Mac connects to Wi-Fi but not internet

[Person232817]

Hey, all! My iMac is having problems connecting to the internet, though it connects to the Wi-Fi just fine. It’s running macOS High Sierra, version 10.13.6. I constantly get the message

“VPN Connection
Please enter your authentication information”​

I found out that my son used a torrent and a VPN to download a game, and I’m wondering if my provider did something. I’ve tried the following:

• Restarting my computer​
• Connecting to a different network​
• Resetting PRAM​
• Changing DNS​
• Made sure date and time and location services were working and correct​
• Can’t update software because I can’t connect to internet​
• Renewed DHCP Lease​
• Created a new network location​
• Stopped “mDNSResponder” and “mDNSResponderHelper” from running

I feel like I’ve tried everything and when I look up my problems, I can’t find something that matches my problem or a solution. I don’t want to spend money taking it to Apple only to find a simple solution. If you know, please help, cheers!

EDIT: I mentioned above that it would say “VPN connection” and ask for an authentication key, but when I turn off my WiFi on my computer, it stops popping up.

 

[Plutonius]

I'm wondering if it's the router you should be looking at ?

 

[Ruggy]

It sounds like your router is running VPN software and it won't let you in.
If the mac is running a VPN somehow, you'll see it if you open 'Network preferences' and there will be a line in the pane on the left along with the bluetooth, wifi, etc that will be for the VPN.
It could be that a VPN was established. If it's the top line in the list in that pane, it'll try to connect to that by default so just delete it.
If you find that there and delete it, I think you'll have solved your problem.
Make sure the one you want to connect to first is the top line (the setting wheel at the bottom allows you to set service order).

As has been said, you should go into the router and have a look there because it sounds like that's where your problem is.

To start, you should try to connect to the router by ethernet cable as obviously, if the router goes down or the wifi password changes, you can't get in to do anything.

It might just work over ethernet anyway. I doubt it but it might.

You will probably have to look up how to get into the interface for your router but more often than not you type:
192.168.0.1
into the address bar. (with the dots and no spaces

The user name and password to access the interface are probably on a label underneath.
(otherwise often they are 'admin' and 'password'as default- or sometimes user and password)

Make sure you have ad blockers turned off in your browser.

If these don't work then maybe you changed it at sometime and noted it down?

You may be able to do a hard reset but make sure you have the correct passwords and user first although it'll probably present you with a dialogue to enter the SSID name and password.
Can you remember what happened the first time you set it up?

Often, there will be hole you can poke a pen/pin into, or a button for a hard reset but you'll need to do a search for your model of get out the manual if you have one.

A hard reset would clear out any VPN.

Also, do a check online for your service provider and check the DNS addresses to make sure the ones that appear in the Mac network preferences are the same.

If they are different, then that would be the problem.

You can use google, cloudflare or open DNS, DNS servers safely and you can at least try them in the relevant section of network preferences and see if it works

For google you use two servers
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
Google DNS are very fast but I don't like passing all my traffic over google but it might help for testing.
Cloudflare are 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 and are also very fast and seemingly more anonymous.

Finally, you might like to have a poke around in the mac firewall and see if anything has changed or if anything looks odd. You haven't mentioned the firewall above.
It could be the firewall locking you out.
Good luck.

 

[jlocker]

Internet providers watch for VPN traffic because a lot of people use VPN to hide them stealing content with Amazon Firesticks and Kodi software. Or Kodi running on a computer like a PC or Mac. Stealing is Stealing pay for your content. I buy 4k bluray movies and they cost me $30 buck some times but I know that I am giving the companies the money for providing the content I want. Don't be a Dbag and think you are cool because you think you are tech savvy and can steal stuff.

 

[NoBoMac]

You can use google, cloudflare or open DNS, DNS servers safely and you can at least try them in the relevant section of network preferences and see if it works

For google you use two servers
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
Google DNS are very fast but I don't like passing all my traffic over google but it might help for testing.
Cloudflare are 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 and are also very fast and seemingly more anonymous.

+1 on Google not being my preferred DNS.

I'll also add IBM's server: 9.9.9.9 and 149.112.112.112. Plenty fast, with potential threat analysis, and promise of more anonymity.

 

[Person232817]

It sounds like your router is running VPN software and it won't let you in.
If the mac is running a VPN somehow, you'll see it if you open 'Network preferences' and there will be a line in the pane on the left along with the bluetooth, wifi, etc that will be for the VPN.
It could be that a VPN was established. If it's the top line in the list in that pane, it'll try to connect to that by default so just delete it.
If you find that there and delete it, I think you'll have solved your problem.
Make sure the one you want to connect to first is the top line (the setting wheel at the bottom allows you to set service order).

As has been said, you should go into the router and have a look there because it sounds like that's where your problem is.

To start, you should try to connect to the router by ethernet cable as obviously, if the router goes down or the wifi password changes, you can't get in to do anything.

It might just work over ethernet anyway. I doubt it but it might.

You will probably have to look up how to get into the interface for your router but more often than not you type:
192.168.0.1
into the address bar. (with the dots and no spaces

The user name and password to access the interface are probably on a label underneath.
(otherwise often they are 'admin' and 'password'as default- or sometimes user and password)

Make sure you have ad blockers turned off in your browser.

If these don't work then maybe you changed it at sometime and noted it down?

You may be able to do a hard reset but make sure you have the correct passwords and user first although it'll probably present you with a dialogue to enter the SSID name and password.
Can you remember what happened the first time you set it up?

Often, there will be hole you can poke a pen/pin into, or a button for a hard reset but you'll need to do a search for your model of get out the manual if you have one.

A hard reset would clear out any VPN.

Also, do a check online for your service provider and check the DNS addresses to make sure the ones that appear in the Mac network preferences are the same.

If they are different, then that would be the problem.

You can use google, cloudflare or open DNS, DNS servers safely and you can at least try them in the relevant section of network preferences and see if it works

For google you use two servers
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
Google DNS are very fast but I don't like passing all my traffic over google but it might help for testing.
Cloudflare are 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 and are also very fast and seemingly more anonymous.

Finally, you might like to have a poke around in the mac firewall and see if anything has changed or if anything looks odd. You haven't mentioned the firewall above.
It could be the firewall locking you out.
Good luck.

Hello! Thank you for replying, though I’ve tried to change my DNS to Google’s, and I’ve also had a router change in the time this has been happening. I have also tried deleting VPN from network settings.