[pjosborne]

OK, this is starting to drive me nuts. For the last day and a half I have been seeing intermittent problems with accessing web sites in either chimera or IE. I get a message "the site cannot be found, check the URL and try again".

I initially thought this was a simple DNS issue, because if I went to the 'Network' System Preference and entered a different DNS server the problem corrected itself temporarily. However, the problem does recurr after a short period, irrespective of how many times I change the DNS server (even using DNS servers from different ISPs).

I reinstalled OS X (10.2.2), but the problem still persists. I Nothing useful appears in /var/logs/system.log or in the console.

However when I tried to ping hosts from the Terminal while I was experiencing problems in the browser I got either got the message "bus error" or " ping: unknown host somehost.com"

If anyone has any idea what is going on I'd be grateful - this is by far the weirdest thing I've seen in fourteen years of using Macs

Cheers
Peter (UK)

[pjosborne]

OK, I'm really trying to self-diagnose here, but am still completely stumped. I booted up off my second internal HD (OS X 10.2.1 vs OS X 10.2.2 on my primary drive) and the above symptoms occured again. Here's a short extract from terminal:
------------------

[crows-g4:~] crow% ping www.epa.gov
ping: unknown host www.epa.gov
[crows-g4:~] crow% ping www.apple.com
Bus error
[crows-g4:~] crow% ping www.epa.gov
ping: unknown host www.epa.gov
[crows-g4:~] crow% ping www.apple.com
Bus error
[crows-g4:~] crow% ping www.dell.com
PING www.dell.com (143.166.224.86): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 143.166.224.86: icmp_seq=0 ttl=238 time=152.007 ms
64 bytes from 143.166.224.86: icmp_seq=1 ttl=238 time=150.651 ms
64 bytes from 143.166.224.86: icmp_seq=2 ttl=238 time=149.546 ms
----------------------

If I change the DNS server in the 'Network' system pref all is fine again briefly and I can ping all the above. Unfortunately I know it's just a matter of time till it recurrs. Given this has occurred on 2 different systems, on 2 different disks, and given my iBook is unaffected by this problem (ruling out DNS server wackiness) might it be hardware after all? Could a bad ethernet card do this (I'm on a Quicksilver 2001 with gigabit ethernet, connecting to the net via than LAN port Airport which is conected in turn to a DSL router)

Still perplexed

Peter

[msykes]

Strange, very strange. I've seen "bus error" from the prompt before, but only when I'm having problems with programs that I've actually written. Never seen anything like that before with ping.

Have you done a google search? Sometimes that's useful for a problem like this, which might not be mac specific, though admittedly I didn't turn up much.

Might be hardware, or might just be that your DNS servers or something along those lines is sending ping such a weird answer that it doens't know what to do with the information, and causes a bus error.

[pjosborne]

Have you done a google search? Sometimes that's useful for a problem like this, which might not be mac specific, though admittedly I didn't turn up much.

Might be hardware, or might just be that your DNS servers or something along those lines is sending ping such a weird answer that it doens't know what to do with the information, and causes a bus error.

Thanks for the reply. I tried a google search, but the results were (as you said) not particularly helpful. I'd like to think it is the DNS servers, but the fact my iBook isn't suffering the same symptoms makes be pessimistic. It's a strange one alright....

I'm off for the weekend, so hope inspiration will strike...

Peter

[Cipher13]

Are you on dial-up or cable?

If dialup, perhaps the modem is trashed...

If cable, via USB or Ethernet? Perhaps the USB or Ethernet controllers are trashed...

What kind of system are you on?

It definately seems hardware related (if you've formatted, reinstalled, etc).

Line wierdness perhaps? When you tried it on the iBook, was it hooked into the very same jack?

[Moonray]

Strange problem. Maybe /var/log/system.log or the Console might give you some hints.

-

[pjosborne]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Are you on dial-up or cable?

If dialup, perhaps the modem is trashed...

If cable, via USB or Ethernet? Perhaps the USB or Ethernet controllers are trashed...

What kind of system are you on?

It definately seems hardware related (if you've formatted, reinstalled, etc).

Line wierdness perhaps? When you tried it on the iBook, was it hooked into the very same jack?

I'm on a Quicksilver G4 on ADSL via an airport (cabled directly to the LAN port) so I guess it is potentially the ethernet controller in the G4 or on the LAN side of the Airport. I think the WAN side of the Airport is fine as the iBook is symptom free. I think I'm going to try swapping some cables and plugging the G4 directly into the ADSL router and see if anything changes. Otherwise I'll be asking Apple for help on Monday (like that'll be successful!!)

Pete

[brainchild2b]

Did you forget to install all of the BSD subsystem? It will give those errors if you did.