Macos – Cannot load webpage on one particular computer

macos

I have a computer running OS X 10.6.8. One particular webpage will not load regardless of browser or network. Here are the symptoms:

  • The website does not load when the URL is entered into any browser. On Firefox, the error is usually "Connection timed out" but sometimes it is "Unable to connect"
  • Changing the DNS server does nothing.
  • DNS is resolving the correct address for the page. I checked this with nslookup and compared it to a machine which can successfully load the page.
  • Cannot ping the site without timing out
  • Flushing the cache in the browser does nothing
  • Flushing the cache with dscacheutil does nothing
  • Clearing browser cookies does nothing
  • I can access the page just fine on other devices connected to the same network
  • The webpage does not load regardless of network on the victim machine. I tried using my phone's hotspot and the page still does not load on the victim computer. The page loads just fine on my phone.
  • No proxy is being used
  • Using a VPN DOES fix the problem
  • /etc/hosts is stock
  • I did a scan for malware using clamXav. Nothing turned up except for a couple false positives
  • Rebooting does not fix the problem
  • Booting into safemode DOES fix the problem, but the problem then recurs after booting normally again

I'm really at a loss here. This just started up recently, and I can't recall any change which would have precipitated it.

Best Answer

Since the page would load when I booted in safe mode, I had a hunch it was some software which was being started on log-in. So, I uninstalled LogMeIn Hamachi (which I was not using and was even open at any time) and now I can load the webpage. Weird.

I'm definitely interested on theories why that piece of software would produce those symptoms. I'm more interested on why the problem only just started, since LogMeIn has been installed for years and I haven't run it or updated it in a very long time.

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