Internet access troubleshooting without restarting computer

Question

I'm on a MacBook Pro and suddenly lost access to the internet. Skype works fine, but neither Safari nor Chrome do. Other computers on the network are fine and I can ping 4.2.2.1 but not google.com. Changing my DNS server to 4.2.2.1 doesn't solve the problem and I've tried switching between wifi and a regular wired connection.

I live in China and had been using a WiTopia VPN service through the open source TunnelBlick client earlier in the day. I left to go have lunch, shut the laptop, and when I came back and opened it it could no longer reach the server, nor could the browser get online.

I really can't restart, because I'll lose really important work. Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Update: I've tried entering googles IP address into Chrome and it loads just fine so its clearly just a DNS issue of some sort.

Answer 1

Open /Applications/System Preferences and go to Network, select your network connection, click Advanced, DNS, and enter another DNS server.

8.8.8.8 is Google's DNS.

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You can also try flushing the DNS resolver cache by opening /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and entering the following:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Answer 2

Hi
It sound like its a dns issue because you mention that the ip is good
but names doesnt work for you.
Try going to the ip configuration and write a different dns.
Thanks

Answer 3

Apparently Witopia modifed the network settings and didn't restore them. You can restore them to the way they were before you used Witopia (without restarting the computer) by disconnecting the network, then reconnecting it:

Either

• Turn Airport off and then back on; or
• Unplug the Ethernet cable, then plug it back in.

That will reset the network, which usually solves problems like this.