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Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Apple Mail connection problems

M

MontyW

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 5, 2008
37
0
Help!

I have five Apple Mac devices in my home; Mac Mini, iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro and an iMac.

All but the iMac can open any browser (my preferred is Chrome) and all but my iMac can send and receive email.

My iMac was able to do all of the above until 24 hours ago.

iMac is a 24inch 2007 2.8 Ghz Intel Core Duo and it is running OSX 10.8.3

I have not changed any settings, but something has changed.

Browsers

Chrome - I get the message Oops! Chrome could not connect to www.google.com

FireFox and Safari - nothing they just stall.

On the iMac I have Pinged through Network utility and using my isp and I get 10 packets transmitted and received and 40% packet loss.

I have tried Traceroute and it says the network is down.

I have tried the Ping and Traceroute via wi-fi and network cable to the router and I get the same results.

If I use the exact same network address in my Mac Book or iPad I get instant access to any browser and any of my bookmarked favorites.

Apple Mail
Version 6.3

I can access my mail on my MacBook, iPad and iPhone via wi-fi. I cannot get access to my mail on the iMac.

When I run Mail Connection Doctor the connection status is Green and states: mail was able to connect to the Internet.

However, all my email accounts SMTP, POP and IMAP state they could not connect to the server or log on failed.

Other things I have done:

Cleaned out the cache, disk utility to repair permissions (there were no issues).

What has changed with my iMac in the last 24 hours and any idea how I resolve these issues?

Thanks
 
This is getting very strange...

I can access Facebook but no other pages via Chrome, FFox and Safari.
 
Move the Folder in the path below to the Desktop, restart and try again.

You could also make a new Account in Users & groups, restart once, login into new Account and see what happens there.
If that didn't help the System itself has issues, if it did help your normal User Account has issues.

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

Do you have Little Snitch?
And as roadbloc said, check your Firewall settings.

Edit: The SystemConfiguration contains all network settings, if you move it to the desktop and restart it will reset all network settings, if this did not help move it back, overwrite the newly created folder.
 
Last edited:
A big thanks! Once again a very happy Apple user.

Moved the folder to my desktop - rebooted and all is well.

Oh dear I spoke too soon. All is not well. The fix worked once, but as soon as I tried to open a couple of web pages the browser froze again.

However, I am now getting mail.
 
Last edited:
MontyW said:
A big thanks! Once again a very happy Apple user.

Moved the folder to my desktop - rebooted and all is well.

Oh dear I spoke too soon. All is not well. The fix worked once, but as soon as I tried to open a couple of web pages the browser froze again.

However, I am now getting mail.
Click to expand...

What about trying it in a new User Account?
 
MontyW said:
Hopefully just use my Mac and be happy OR is there something I should do?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

What I meant is this, you created a new User, it has a different name an password, also all settings and your Data is in the other Account.

So, are you going to do something about the old User Account or just leave it as is?

I wonder, did you use Migration Assistant or a TimeMachine backup to get to a newer OS, reason I ask is that this sometimes seems to be the problem with networking, even Apple seems to be unable to fix this problem at the moment.
 
Ah now I understand. I'm going to keep the new user account and delete the old one.

I used migration assistant if that helps.
 
MontyW said:
Ah now I understand. I'm going to keep the new user account and delete the old one.

I used migration assistant if that helps.
Click to expand...

Ok, but you could have cleaned the old User Account, you see, if the new User Account has no issues and the old one does that means there is something in that Users Home Folder which is wrong and can be solved.

But, if you are happy with it it's Ok, be aware that if you use Migration Assistant you could get into the same trouble again since you are importing all the Data from the old Account with the conflict!
 
justperry said:
Ok, but you could have cleaned the old User Account, you see, if the new User Account has no issues and the old one does that means there is something in that Users Home Folder which is wrong and can be solved.

But, if you are happy with it it's Ok, be aware that if you use Migration Assistant you could get into the same trouble again since you are importing all the Data from the old Account with the conflict!
Click to expand...

You are right... there is still something not right with my browsers.

I can access Facebook and it loads very quickly, but when I want to leave it to say YouTube - the browser just hangs.

Any more suggestions or advice?
 
MontyW said:
You are right... there is still something not right with my browsers.

I can access Facebook and it loads very quickly, but when I want to leave it to say YouTube - the browser just hangs.

Any more suggestions or advice?
Click to expand...

Right now I do not know what you did.

Are you in the clean User Account or did you import your Data from the old one to the new one?
 
Thanks for your patience and help as you will gather I'm a bit 'basic' when it comes to this stuff.

I am on a clean user profile.
 
MontyW said:
Thanks for your patience and help as you will gather I'm a bit 'basic' when it comes to this stuff.

I am on a clean user profile.
Click to expand...

Hmm, this means it is not a problem with User Accounts.
You already moved the SystemConfiguration folder so that's not it too.

I would give your router a reset/restart and see what happens.

How did you get to 10.8.3, I know there are problems going from an earlier OS and use Migration Assistant or a TimeMachine restore, even Apple sometimes advices to start from clean.
 
What is really bugging me with this is my MacBook Pro works fine.

iMac worked fine 36 hours ago - I have no idea what on earth has changed to make what has been 100% solid and reliable go wrong.
 
MontyW said:
What is really bugging me with this is my MacBook Pro works fine.

iMac worked fine 36 hours ago - I have no idea what on earth has changed to make what has been 100% solid and reliable go wrong.
Click to expand...

These issues are notoriously hard to figure out, it can be the router, router settings, OS (X), User Accounts, and so on.

I am a power User and I could probably figure out what is wrong if I sat behind your iMac, sadly that can't be done.

It is clearly not User Account related, reinstalling Safari could fix things.
If you have fast internet download 10.8.3 Combo updater and reapply this, you can find this on Apple's site.
Link below.

OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.3 (Combo)
 
I will try the combo and if that fals get a slot with a Genius - I have a feeling I'm getting deeper into something I know nothing about lol
 
Keeping my fingers crossed but it looks like the combo has sorted everything.

:D
 
Do you never sleep? :)

Yes next thing today is to a clean reinstall.
 
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