Internet connection problem

[Speed38]

My wife took her 2019 MB Pro running the latest version of Ventura to a genealogy center to do some research.

She successfully logged on to their network by entering the network name and password but then, after opening Firefox was unable to access any website. She restarted and tried again and again but could not connect: the gearwheel would spin and spin w/ no result. However, there were numerous other Mac computers at the center that were successfully logging on to websites using the Chrome browser.

My wife tried to go to Google.com, Apple.com, etc., sites to which she had often gone in the past and all timed out. She of course could not get to the Google site to d/l Chrome. Management at the center could only speculate that there must be some setting on her computer that was preventing her from loading any sites.

Anyone have any idea what might have caused this. What setting she might have inadvertently "tripped" to cause this?

Her DNS servers are 1.1.1.1 & 1.0.0.1

Many thanks as it is a complete mystery to me.

 

[Nugget]

The site might have been blocking external DNS, which is sometimes done for security reasons or as a mechanism for a captive portal requiring users to agree to a terms of service before being allowed Internet access. It sounds like your wife's computer is hard-coded to use the Cloudflare servers, but it's not necessarily safe to assume that those servers will always be reachable from every network.

It's a plausible theory, but of course there's no way to know for sure from here.

 

[Speed38]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

On another Mac forum on groups.io several folks agreed that:

The "reliability" of the DNS server you choose can depend on your location, internet service provider, and "other stuff".

Some DNS servers might be faster in one region but slower in another.

So give it a shot [i.e., trying a different DNS address] next time she visits that center - test a few of the above DNS servers to see which one works best for her.

 

[Brian33]

The site might have been blocking external DNS, which is sometimes done for security reasons or as a mechanism for a captive portal requiring users to agree to a terms of service before being allowed Internet access.

Some DNS servers might be faster in one region but slower in another.

So give it a shot [i.e., trying a different DNS address] next time she visits that center - test a few of the above DNS servers to see which one works best for her.

Definitely sounds like a DNS problem, but my first act wouldn't be trying different external DNS providers. I don't think it's a matter of the Cloudflare server being too slow. And, if they blocked Cloudflare, surely they would block the other publicly accessible servers.

I think she'll have the best luck if you (at least temporarily) remove the macOS DNS settings on her machine. Then her Mac should accept DNS server addresses from the site's DHCP server, just like everybody else's Mac there (which apparently work OK).

However, maybe it's related to her using Firefox (were all the Macs really using Chrome?). I believe that Firefox now uses DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), although the behavior is modified by specific network parameters which I can't remember. I can't see why this would be a problem, but maybe if she tries another browser ... though I hate to recommend Chrome... ;-)

 

[Speed38]

Definitely sounds like a DNS problem, but my first act wouldn't be trying different external DNS providers. I don't think it's a matter of the Cloudflare server being too slow. And, if they blocked Cloudflare, surely they would block the other publicly accessible servers.

I think she'll have the best luck if you (at least temporarily) remove the macOS DNS settings on her machine. Then her Mac should accept DNS server addresses from the site's DHCP server, just like everybody else's Mac there (which apparently work OK).

However, maybe it's related to her using Firefox (were all the Macs really using Chrome?). I believe that Firefox now uses DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), although the behavior is modified by specific network parameters which I can't remember. I can't see why this would be a problem, but maybe if she tries another browser ... though I hate to recommend Chrome... ;-)

While waiting for someone to respond here, I went on a hunt and I thing you have it down cold! I deleted the custom Cloudflare DNS from the three computers in our house and set Cloudflare as the DNS of preference on my Synology router. I understand that if the wife now takes her laptop to another venue, she will automatically be directed to use the DNS server to which that router is set. Many thanks for your input!!

 

[Nugget]

While waiting for someone to respond here, I went on a hunt and I thing you have it down cold! I deleted the custom Cloudflare DNS from the three computers in our house and set Cloudflare as the DNS of preference on my Synology router. I understand that if the wife now takes her laptop to another venue, she will automatically be directed to use the DNS server to which that router is set. Many thanks for your input!!

That sounds like a great solution! Glad you found an approach that works for you.