[munshi]

hello,
i have an issue with my internet access via my apple computer(both a macbook and imac) running mac os 10.5.7 last tuesday i was trying to log into my ebay account and every time i tried to do so,the connection times out,even though i had no problem doing that earlier during the day. and i have no issue viewing the home page.(the same issue arises on other websites like ups.com )
i thought this might be a browser problem,so i tried both safari and firefox with no success
thought maybe a DNS problem,changed my DNS,still no success.
reset safari and deleted all cookies on both browsers,did not work.
tried accessing those websites from my 7 year old fujitsu laptop, and everything worked fine,but no success on the apple computer.

any ideas why this occurred and how can i solve it?

[Cold Warrior]

Try flushing your DNS cache. Open Terminal and type
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
Press Enter, then enter your password and press enter again.

[besson3c]

If it was a DNS problem the browsers should stall at "looking up...", but you can also try your DNS lookup in the command line.

Are you accessing the internet wirelessly? Is this happening with every other site?

[munshi]

i am using the internet wirelessly and this does not happen in all websites,just some of them

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by munshi 

i am using the internet wirelessly and this does not happen in all websites,just some of them

Are all three computers connected wirelessly? Are there any differences between them other than the stickers on the case?

[munshi]

all three compters,the imac,macbook and siemens laptop are all connected wirelessly

[munshi]

well i did post this problem in macrumors.com and i got a solution from there which seemed to work,so if anyone got the same issue in here this might be of help

No browser on my network could access "https" pages from LinkedIn. So rather than a browser issue, this might be a network issue...

So I worked out this may be something to do with packets being sent / received from LinkedIn over the secure connection. I tried a few different things. In the end I found that changing MTU from 1500 to 1200 under Network Settings in System Preferences seems to have done the job. Can't explain in detail why this does work or what effect this setting has on other websites, other than it works.

LinkedIn seems to be loading very fast now and no pages are hanging. Hopefully this has fixed the problem permanently.

Like I say, I'm not sure if this will effect other pages or network settings. But if anyone wants to step forward and say "you really should NOT have changed that" then feel free to and offer an explanation!

[Cold Warrior]

Certain internet connections work more reliably with a lower MTU. DSL is more prone to this MTU sensitivity due to PPPoE overhead (AFAIK). What you did -- lowering the MTU -- is a common tactic.

However, you mentioned it affected certain https websites. This post describes an MTU-related problem that -- when certain conditions are present -- will affect one's ability to load https sites. Perhaps that is the root of your problem.

One of our very network-savvy members may have more to say, but I'm glad it's working for you.