1 user has no internet, works fine for other user

[caspian915]

Hi all -- I can't quite find solutions to my situation so if anyone has an idea or can point me to a thread, I'd appreciate it.

My MacBook Pro (early 2011) has 2 users on it, myself and my wife. We just restarted internet service in our new place with the ISP. I've had problems with it going in and out, but after a exchange of equipment it has stabilized a bit.

However, while I can get online with the Macbook under my user account, and I can get online with our Windows computer and both of our iPhones, we can't seem to get her user account online. It recognizes the wifi signal at both the 2.4 and 5ghz band, but entering an address in Safari goes nowhere. Same with putting in an ethernet cable.

So presumably it's a software problem, but I'm not sure what. I don't think she has any issue getting online elsewhere. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[Weaselboy]

Open System Preferences then in the Users & Groups pane look at login items like in my screenshot. Do this in both accounts to see if there is something running there in her account that is not in yours.

Also look in the users library folder below in both accounts for the same thing.

~/Library/LaunchAgents (~ is your users folder)

 

[caspian915]

Thanks, unfortunately I don't see anything out of the ordinary. Just the iTunes Helper in hers and Windscribe (VPN service, which I I just removed from login items). I doubt not having windscribe would keep her from getting online.

Any other solutions?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks, unfortunately I don't see anything out of the ordinary. Just the iTunes Helper in hers and Windscribe (VPN service, which I I just removed from login items). I doubt not having windscribe would keep her from getting online.

Any other solutions?

Did you also look in that user library folder while logged in to each account?

If it works in one account and not the other, it has to be something something running under that account causing it.

If you cannot find it, download and run the app Etrecheck in each account. It will create an anonymized report showing everything running so you can compare the two reports.

If you like, post the reports here for us to have a look.

 

[caspian915]

Yeah, checked out the user library folders, the user with internet has a spotify item, the user without internet has nothing in it. The etrecheck reports are attached below, user_internet, user_no_internet.

 

[Stefan johansson]

Look up the Internet password settings,make sure the second account has the router password typed in.
Not sure if it helps,but you can try.

 

[caspian915]

Well, I just renewed DHCP like 10 times and it works. It didn't immediately work on Safari (with open new page set to apple.com), but it worked on Chrome (which we don't use for the moment because I have a Trovi malware search tab that doesn't go away despite all the instructions I've followed). Once it worked on Chrome, Safari appeared to be less stubborn. Very strange.

I'm hoping to have time in the near future to backup, wipe the drive and start with a clean install of Sierra, so hopefully that will eliminate all problems.

Thanks for the help!

 

[simonsi]

I'm hoping to have time in the near future to backup, wipe the drive and start with a clean install of Sierra, so hopefully that will eliminate all problems.

Well if you have a software config issue it won't help at all, you'll just be wasting time. Making a backup of a problem, wiping the drive and reinstalling the problem doesn't change anything...

 

[caspian915]

No, of course—I only plan on backing up personal files and starting with a brand new install of Sierra (working from El Capitan right now).