Mac disaster

[mikesully127]

Hi everyone,

I'm not that experienced with Mac laptops however I do know when something is not right.

Although my Internet service provider is a piece of rubbish a speed test reckons I'm getting 200mb/s+

However when I try to open a web page on any browser such as Firefox, Google, Chrome, or Safari - like Facebook, Gmail, shopping websites and even this forum it takes for ever to load. Sometimes it doesn't even load the webpage and comes up with some type of error.

It literally happened the other day to me from one day to the next slow Internet browser. I have updated to High Sierra and there is still no difference. I have gone to my Library caches and deleted everything including going into each browser and removing cookies website data etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Adreitz]

You're gonna have to be a lot more specific with exactly what you're seeing than just "some type of error". But my initial suspicion is that you have a DNS problem that is causing URLs to resolve slowly or time out. Do you connect to the internet through a router that has a built-in DNS server? If so, it could be corrupted. Or maybe the router is just failing.

To get the fastest DNS servers, I'd suggest running Namebench 1.3.1 (https://code.google.com/archive/p/namebench/downloads). It's old, but still works. After it runs, copy and paste the top three DNS server IP addresses into System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced. If anything else is already there, delete it first. If that doesn't fix your problem, you might have another issue, like your ISP throttling everything except for speed tests.

Aaron

 

[mikesully127]

Hi yes that was a bit vague and I do apologise for that. Basically the error says the server cannot be found but it is Google etc popular websites.

With regards to DNS you will have to guide me through that.



[doublepost=1510945668][/doublepost]Do you think you could be the Internet provider

 

[curmudgeonette]

With regards to DNS you will have to guide me through that.View attachment 736490

If you think your DNS server is having problems, temporarily switch to Google's DNS. In the Preferences pane where you took that screen shot, click the "+" toward the bottom left. Type in 8.8.8.8 and click through OK and Apply. Your system will immediately switch to Google's DNS at that address.

To set things back to normal, in that pane click on the 8.8.8.8 and click the "-" to remove it. The system will automatically add back your ISP's default DNS. OK and Apply.

 

[mikesully127]

Okay so I have isolated the problem
[doublepost=1511101345][/doublepost]That DNS trick you told me worked 8.8.8.8 loads webpages with no problem.

However when I go back to the other DNS as I showed in the photograph the webpages do not respond and effectively timeout. What should I do?

My girlfriend has a Mac exactly the same model is connected on the same Wi-Fi but doesn't have this problem....

 

[Adreitz]

mikesully127, thanks for the additional info. Based on your test, it does appear that those two DNS servers aren't functioning correctly. They appear to be internet servers (i.e. not your router, because router IP addresses usually start with 10.X or 192.X).

Are you saying that your girlfriend's Mac has the same two DNS servers indicated in Network preferences, but doesn't have the problem? If you haven't checked yet, it's possible that her computer might actually have a DNS server manually filled out. If the DNS servers are the same between the two computers, though, there might be some sort of caching problem on your computer. I'm not an expert on this point, so it's only a possibility -- corrupt caches can sometimes cause strange issues. For this type of thing, I recommend downloading the OnyX utility (https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html), which provides an easy method to delete various types of caches and manually run other system maintenance routines. You can try going to the Cleaning pane, then the Internet tab, and delete the DNS cache.

However, even if you didn't have this issue, I would still recommend running Namebench and using the DNS servers it recommends, as you'll get faster performance. You can also periodically re-run Namebench, as DNS server performance can change over time.

Aaron

 

[mikesully127]

Are you saying that your girlfriend's Mac has the same two DNS servers indicated in Network preferences, but doesn't have the problem? Yes
[doublepost=1511106982][/doublepost]Should I have my IP address there instead

 

[Adreitz]

No, you shouldn't use the IP address of one of your computers as a DNS server for another computer, since it isn't. Give OnyX a try and see if deleting the DNS cache clears up your latency problem. If not (and perhaps even if it does), try Namebench. Let us know how things turn out.

Aaron

 

[mikesully127]

Quick update I just switched to my girlfriends iPhone and used her 4G as a server and everything works perfect....


I think this is a problem with my ISP

 

[Bart Kela]

If you want to be certain it is a problem with your ISP, use your Mac notebook on a free WiFi network (library, coffee shop, etc.).

Actually, that should have been the first troubleshooting step.

Good luck.