Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Microsoft problem on G5

S

stewart1981

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 4, 2014
58
18
Hi all, first post after a good while lurking.

I acquired a free 1.6ghz G5 powermac earlier this year running leopard. My wife uses it for her singing teaching and with tenFourFox, iTunes and office 2008 it works really well for her. I even use it now and again for Sibelius 6 if I can't be bothered to boot my Windows 7 (sorry) machine and for theatre scores it bears up well. I've upped the RAM to the max 4gb and installed the OS from scratch and although I'm looking at sticking an SSD and a powerline network adaptor in it at some point it is a great workhorse.

The problem is that bizarrely it will not in any circumstances touch Microsoft. It won't open any Microsoft web page unless I open it via a proxy. That isn't an issue as I can do that on my other machines but the problem is I can't update Office as the machine won't connect to the microsoft server. As a result it is the raw, original Office 2008 and it runs like a dog. I had it on the same setup just a 1.8ghz machine at my old school and never had this fault. Office ran well and was better than on windows at that time for what I used it for.

I've scoured the web, spoken to people I know and to no avail. The machine has no apparent firewall active an tere is just nothing anyone can see. It's a shame as it is a great rig for the job but just has this peculiar problem. Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Sky (UK) is the ISP and it is currently using OpenDNS. Prior to that it was the standard Sky ones the router came with. The error in the browser is unable to connect to the server at www.microsoft.com. Auto update says the same.
 
I can now get to those and I have just found (following your post) that I can get to some pages with a GB in the URL but nothing relating to office for mac. that is clearly an improvement from the previous position but still very limiting. My wifes snow leopard macbook is absolutely fine so it is this machine only.
 
Try setting the DNS on the G5 to be 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. That's Google DNS servers. Once set, restart the machine and try again.
 
Thanks Intell, it is actually in use by my wife for teaching now for the rest of the night but I will try it out when I get the chance. I have tried to repeatedly get her to use Pages or Libreoffice but years of using Office on her mac just won't be beaten.

I have to say that I have been so pleased to see the community spirit amongst the PowerPC fraternity. I have had various macs over the years in schools as a music teacher but since going self-employed an intel machine to replace my old 2006 macbook is just out of the question. I am seriously contemplating a G5 for my general work alongside my windows machine at some point, if I need bang up to date I can use windows but for every day work these PowerPC machines still have legs.
 
Had a try and no luck. Exactly the same problem. I reinstalled Office a while back and still no joy. The machine is also in use too much to put the OS back on as a fresh install again and replace it all.
 
Intell said:
Try setting the DNS on the G5 to be 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. That's Google DNS servers. Once set, restart the machine and try again.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that pose a problem as he is in the United Kingdom based on his ISP, as well as raise ping times?

stewart1981 said:
Had a try and no luck. Exactly the same problem. I reinstalled Office a while back and still no joy. The machine is also in use too much to put the OS back on as a fresh install again and replace it all.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you can go to the Microsoft site on the PC and download the files onto a USB flash drive and install them on the G5. It isn't like you need to use the Microsoft site every day but I find it a bit peculiar that it is only one Apple machine that won't go to Microsoft's site. Have you tried using Safari to access it rather than TenFourFox?
 
DNS servers are largely the same. It doesn't matter what or where the ISP is. Google's DNS servers are located throughout the world. The nearest to the UK is in France.
 
Intell said:
DNS servers are largely the same. It doesn't matter what or where the ISP is. Google's DNS servers are located throughout the world. The nearest to the UK is in France.
Click to expand...

My mistake. I thought that DNS servers like Open DNS were country specific and that his traffic would have to go UK --> US --> UK.
 
stewart1981 said:
Had a try and no luck. Exactly the same problem. I reinstalled Office a while back and still no joy. The machine is also in use too much to put the OS back on as a fresh install again and replace it all.
Click to expand...

If you are worrying about Outlook, you should use Apple's Mail application--it's great. If you use MS Office and that is not working (odd that MS things are not working), there are great alternatives to MS Office. You can get a free office suite, like Bean, Open Office, etc., or try iWork '08, which is I think the latest version of iWork that will run well on your machine. iWork is much better than Office, as well as being way more stable, costing less, and being more advanced. In fact, iWork is now free with new Macs. I am sure you could purchase an iWork '08 disc for an okay price. Keep in mind that one was $60 new. As for other MS websites, I don't have an answer to that, and this is definitely an issue I have never heard of. By the way, which version of Office are you using?
 
Altemose said:
Wouldn't that pose a problem as he is in the United Kingdom based on his ISP, as well as raise ping times?
Click to expand...

The ping times are the least of it. Google's DNS servers are almost always noticeably faster than the OpenDNS servers when accessed from the UK. I tend to have a list of DNS servers to fall back on when Google's or OpenDNS falls over, which happens more often than you might think.
 
Altemose said:
Wouldn't that pose a problem as he is in the United Kingdom based on his ISP, as well as raise ping times?



Perhaps you can go to the Microsoft site on the PC and download the files onto a USB flash drive and install them on the G5. It isn't like you need to use the Microsoft site every day but I find it a bit peculiar that it is only one Apple machine that won't go to Microsoft's site. Have you tried using Safari to access it rather than TenFourFox?
Click to expand...

I've tried that before but again as a quick check after the DNS change I just get a can't connect to host error in Safari, Leopard Webkit, Omniweb and Stainless. Add to that there is from memory a fair number of updates so manually going through them would be real pain and not really address the problem. Thanks though, was worth a fresh try.

----------
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
If you are worrying about Outlook, you should use Apple's Mail application--it's great. If you use MS Office and that is not working (odd that MS things are not working), there are great alternatives to MS Office. You can get a free office suite, like Bean, Open Office, etc., or try iWork '08, which is I think the latest version of iWork that will run well on your machine. iWork is much better than Office, as well as being way more stable, costing less, and being more advanced. In fact, iWork is now free with new Macs. I am sure you could purchase an iWork '08 disc for an okay price. Keep in mind that one was $60 new. As for other MS websites, I don't have an answer to that, and this is definitely an issue I have never heard of. By the way, which version of Office are you using?
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I had forgotten Bean actually, I haven't used that for a good while. My original post points out that I have some of that software and I agree that iWork is very good. However my wife uses it and has used Office (2008 in this version) for many years and doesn't really want to move. She uses Mail and has done since well before I met her. Outlook thanfully I can avoid like the plague even on Windows.

No one has come across this problem. It's a real stumbler.
 
Check your hosts file [ /private/etc/hosts]. Something someone may have installed sometime may have blocked Microsoft's domains. Otherwise this seems one step too far even for Steve Jobs.
 
Bingo that sorted it. Never even entered my head to look there as I haven't touched it. Looks like at some point someone has blocked Microsoft when I haven't been around. I will have to look at anything I haven't installed.
Updates are already installing and the websites are fully functional now.

Thank you all!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back