Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Why is one particular website being barred from accessing?

Under Mavericks 10.9.5, Safari 9.1.3 has been running pretty much just fine on my Mac for what seems several years now. But at some time in the last couple of months something's happened to Safari that now barrs me access to the shopping website of a well-known and well-respected UK highstreet dept store. This might have occurred following an unintentional deletion of the site from my bookmarked list of frequently-used websites. Now, no matter whether I insert this site's address into the browser's top-of-screen address field or I try to access the site via, say, a Google search page, all I get is a blank screen with a Safari message on it saying that Safari was unable to make a connection with that website's server. All other websites of other organisations and retailers appear untouched by this issue.


I'm currently at a loss as to why that website, and only that website, is prevented from connecting. It's not that the website is down or is permanently non-operational, because accessing it using a Windows laptop instead, via Edge, is no problem. Either my Safari's been corrupted in respect of this site, or possibly that site's no longer compatible with Safari 9.1.3. I've looked at all my configutration settings for Safari but can't see anything obvious that could cause this lockout. I've several times performed a safe-mode restart of the Mac but that hasn't cleared the condition.


I vaguely recall that some years ago something quite similar happened with the Amazon website. However, I can't remember how I fixed that in the end.


Anybody any ideas or suggestions for correcting this, preferably without me having to resort to doing a Time Machine restore? Should I try clearing out all current history, all browser cache, and all other bookmarked sites, and then forming the bookmarked ones again?

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Nov 10, 2018 11:59 AM

Reply

Similar questions

6 replies

Nov 11, 2018 3:41 PM in response to carefulowner

Bookmarks should not cause a connectivity outage.


Clearing the cache and the history is benign, but probably not related.


I wouldn’t gomas far as a restore. Not yet.


As Eric Root cogently suggested, try Safe Mode.


Also try Mozilla Firefox.


If you have anti-malware or anti-virus, any add-on security or anything similar, disable it and remove it per the vendor instructions as a test, and try a connection.


If you have any Safari browser extensions, or any ad-blocking tools, disable those, and test.


If the above doesn’t find a culprit, then we can do some network testing.

Nov 12, 2018 3:01 AM in response to Eric Root

Yes, of course. And I couldn't. Safari simply gave the onscreen message that it was unable to securely connect with the server of the website. I might add that I've also tried the non-shopping sites of the same company. That's to say, various of the company's corporate sites, but again Safari will not connect to them.


It's not happening with other, non-Safari 9.1.3 browsers. On my same router, a Windows laptop with Edge and with IE connects to it just fine, for example.


I don't run any third-party antimalware/antivirus on the Mac, nor any ad-blockers or browser extensions. Never have done. I only use known compatible apps on the Mac, and I've not recently added any new ones.


I can't see that it's a networking issue (see MrHoffman's suggestions). I use wired Ethernet, not wireless, and DNS servers and settings are exactly as they were prior to the non-connection.


One thing, though. Especially in recent years, I've been plagued by lots of cookies and trackers of which I've had no control over their setting. In Safari 9.1.3, the best option you have to keep the unwanted ones out is to 'block third-party cookies and advertisers' (Safari > Preferences > Privacy) and that's the option I've always used. However, that doesn't, and cannot, stop all unwanted cookies and trackers. I've therefore regularly opened Safari Preferences > Privacy > Details button > Remove, and removed the ones I've not wanted. I've found that trackers can often slow down and interfere with Safari, and clearing certain ones away invariably restores the performance of Safari. The list of cookies in that Safari setting hasn't included the cookies of the website in question, though; I've always been happy to accept cookies from that company and so normally it's been left in place. The company's cookie(s) isn't currently showing in the list (ie. in the Details box), though. And I can't now make it so, because for that to happen Safari has to successfully reach the site. I can only presume that perhaps Safari's been gradually corrupted by my constant removal of the unwanted cookies/trackers?


As I say, I can't remember how I managed to clear up a similar case of this where, instead, the Amazon website was affected. That happened, oh about a year ago. I think I may have corrected the Amazon one by just clearing all Safari caches, history, and all cookies and then restarting Safari. I could do the same here, I guess, but I'd lose all my current bookmarks and good cookies and would have to spend time reinstating them.

Nov 12, 2018 6:46 AM in response to carefulowner

Unable to securely connect? Not “unable to connect”, or ilk? If that’s the case and it’s connection security, thrn the target site wants better TLS security than you have , or (less likely, but possible) the target site is really bad at security.


Try Firefox.


You’re headed for an upgrade or a replacement or a migration, as security software can and does inevitably age out, and we all accordingly end up upgrading.

Nov 12, 2018 7:26 AM in response to MrHoffman

Yes, you could be right, MrHoffman. But if that website is indeed now more-choosy about the user's browser, then it's never declared, as far as I know, that that it is now so.


As it happens, I've for a long while - a year or two, in fact - been proposing to upgrade from Mavericks to at least Sierra, but for various reasons that I don't need to go into here I've not done so. Perhaps, if my suggested remedies don't work, it'll be time for me to do that upgrade.


If that website is indeed locking me out because of browser expectations that are no longer satisfied by Safari 9.1.3, then possibly a good many other Mavericks users in the UK will also be locked out. It being that dept store's online shopping site, and one on which, in the current highstreet climate in the UK, it highly depends, I wouldn't have thought the website's designers would have risked suddenly locking out some of its customers. But, as I say, you might well be correct, as I'm sure the store would put security fairly high on its list of priorities.

Nov 12, 2018 8:26 AM in response to carefulowner

If this is connection security...


Mavericks is an old and insecure version, and one with less that 3% usage world-wide over the last year. And dropping.


Vendors are left holding the cost of fraud, and the vendor you’re attempting to connect has decided that the costs of fraud are higher than the benefits of allowing connections from insecure configurations.


Mozilla Firefox might provide a temporary work-around (and a test of whether this is centrally the connection security, as will testing from a newer installation of macOS or iOS), pending an upgrade to a newer release of macOS.


This as last I checked, Mozilla Firefox had its own embedded connection security and didn’t depend on the macOS connection security. (Most other OS X apps do depend in the integrated support, though.)


You’re as far back as Mozilla Firefox currently supports, too:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0.1/system-requirements/

Why is one particular website being barred from accessing?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.