After the recent macOS update, I am running into a problem where after browsing to about 5 different URLs, Safari is unable to load any sites. It doesn't matter if I use one tab or multiple tabs. This is not a network issue as I can still ping, etc. from the command line. In addition, it doesn't matter if I use Safari, Chrome, or FireFox. Once the problem starts with one it impacts the others as well. If I reboot the Mac then it resets.
Here is one of the weird things about it: Let's say I open Google in one tab. I then open another tab and after a few sites I can't navigate, in the tab with Google the search sometimes still loads a new page, but the suggestion auto-complete will still work, for terms I've never typed before so it is not something in the history. This indicates to me that it is not a network access issue as it is clearly still going to Google.
If I open Dev Tools and go to the network tab, then click a link or type in a url, nothing happens; the browser doesn't even seem to be trying to issue an HTTP request anywhere. The progress bar goes about 15% and hangs there for the page load.
This only started happening after the last macOS update.
Other things I've tried so far:
- Checked to ensure I have enough free space on HD
- Flushed the DNS Cache and cleared history
- Disabled DNS pre-fetch
- Tried a different DNS server like 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8
- Confirmed that the network still works
- Confirmed I have no proxy, no browser addons/extensions
- Confirmed no VPN
I am looking for some more suggestions or things to check besides the basics you see in every web article. It really doesn't seem like a network issue. Is there some system-wide service that would impact requesting or rendering of websites regardless of the browser?
Edit: Turned out the SOCKS proxy got re-enabled by something and this was causing another bug, when this was disabled then the other problem and the above problem went away.
