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twistedpixel8

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 9, 2017
868
1,872
This is driving me nuts and has done for years through several major versions of macOS. It happens all the time. Weekly at least. I wake the computer and go to use the internet but nothing loads. Try "google.co.uk" for example and Safari's loading progress bar goes to about 10% across (the position you will all know as "not loading") and eventually times out.

This even persists through a reboot. The only thing that seems to fix it is to delete the current "location" in `Sys Prefs -> Network` and create a new one. Instantly fixed.

The weird thing though is that while it's in that broken state, my VPN will connect just fine and then pages load. So obviously, there's a connection (as seen from the green dot beside Ethernet and WiFi, plus IP addresses for both. Is this some sort of DNS issue then?

Has anyone else experienced this and is there a permanent solution? I'm reasonably sure I've done a fresh install of macOS a few times over the past few years this has been happening so I don't think it's a dodgy install.
 
What make and model router are you using? Any ethernet hubs or switches involved?

Are you connected to the router by both ethernet and wifi?

What does your "DNS Server" setting show?
 
What make and model router are you using? Any ethernet hubs or switches involved?

Are you connected to the router by both ethernet and wifi?

What does your "DNS Server" setting show?
Happens on multiple networks. One example is an ASUS XT8 mesh and another is a corporate network supplied by Fortinet (Fortigate 6D with 4 wireless access points). Yes, there is an ethernet switch involved in the latter - would that really make a difference?

Yes, usually connected via both Ethernet and WiFi.

Currently DNS server shows it's using the router's IP.
 
Since it happens in multiple places maybe you should first try setting the DNS on the Mac. Try the ones at OpenDNS.


If that works well you could change the DNS on your router to the OpenDNS IPs and leave the DNS on the Mac pointed to the router. Every device that uses the router for DNS would then be using the OpenDNS IPs.
 
Some ideas that can be implemented into a .command file/AppleScript saved as an app
- have two locations and switch between them
networksetup -switchtolocation "location name"
- turn Ethernet/Wi-Fi off and on again
networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Ethernet off
delay 2
networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Ethernet on
- clear DNS entries
networksetup -setdnsservers Ethernet Empty
- flush DNS cache
dscacheutil -flushcache
- set another DNS
networksetup -setdnsservers Ethernet 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
Google DNS
8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
Cloudflare DNS Servers
1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1
 
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