I’ve had problems with OS X that don’t seem to have improved with the recent 10.10.3 update. Periodically I can’t connect to the internet. I thought it was just Safari but also the App Store and Notification Centre. I do have internet connection because Chrome, Skype and Spotify work for example.

Anyone else?

Wired or wireless? Whichever, try the other one.

Can you ping:

a) yourself
b) your router
c) an external website by IP address (eg, 8.8.8.8)
d) an external website by name

❓

Wired

It’s not internet access that is the problem. I can get on the internet e.g. using Chrome, Skype, Spotify. It only appears to be native OS X apps. Oddly it is back now without me doing anything specific. Did the same yesterday and earlier in the week. I’m getting a little frustrated with the Apple experience these days.

EDIT and of course now it’s back online I can’t do any more diagnostics

Have you checked DNS settings in system preferences? Specifically whoever handle DNS lookups outside your network. Try either Google as Cougar used above or OpenDNS (or an EU provider of choice). If you are on Virgin their default DNS can be a tad flaky (despite Google |(probably doing the provision).

Thanks for the suggestions, but before I look into this can I just clarify something? My understanding of DNS is that it is something that happens at network-level, not app-level. Does Safari use a different DNS mechanism and provider than Chrome on the same machine and same network?

I believe native apps use a different DNS system to 3rd party and that it has been changed in v10.10

I did a bit of Googling and it seems your issue is not unheard of. Don’t know how to fix it though.

I’ve had a recent issue with mine too after years and years of absolutely flawless service. I couldn’t connect to the internet and in the small WiFi signal strength symbol at the top of the screen there was a small X and said words to the effect of ‘WiFi hardware not installed’. I did some googling and it came up with some possible solutions (seems it was an issue for some when Lion first came out), basically re-enstating your wifi connection, but that didn’t work then tried one which told me to go into:-

System Preferences > Energy Saver > then uncheck the box that says ‘Wake for Network Access’

It seems to have worked a treat with no issues since. Odd, but there you go.

hey dude will you please let me know if you find a fix on this? my kids macbook got same issues, always get disconnected online or wifi not working at all ..done everything clean re-install and finding fixes online … last OS update might have done something not good 🙁

Hi wolfenstein. No fix yet other than waiting patiently and it starting working again. Just to re-iterate I am on a wired connection and have internet, just not via native OS X apps like Safari and App Store.

Prior to this week’s OS update I was getting wireless dropouts on my Mac. I didn’t have the time and energy to try and work out why nor how to fix it, so just spent £30 on some network powerline adaptors.

Got a bit of a downer on the quality and reliability of Apple this year. They need to focus on quality control and ease up on bringing new stuff out every year, but I guess that doesn’t make them as much money.

There was a known problem a month or so ago with wifi on certain MacBook models, whether this is a new problem created by that fix I don’t know. I suggest you google Apple Support forums or MacRumors. Smart idea t try Ethernet and other apps to isolate the problem as you say looks clearly like a Mac specific software issue. Apple is a big enough company to do many things at the same time. They do have many different hardware setups these days to support under one OS X and also numerous different suppliers of chips etc even within same/similar models.

I never tried ethernet connection but luckily the trick I used worked. I got the latest OS X update last night and have noticed that the trick I used has been reversed i.e. the ‘Wake for Network Access’ checkbox is now ticked again, and so far no wireless issues. Maybe the latest update has addressed the issue. I literally only got it earlier this week, the first time i’ve ever had a wifi issue on my 2009 Macbook.