Mac mini computer blues

lynnb · 08-09-2012

Over the last few days I've been trying to get a Wordpress photo gallery up and running. My web host provider successfully installed Wordpress - however my Mac mini refuses to load my web page. When I type in the url I get a "Not found" message, in both Safari and Firefox.
Strangely, this only happens with my Mac. Any other computer can, and does, load the page without a problem. It's just mine that can't.
I've tried clearing the cache and history, resetting Safari, creating another user account, and rebooting multiple times after all the above, without success. The web hosting company and the ISP agree the problem is on my machine, given how everyone else in the world can load my page except me!
I'm now doing a time machine full backup now so I can reload OSX and see if that fixes it. Perhaps a Library Preferences file has been corrupted.
This is driving me nuts!
Anyone had a similar problem? All suggestions are welcome!
Of course, this had to happen just 4 months afte the AppleCare warranty expired... and I can't afford a replacement computer.

Edit: running OSX 10.6.8. All software is up to date.

buzzardkid · 08-09-2012

Not running Parental Control on it, are you? My son occasionally uses my Mac Mini and I have it running. It blocks certain scripts on pages.

It should be possible to create a security exception in the browser setting telling it to always allow viewing the page.

Whats the URL? See if my Mini can see it!

crispy12 · 08-09-2012

Are you 101% sure that you're typing the address fully and correctly? Type the full name including index.html rather than just ending with the slash (xyz.wordpress.com for eg). Check the .htaccess file in your root directory of your blog if you have ftp access too, sometimes it can cause redirect errors.

With some ISPs every letter and symbol counts. Also check your proxy settings again. Also I'm a bit skeptical that a new install will help out, but sounds like you've tried everything.

lynnb · 08-09-2012

Thanks Johan, no parental controls, and I have no problem using my wife's or kids' Macs to view the page. At the moment it's just the Wordpress template - I've not yet added any plug-ins (thinking of Photocrati) or loaded any content. The address is www.lynnburdekin.com. I've gone into Network Preferences/Search DNS domains and added that url without success.
Crispy12, thanks - I tried the full /index.html address with the same "not found" result; I have FTP access but don't know about .htaccess files, I'll check that out. I'm a newb at this. I'm assuming that as I can access the site from my wife's and other computers, the problem resides solely within my Mac. I've certainly checked the correct address - it works with everyone else's computer!

Edit: here's the link to my query on the Wordpress support forum/ and the link to my support request on the Apple support forum.

ricnak · 08-09-2012

nice pine cone!

lynnb · 08-09-2012

that's not mine - it's a stock photo used by the Wordpress template. I'll upload photos when I can get into the site to set it up!

RObert Budding · 08-09-2012

I thought that Apple computers 'just worked' . . .

brbo · 08-09-2012

What does your /etc/hosts file say?

Rogier · 08-09-2012

Works on my Mac's.

Have you done the basic 101 technique by turning the computer off for a minute (not restart!)?

Create a new user on the Mini and try again.

Rogier · 08-09-2012

Click on this link to see if it takes you to the admin login page:

http://lynnburdekin.com/wp-admin

User name will be: Admin
Password: make sure you enter it correctly!

lynnb · 08-09-2012

Photomoof - In the Network settings, under TCP/IP, my settings were greyed out. I renewed the lease, it's now the same settings as our other Mac except for the IPv4 Address, which is 10.1.1.7 on my Mac, but 10.0.1.6 on the other Mac.

When I look under the DNS tab, my list of DNS servers were different from the list on the other Mac: I have two IP addresses (I seem to remember these were for my ISP, added when I had connection problems a few years ago: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220), and Search Domains: optusnet.com.au. The other machine only had one DNS Server: 10.0.1.1 (I assume that's my router), and Search Domains: optusnet.com.au. On the other machine the settings under this tab were greyed out. On my Mac they are black, (i.e. active - I think?).
I tried to connect to the site again after saving these changes but still getting the Not found error message. Do I need to do anything else, like reboot?

Rogier - I tried a new user and that didn't work. Also following the link doesn't help - I still get the error message. no problem, of course, if I just use my wife's Mac (but I can't take that away from her as she's constantly using it).

Thanks for your help - where to from here?

Cheers,

lynnb · 08-09-2012

brbo - do you mean the etc folder on my site? I can view that through Cyberduck, but it doesn't contain a hosts file. All it contains is a fob-folder called lynnburdekin.com and then files called passwd passwd,v qutoa quota,v shadow shadow,v (the commas are part of the file name).
Should there be a etc/hosts/ folder? Am I looking in the right place?

Thanks,

crispy12 · 08-09-2012

I think your internet settings are stuffed.

Try going to Network settings under System Preferences and removing your current home network, then re-adding it with the password and default automatic settings.

Macs do 'just work', at least relatively when compared to a Windows computer. Much easier when driver problems are not an issue.

brbo · 08-09-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynnb

brbo - do you mean the etc folder on my site? I can view that through Cyberduck, but it doesn't contain a hosts file. All it contains is a fob-folder called lynnburdekin.com and then files called passwd passwd,v qutoa quota,v shadow shadow,v (the commas are part of the file name).
Should there be a etc/hosts/ folder? Am I looking in the right place?

Thanks,

No, you should check the /etc/hosts file on your computer.

I don't really know what Wordpress is but if you prepared the site (coding or whatever you need to do for it) on your computer there is a possibility that the tools you used messed with how your domain is resolved on your computer. Do a "ping lynnburdekin.com" in terminal to see what your web site address resolves to...

lynnb · 08-09-2012

Problem solved! Thanks everyone for your help. I deleted the Airport wireless home network from my Mac and then reinstalled it. Once that was done, I can now access the web page.

Thank you all for your help - very much appreciated!

Photomoof - no, it's a domain name registration I've had for a few years, pointing to a very substandard web gallery template provided by my ISP. It's only in the past few days I've arranged a host server for my new site and uploaded the Wordpress software, then redirected the domain name to the new site. Now I can load the page on my browser, I can get started setting up a photography gallery template to display my work. Thanks again for your (and others here) help.

Papercut · 08-09-2012

Lynn, did you have a bunch of windows / connections open to your site when things went bad?

I had something somewhat similar a few years ago, except that it resulted in my Airport being unable to reach my website at all. When I was setting up my website (on a 2007 MBP), I had a whole bunch of connections open to the site (cpanel pages, blog, etc.) and it borked my Apple router. Every other ip address / url was fine, but anything to my website was unreachable -- same error as yours. I tried all sorts of things like deleting the network settings, changing DNS servers, rewriting the router settings, even updating its firmware -- all did nothing and none of my computers could reach the site (different from your situation in that). I'm not the only person this has happened to (I found several threads on Apple forums with similar reports), but Apple refused to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with those routers (this was a couple generations of airports ago). As soon as I swapped the router to ANY other physical unit (Netgear, Belkin, Apple), I could access the site again with no problems. Put the old router back and no dice. Upshot was I sold the router on CL since it worked everywhere except that one address and bought a new one. Expensive "solution".

EDIT: Glad you got it fixed -- you posted while I was typing.