

macsense Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 25, 2016 8:08 AM in response to Duane

Good question but also something I had previously tried before I called Apple and with an Apple tech on the phone. Nada there also. But when it comes to iTunes or Mac App store I'm not sure how I would do that.

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Answer 5

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 25, 2016 8:16 AM in response to macsense

macsense wrote:

Good question but also something I had previously tried before I called Apple and with an Apple tech on the phone. Nada there also. But when it comes to iTunes or Mac App store I'm not sure how I would do that.

If you can't connect directly to the IP address from that one Mac but other devices can, something on that Mac is blocking those IP addresses. Since the IP address itself doesn't work this is something probably unrelated to DNS.

Is this only in Safari? Does it also do this in Chrome or Firefox?

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Answer 6

macsense Author

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16 points

Mar 25, 2016 9:36 AM in response to Duane

Problem also exists in Chrome, iTunes, Mac App store, and Messages. Yes, something specific to that Mac is blocking but it's strange that it's only blocking when using CenturyLink ISP. Again, it all works fine when using Comcast ISP.

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Answer 7

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Mar 25, 2016 10:01 AM in response to macsense

Do you have any type of "Anti-virus" running on this Mac?

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Answer 8

macsense Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 25, 2016 10:46 AM in response to Duane

No anti-virus that I'm aware of. I may have had in the distant past but it has long been removed.

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Answer 9

macsense Author

Level 1

16 points

Mar 29, 2016 6:52 AM in response to macsense

Update: Booting into Recovery Mode works to connect to Apple.com using CenturyLink. So the problem exists when running booted normally or booted into Safe Mode. Still trying to figure out how to narrow it down to what it is specifically. I wish there was an easy way to temporarily move folders and files out of root Library folder to test.

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Answer 10

macsense Author

Level 1

16 points

Apr 1, 2016 9:38 AM in response to macsense

UPDATE: Problem resolved... but not solved. I needed to move on from this problem and wiped my SSD and did a clean install. The initial apple.com test on CenturyLink is positive so yes, as we all expected, it was software related somehow but what exactly, eluded us all. I would have loved to learn what it was and maybe I still can since I have a clone of the drive. I don't plan on doing a migration of my data or system data since that might return the problem so now I'm going to rebuild from scratch. In the end it will probably take less time anyway. THANK YOU ALL! Your suggestions and thoughts were a huge help for me in understanding where to dig in the troubleshooting process.

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Answer 11

Apr 1, 2016 9:46 AM in response to macsense

Any chance you edited your hosts file in /etc/hosts? That or other blocking software could cause this.

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Answer 12

macsense Author

Level 1

16 points

Apr 1, 2016 9:50 AM in response to William Lloyd

I had previously checked my hosts file and found nothing about apple.com in there but I'm assuming that would have blocked apple.com no matter which ISP I was using. My issue was that it was only blocked using CenturyLink.

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