browsers are broken???

Spon Farmer

Hi,

I was living in China for a year and I had to install a VPN (Astrill) to use Skype, google, etc.

When I came home I didn't use the VPN, but I never thought to delete it.

I've been having issues with websites failing to load (message would say I'm offline, etc.) or webpages layout would be all over the place.

The problem didn't occur all the time but it got worse.

I didn't think of the VPN, because I hadn't used it since returning, and because the problem was on both of my computers - the MacBook Air I had in China and the iMac I had left here.

A week ago, I was deleting files and unwanted apps from the iMac and I saw that Astrill was installed on it - my sister did it - but I delighted because I assumed this was the cause somehow.

So I deleted the Astrill app from both computers, cleared all browser history, cookies, etc., ran disk cleaning software and rebooted.

Then problem just got worse. Half the time no sites will load at all or just look broken.

I had to re-install Astrill and this was the only way the browsers work properly.

On Friday, I upgraded my MacBook to Mavericks (after deleting Astrill again) and this fixed whatever the problem was. My iMac cannot be upgraded.

I'm certain Astrill is the cause because a friend installed it on an older MacBook at the wekend to test it and it has caused the same problem.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Spon Farmer

I should add this

The most frequent message is "Safari can't connect to the proxy server" and to go to Advanced in Preferences and Click Change Settings, but I don't know what to change it to.

yoyo

Moved from Comp & Tech

tossy

You need to change it to auto detect proxy settings i would imagine, i had this problem on an old windows machine after using a VPN program where it 'took over' the proxy settings and if you weren't running it then you couldn't connect to the net.

I'm only on Macs a year and have never had to interfere with the proxy settings so not sure of the wording or layout of the menus, and not on my machine now to check.

Spon Farmer

tossy wrote: »

You need to change it to auto detect proxy settings i would imagine, i had this problem on an old windows machine after using a VPN program where it 'took over' the proxy settings and if you weren't running it then you couldn't connect to the net.

I'm only on Macs a year and have never had to interfere with the proxy settings so not sure of the wording or layout of the menus, and not on my machine now to check.

Thank you. This seems to be the very thing happening to me - Safari is completely dead unless I use the VPN.

I can't even use RTE Player - none of the Irish servers work on the VPN and when Astrill is disabled, RTE detects me as being outside Ireland.

The problem is just getting worse.

I will compare the settings to a the computer that is working.

Spon Farmer

Now Safari is working as is the RTE Player - I haven't done anything.

ZENER

System Preferences > Network. Check if there's a VPN listed in the panel on the left, if there is then delete it. If you want to keep the VPN for future use then click the Location: drop down and create a new location by selecting Edit Locations . . - Call it whatever you want.

Now from the Location: drop down and select your newly created location. Now delete all the connections from the left you don't require including the VPN. Set your Ethernet and Wifi Connections to Automatic and check the Advanced section for each connection and check that no Proxies are set in Proxies tab.

That should reset your connections to normal.

Ken

Spon Farmer

There isn't any VPN listed and the only Location is "automatic."

I discovered that Astrill itself contained an uninstall function - when I used it my screen went grey (like a blind being pulled down) and a message in different languages telling me to force a restart.

After that Astrill was still in my applications but the app wouldn't open - just bounced in the Dock.

I dragged it to AppCleaner and deleted it.

Browser are working much better now, but a couple of times I encountered a "could not find server" or a website or Mac App Store would load graphics properly.

I'll give it a day or two and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the help - I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cheers.