I don't understand this. We have three profiles. On two of them, we can connect to the Internet with Safari. However, we cannot on the third. We've tried both Safari and Firefox. It says I cannot connect to the server. What do I need to do to fix this?
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Can't Connect to Internet With One Profile, But Can with Another
- Thread starter Toro KMA
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With "profile" what exactly do you mean?
The "Location" offered via System Preferences > Network and accessible via the
Menu Bar item?
Or do you mean "Accounts" stored under Macintosh HD / Users?
Can you please be more specific about this and offer more details with either of them?
The "Location" offered via System Preferences > Network and accessible via the
Menu Bar item?Or do you mean "Accounts" stored under Macintosh HD / Users?
Can you please be more specific about this and offer more details with either of them?
Sorry. I think its the latter.
On the top right of the screen in the bar is the name of my profile, "Dad." Its by the flag and the time. We also have "Mom" and "Son." If I click on Mom or Son, it flips to their profile, and shows a different screen with their settings and files saved on the desktop.
I have no problem accessing the Internet on my profile, "Dad." The internet can also by accessed when it is on "Mom." But when it is on "Son" it says "Cannot connect to server." I don't understand why I can connect to the server on mine or my wife's profiles but not my son's.
On the top right of the screen in the bar is the name of my profile, "Dad." Its by the flag and the time. We also have "Mom" and "Son." If I click on Mom or Son, it flips to their profile, and shows a different screen with their settings and files saved on the desktop.
I have no problem accessing the Internet on my profile, "Dad." The internet can also by accessed when it is on "Mom." But when it is on "Son" it says "Cannot connect to server." I don't understand why I can connect to the server on mine or my wife's profiles but not my son's.
What you call profile, is called "user account" in Mac OS X and other OSs.
If you open System Preferences > Network, you will see a drop down menu at the top with the word "Location" on the left side of it. That is where pre-configured network settings can be chosen. Check if all three user accounts have the same location chosen, it most probably is set to "Automatic" on "Mom" and "Dad".
If you connect via Ethernet cable, go to System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Advanced (button in the bottom right) > and click on every tab there is and write down the settings. You can also do screenshots and copy them later to a flash drive or the Shared user account (Macintosh HD / Users / Shared), you just need them (notes or screenshots) to compare. Do that with every user account.
If you connect via wireless LAN (AirPort), go to System Preferences > Network > AirPort > Advanced (button in the bottom right) > and click on every tab there is and write down the settings. You can also do screenshots and copy them later to a flash drive or the Shared user account (Macintosh HD / Users / Shared), you just need them (notes or screenshots) to compare. Do that with every user account.
Now that you have taken notes or screenshots in every account, see what does not match with the two working user accounts and change that accordingly in the "Son" account.
Was that understandable?
Taking screenshots in Mac OS X.
How to Use Preview for Basic Image Editing: Crop, Rotate and Resize
If you open System Preferences > Network, you will see a drop down menu at the top with the word "Location" on the left side of it. That is where pre-configured network settings can be chosen. Check if all three user accounts have the same location chosen, it most probably is set to "Automatic" on "Mom" and "Dad".
If you connect via Ethernet cable, go to System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Advanced (button in the bottom right) > and click on every tab there is and write down the settings. You can also do screenshots and copy them later to a flash drive or the Shared user account (Macintosh HD / Users / Shared), you just need them (notes or screenshots) to compare. Do that with every user account.
If you connect via wireless LAN (AirPort), go to System Preferences > Network > AirPort > Advanced (button in the bottom right) > and click on every tab there is and write down the settings. You can also do screenshots and copy them later to a flash drive or the Shared user account (Macintosh HD / Users / Shared), you just need them (notes or screenshots) to compare. Do that with every user account.
Now that you have taken notes or screenshots in every account, see what does not match with the two working user accounts and change that accordingly in the "Son" account.
Was that understandable?
Taking screenshots in Mac OS X.
How to Use Preview for Basic Image Editing: Crop, Rotate and Resize
You should probably also ask your son if they have installed and or changed anything recently. While uncommon, there are trojans that target Mac and your son could have inadvertently downloaded one and installed it. Ask if he has installed any video codecs from a web site that requested he do so to view a video. Is your son's account a standard user or administrator user?
:blush:
I'm still new at this.
I'll do my best, thanks!
He downloaded a few games but said he was able to continue to access the Internet thereafter. This is the site
http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/games/the-ultimate-list-of-50-free-mac-games/
He downloaded Black Shades and Wolfenstein.
He claims he hasn't downloaded anything else, at least not in a while.
Does the "Son" account have parental controls turned on? Sometimes, when the apache (httpd) proxy server controlling this crashes, it leaves behind its pid file which in turn causes it to refuse to relaunch (because it thinks it's already running). Off the top of my head, I don't recall its location, but I discovered this because it showed up as an error message in /var/log/system.log, which you can access through the Console application. The pid file is somewhere in /Library. Assuming this is the cause, find and delete this pid file, and it will work again.
Thanks.
I checked all the settings, and they are all consistent amongst the user account. The only thing that differed from your description was that the location in the drop down bar at the top of the menu said "Location (9/16/10 8:04 PM)" as opposed to "Automatic".
Thanks.
Oh, man, that sounds complicated for a dummy like me!
http://www.ehow.com/how_4548983_enable-parental-controls-mac.html
I don't ever recall turning parental controls on, but my friend who set the Mac up may have. When I check on the parental controls, the option is to disable parental controls, so I am assuming its on.
Your explanation makes sense to me, given that the computer occasionally crashes when my son is playing games. Does anyone know how a computer dummy like me can find this file?
Found it:
/Library/Application Support/Apple/ParentalControls/ContentFiltering/httpd.pid
When your son's account is not logged in, navigate there in the finder. If the file exists (httpd.pid), delete it. If it does not, this isn't the problem.
Basically, Parental Controls related to internet access involves a web server running on your computer. Everything on that account goes through this proxy, and it decides whether to allow or deny the action. While it's running, there's a file (httpd.pid) that has a record of the process ID of the server so that it can be stopped easily. If the file is there, the system refuses to start the proxy up again because it thinks it's already running. Then, everything trying to access the internet fails to find the proxy and therefore fails to find the internet.
/Library/Application Support/Apple/ParentalControls/ContentFiltering/httpd.pid
When your son's account is not logged in, navigate there in the finder. If the file exists (httpd.pid), delete it. If it does not, this isn't the problem.
Basically, Parental Controls related to internet access involves a web server running on your computer. Everything on that account goes through this proxy, and it decides whether to allow or deny the action. While it's running, there's a file (httpd.pid) that has a record of the process ID of the server so that it can be stopped easily. If the file is there, the system refuses to start the proxy up again because it thinks it's already running. Then, everything trying to access the internet fails to find the proxy and therefore fails to find the internet.
I appreciate that, thanks, but I'm not sure if that's it. Once I get to /Library/Application Support/Apple/, there is no Parental Controls. The only thing I see in that file is Airport. I am also unable to find any httpd.pid file when I do a search.
I had this issue as well, I found out that I had a VPN (Windscribe) installed on one of my user accounts. When I tried to use another user account, the internet connection was lost. I couldn’t get back in until I logged into the first account and turned off the VPN connection and then went back to the 2nd user account. In that case, all my connections were restored. I would ask your family if they recently installed vpn software.
Hello, thanks for this tip. I just solved my issue by switching off the VPN on the first User Account