Chrome closing connection

[sjherschko]

Recently, when trying to visit a site I have visited many times before, I keep getting the message ".... unexpectedly closed the connection." The error message suggests "

• Checking the proxy and the firewall"

but that link doesn't help - I can find nothing that applies. I have made no changes, and this has happened once with another often visit. I can get to the first site with Safari. Help?

Technical details:
MacBook Air from 2010
OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.16
Chrome Version 68.0.3440.106 (up to date)

 

[honestone]

How many sites does this happen with? Can you visit other sites that work fine?

 

[sjherschko]

How many sites does this happen with? Can you visit other sites that work fine?

It happens repeatedly with one site. It happened only once with a second site, which has since worked fine. That's it.

 

[honestone]

Try this: download and run the free excellent adware/malware program Malwarebytes, available from here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

 

[sjherschko]

Try this: download and run the free excellent adware/malware program Malwarebytes, available from here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

Didn't fix it.

 

[honestone]

OK, another one to try is the excellent anti-virus program ClamXAv, available from here:

https://www.clamxav.com/

When you launch it, let it first download the latest virus definitions. Then, let it scan the "top level", ie, your entire internal drive. That will take some time, but better to be safe than sorry.

If that works (ie, finds offending files/folders, etc.), and then Chrome works fine, you are good to go. If not, then if you can afford to lose all your bookmarks and history, the other thing to try is to do the following:

1. Download the latest version of Google Chrome.

2. Download the excellent free application AppCleaner, available from here:

https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

3. After you install and launch it, when you drag the Chrome application to AppCleaner's window, it will find most of the other/associated files/folders, etc..

4. After deleting all that (including the Chrome application itself, do a Find for Google Chrome. You can use Spotlight, but I prefer another excellent free application called EasyFind, available from here:

https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html

5. Hopefully, that will get rid of all the "offending" files/folders, etc.

6. Do a clean installation of Google Chrome via the file you downloaded in 1) above.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Does it do the same in Safari?
-Have you tried it on another computer?

It sounds like it may be the website itself, since others are working normally. Feel free to add the link to the site, so we can test it as well.

C

 

[honestone]

Hello and welcome.

-Does it do the same in Safari?
-Have you tried it on another computer?

It sounds like it may be the website itself, since others are working normally. Feel free to add the link to the site, so we can test it as well.

C

Yeah, let us know the link. I can check it with Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Firefox. Although you did say the site looked fine with Safari.

 

[sjherschko]

Hello and welcome.

-Does it do the same in Safari?
-Have you tried it on another computer?

It sounds like it may be the website itself, since others are working normally. Feel free to add the link to the site, so we can test it as well.

C

I can get to the site in Safari. And now it has happened with a third, rather important site: I cannot get to a certain page regarding a credit-card account, though I can get to other pages there. (That site will not allow me to use Safari.)

 

[honestone]

As Cory requested, let us know the specific sites you are talking about.

Yet, it seems there is something nefarious spreading on your machine. Did you try ClamXAv? It is much more powerful than Malwarebytes.

A couple of more basic questions:

1. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, from a software perspective? You can actually do a good amount of disk cleanup on your own, and there are quite a few excellent programs available (both free and commercial) that can help you with those tasks.

2. This is critical: are you making backups to an external device? If you (hopefully) are:

A. What software do you use for that task?

B. Do you hav e a "recent" backup that you did right before you started having these issues?

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, sounds like an issue with Chrome itself.

-Check Chrome Extensions - let us know what is listed there:

-Do you have any third-party utilities, antivirus, VPN/proxies, etc. installed?
-You could perform a full rest of Chrome, but you may lose cookies/bookmarks/passwords, so read the help page here: Reset Chrome settings to default

C

 

[honestone]

OK, sounds like an issue with Chrome itself.

-Check Chrome Extensions - let us know what is listed there:

-Do you have any third-party utilities, antivirus, VPN/proxies, etc. installed?
-You could perform a full rest of Chrome, but you may lose cookies/bookmarks/passwords, so read the help page here: Reset Chrome settings to default

C

Good points, Cory. However, that full reset of Chrome still would not capture/find any nefarious "stuff" on the machine. That is one reason why I suggested the next step would be to run ClamXAv. If either it does not find any problematic (ie, ad-related/virus-related) files, or does not solve the issue, then he could try a reset. But if a reset does not do the trick, then a complete full, clean installation of Chrome would be in order, after running AppCleaner. I already outlined the steps above, and also indicated that by doing that, the op would lose his bookmarks and history. And of course as you said, also the settings and passwords.

And yes, if the op could let us know what extensions are installed, then possibly one of us (most likely you) could identify any that are problematic.