"Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.google.com" lately

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
66 posts Page 4 of 7
by ankh » Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:28 pm
Um, double checking, were you suggesting I try turning that setting off?
Or were you asking thinking it should be on?
Anynow, it was on and it's off now.
by js9erfan » Thu Sep 10, 2020 6:27 pm
js9erfan wrote:
ankh wrote:Anything I can check to resolve this?
Unable to connect

Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at http://www.google.com.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
My wife's Windows box using Chrome isn't having this problem, so it's likely something my Mac or Firefox is doing.
Or not doing. Both computers connect with Ethernet to the Sonic router, fiber.
Some time ago DoH was enabled by default In Firefox. If enabled try disabling it and see if the issue persists. As another test you can instead try accessing google.com by IP (172.217.0.46) or change the DoH provider.

Due to outbound web filtering on my LAN I force all local DNS traffic over ports 53/853 to use my gateway (pfSense) so when FF implemented this it resulted in a lot of connection errors… However, you can easily disable DoH in FF if desired.
Perhaps you missed it from the first page...
by ankh » Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:12 am
I'd forgotten I'd fiddled with those settings back when they were suggested. No change in the problem with either on or off for a while.
by js9erfan » Sun Sep 13, 2020 11:26 am
Are you able to connect to Google by IP? Otherwise there’s more troubleshooting you can do here. If all else fails, try running FF in safe mode with addons disabled and if it still doesn’t work you can reset FF back to defaults. Do you have an AV or firewall doing web filtering? Check the logs or temporarily disable it and check again. Perhaps try scanning your PC with something like Malwarebytes. If none of the above helps try a different NIC. If other devices on the LAN don't have this issue it's doubtful the router is at play unless you set some custom settings/rules for your device though you could temporarily connect your device straight to the ONT to check.
by ankh » Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:25 am
It's a problem when using Safari, as well as Firefox and iCAB browsers.

What's a NIC? Is that Sonic's hardware or something in the Mac?

Hm, googled "NIC" and found a bunch of other people with similar issues over the years.

Here's one:
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/ ... ops?page=2
They worked at this for a long time and ended up resolving it:
Resolution: Looks like it was the DHCP server range and changed IP also fro good measure. ...
by ewhac » Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:39 pm
ankh wrote:It's a problem when using Safari, as well as Firefox and iCAB browsers.
Okay, so it's looking generic, not browser-specific.

At this point, I'd almost be inclined to write a small Perlthon script to randomly issue DNS queries to various servers, measure the response times, and see if any patterns emerge.
What's a NIC?
(*headdesk*)

NIC == Network Interface Controller -- basically the thing that sits immediately behind the 8P8C (a/k/a RJ45) network jack on your computer (less frequently, can also refer to the WiFi controller). When someone suggests swapping out the NIC, they mean to try different network controller/interface hardware. (Many PCs ship with RealTek NICs onboard, which are cheap crud. Apple laptops frequently use Broadcom NICs, which are pretty good.)
by ankh » Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:50 pm
> I'd almost be inclined to write a small
> Perlthon script to randomly issue DNS
> queries to various servers

Well, I'm able to run things from the Terminal, if anyone is so inclined. Or should I ask Sonic to change my fixed IP?
by js9erfan » Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:53 pm
As mentioned previously, try accessing the problematic sites via IP instead of their hostnames to see if it's a DNS issue. What about outbound web filtering, any at play on that device? It was also recommended you temporarily connect the device directly to the ONT to see if the router is blocking the connections. If all else fails, Amazon has a ton of cheap ethernet and WiFi USB adapters in case you wanted to see if your NIC is the issue (if your device has another NIC try that first)...
by ankh » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:56 pm
> temporarily connect the device
> directly to the ONT

As the problem only occurs every day or two,I don't want to leave the Mac connected directly to the ONT. I gather that would be ill-advised for security reasons.

I believe the iMac only has one NIC; it has a single Ethernet port, which I gather is the external indication of the NIC.

No outbound filtering.

OK, I'll see what Amazon has to offer and try that.
by ankh » Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:49 pm
This looks similar and has some new suggestion:

https://talk.tidbits.com/t/total-myster ... er=summary
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