Right, for no apparent reason, I couldn't reply to any threads on here last night, or this morning.
I couldn't log into Facebook, Flickr, Hotmail.
This affected both Safari and Firefox.

I've run OnyX, cleared the caches and cookies in Safari. I can now post in threads here, and log into FB, but Flickr won't let me in still. I can't launch any apps in Facebook, or open my mail box.

I can still browse 'generic' sites. The BBC's weather site, is fine, for instance.

WTF is going on? Any ideas?

Looking at my network monitor, clicking the button for (as an instance) my Facebook inbox produces a spike of upstream traffic but nothing down stream.

I couldn't get into FB for some of yesterday either. I figured it was an issue their end.

There's still one thread I can't post in, on here (the Living In London one in the MP).
I've just got into Flickr, weirdly.
Although I got into Facebook, it's now not loading at all.
And nor is Hotmail.
MSN Messenger is also refusing to connect.

Right, I'm on the Mac upstairs now, and it's the same story. I can log into FB, but not click through to any apps/mailbox/photos/outgoing links.
Flickr took a reload of the log in page to actually let me in.

So... same issues on a different machine, on the same connection. I've reset the router this morning, and it's still persisting.
Is this some weird ISP issue?

Have you tried pinging the addresses in the Terminal?

What's your ISP and have you informed them of the problem? What's the router and is there a chance it's packed it in (age etc)?

What's the wifi signal strength like?

Not yet, will do that now.



I'm about to give them a bell, it's Pipex/Tiscali FWIW.
The router's not too old, it's a 2Wire thingy.


Full bars, but it's affecting the Mac that's on the ethernet connection with the router too.


Right then, the joy of a telephone tree to an anonymous tech support call centre awaits...

Right - the tech support have no clue what's going on with this.
We've pinged various sites, I'm getting 100% success rate on every ping we tried.

The suggestion was that Facebook isn't secure, and that I've contracted some malware from it... on both machines, including the Mac I don't use, in both browsers.
The next step is, apparently, to dig out an XP box and try that instead.
Oh, and try Googling for an answer, or ask on a forum.

So, if you'll excuse me, I'll go and dig the PC out of the cupboard and see if Explorer and Firefox in XP have any luck.
Any bets?

Does this affect all of your browsers, or just one?

Have you tried changing DNS servers to openDNS?

Any chance of re-installing/upgrading the firmware on the router?

All of them.



I've tried changing the router settings to dynamically collect the DNS, but yeah, I'll give openDNS a shot. I used to use them, but they've caused me issues in the past with this ISP.



Not as far as I can tell. I do have a Netopia Cayman 3347W knocking about that I could try and swap in. I might have time in the middle of the day tomorrow.

Well if none of those work I'm stumped for ideas. It looks like a network configuration error/corruption somewhere along the line (since it affects all the computers I want to say router or ISP), but I'm so very, very far from being a network bod so I'll let someone else take over at this point.

OK, I've just put in the openDNS servers to the router.... and it's made no difference. Logged straight into Facebook, but I still can get no further. Selecting the Inbox just stalls the load. No downstream traffic.

Right, a slight update on this.
The old XP box did indeed manage to get online, and log me into Amazon, digital banking, Hotmail.
And as far as the ISP is concerned, job's done.
When I pointed out that the XP box isn't used, and that frankly that's of no help, they gave me an old number for Apple.

So, why the hell not ring Apple, at this point?
Having done that, Apple have scratched their heads, got me to set up another account and log in to that via fast user switching and check to see if the same problem persists.

It does, in both Safari and Firefox.

So... they've asked me to try an Archive & Install. On both machines.

There goes the rest of the day. *sigh*

Right - Archive & Install done.
Problem persists.
Except now I have to spend more time doing updates.

Would it be worth checking out the MTU settings?

I can't think why they'd have changed, or why Pipex suddenly don't like the default 1500 value.