Browsers unable to connect to Internet, other apps can, Parallels can

Networkvirtualization

This has been happening in the last few days: Chrome or Safari on the Mac (OSX Lion/10.7.2) are unable to connect to the Internet. Other apps are able to (Dropbox…). I am able to browse through IE on Win7 on Parallels. Terminal is able to ping to www.google.com.

I first thought it was a problem with Chrome, but Safari and Firefox have the same problem.

I am able to connect to the internet from my wife's laptop (Windows 7) and from my iPhone (over same WiFi network).

This problem gets resolved after I restart the Mac.

What can be wrong?

Update: When I use the IP address (173.194.37.50 for www.google.com) I am able to reach Google, from Chrome.
But even when I change the DNS to Google DNS, I still get the same issue when I use www.google.com. (This cannot be a DNS problem anyway right? ping is able to resolve google.com to its IP…)

Best Answer

I suspect a problem with the Parallels network driver, having seen similar issues before. First, if you haven't already, try updating Parallels to the latest version. Then, try changing the networking mode to Bridged, or if it already is, to Shared. Also, here are some generic troubleshooting steps.

Screenshot of Parallels networking dialog