It turned out indeed to be a DNS problem. I added 1.1.1.1 to the DNS server list and problems are solved. Thank you to all who commented. Now I just need to figure out why all the rest of the devices in my house work just fine…
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This has been an ongoing problem for me with a VAVA USB hub with an ethernet port. It seems like three times a week I need to power-cycle the VAVA hub. (I just moved the ethernet adapter to an Anker hub in an effort to avoid the problem. However, the Anker hub is daisy-chained off the VAVA hub, so now I won’t know which one to reboot.) I am happy that it’s a relatively easy fix.
If I recall correctly, the problem started for me about the time I installed macOS 11.5.1 (I skipped 11.5) and continued through 11.5.2, 11.6, and 11.6.1.
I had a safari problem during the Big Sur betas. It seems I got a bad Dylib somewhere in the process which would cause safari to crash, a clean install fixed it and got rid of some other issues. I recommend a clean install with every major is update (bigsur to Monterey, especially if you jump forward more, bigsur was first to lock down the os into a separate partition). I have my files all using the cloud, so backup/restore is a breeze, and I only download fresh copies of applications. Scammers and hackers are out there, just sayin
If it’s a DNS problem, compare this computer’s DNS addresses against what other devices in your house are working. If they differ, then there’s your problem.
If at some point you manually added DNS server addresses, then they will override any automatic (via DHCP) addresses. If your ISP changes its addresses, you won’t see the changes.
Try going to the computer’s DNS settings screen and delete every configured address (after writing them down so you can put them back again if you need to). This will tell macOS to only use automatic addresses (assuming it is configured to get its settings via DHCP).
If your computer is not using DHCP for network configuration (manually configured), double-check your addresses against the ones your ISP says you should use, or just use the one(s) that your working devices are using.
David C. all devices in the house were set to use the same (default) DNS server. Nothing set manually. I am using an Orbi system. In my case the DNS server is the router address 192.168.1.1. Every other device in the house works perfectly. On the upgraded computer, Safari and iCloud services (including App Store) didn’t work, but Apple Mail and Firefox did. Occasionally Safari would connect to a page but it was inconsistent and usually only succeeded after a several minute delay. I had no trouble connecting to other computers on my home network; it was only the internet that was a problem. It was only after manually adding a DNS server on the offending computer that the issue was resolved.
I don’t think my problem is related to this one but I’ll pass it along anyway. I have a 2014 27" Retina iMac. It ran Big Sur for many months but with a number of minor problems. I used a VPN from Cloudflare and after an update I could not access the Internet. Other devices worked fine.
I reinstalled the OS without success and after hours on the phone with Apple Support I decided to run a clean install, the first since buying the machine. I’d been planning to do this for some time so I knew the steps. I decided not to install from Time Machine in case the problems were there too. Reinstalling apps, resetting all preferences and options, reloading all data, etc. etc. took a couple of days. The result was complete success, all the Big Sur ‘bugs’ vanished (I did not reinstall Cloudflare VPN!).
Monterey is not supported on this machine so I may buy the new Apple silicon 30" iMac when it is launched next year. At least I can use Time Machine confidently for that.
It doesn’t help much…but I’ve got 2 Monterey laptops…one M1 and 1 Intel that are both working fine. Maybe try creating a new network location and set up networking from scratch?
I’m running Orbi mesh routers as well…the ax model.
If you have IPv6 enabled, you might try disabling it temporarily and see if your issue is resolved.
Check that your Safari Bookmarks aren’t in an infinite loop. EVERY time I try to use iCloud to sync my Safari bookmarks, it generates a clone, which gens a clone, etc. This means the Bookmarks,plist file is over 10MB (on a GOOD day) and takes FOREVER to load. To cure, turn off Safari bookmark syncing in System Preferences and delete the huge file from ~/Library/Safari
Special thanks to Neil Laubenthal for coming up with the fix. I created a new Network location and now everything works fine. All this voodoo really confounds me. Oddly enough, prior to OS X I could troubleshoot pretty much anything on a Mac. In the old days I even had an old PowerMac with dual ethernet cards running router software to distribute internet to all my devices at home. Now I seem to stumble over the smallest things.
I learned from somebody on a list years back that leaving network location set to Automatic was not advisable but instead to create a variety of named locations depending on your needs. Don’t remember the details of exactly why it was ill advised though. So…I can only take credit for reinventing the wheel from somebody else’s solution.
I remember having heard that same advice too, a long time ago.
But truth be told, I’ve never had it set to anything but automatic and I have never seen any trouble from it. I prioritize interfaces (at work I want it to always use Ethernet when plugged in, tethering is always last option, etc.). I do, however, always insist on setting up proper DNS entries on any router I configure. I’d never trust anything I get fed default by an outfit like Comcast. 
I never noticed any troubles from it either…but wherever I got it from detailed some issues that were…more than anecdotal but less than statistically proven…so I made locations and used them.
Have you done the obvious, e.g., restart the router and modem and reset the ARP table on your router? In addition, I’d flush the DNS cache on your Mac. I’ve upgraded my three Macs to Monterey and haven’t had one issue. One of mine was also a 27" 2019 iMac with an external drive as the boot device.
Like @fellwalker57, I had internet problems (exactly mirroring those described by @toxdoc) after upgrading (in my case from Big Sur to Monterey) while using the Cloudflare WARP 1.1.1.1 VPN. After much frustration, I remembered that it was installed, turned it off, and all troubles were resolved.
Taking a page from @neil1, I just now created a new Network Location, manually changed my DNS from that provided by my router (which ought to be 1.1.1.1, but who knows for sure!) to 1.1.1.1, and turned Cloudflare’s WARP back on. No internet problems at all!
So, not entirely a scientific A/B test, but it looks as if WARP and the OS together can get confused if a DNS server other than Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 is used…
bocaboy I’m glad you have had no issues
Pleased to see that those steps resolved the issue for you Erik. Unfortunately, when I tried them after my internet problem they did not work on my system.
Nevertheless, I am pleased that I was forced to run a clean install on the iMac, the first in at least 8 years. Before I did this Airdrop did not work, I could not sync audiobooks from my iMac to my iPhone, and my Magic keyboard behaved very strangely when logging on. All these problems went away with the new install. I still use 1.1.1.1 for DNS but have not had the courage to reinstall Cloudflare’s VPN. Instead I’m using Hotspot Shield VPN which is included with my Dashlane premium account. So far, so good.
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I tried all of the solutions here, but none of them fixed it, although the symptoms (Safari and iCloud couldn’t log in; Chrome fine); turned out it was Cisco AnyConnect that was the problem, posting here in case someone else has the same problem.
Thanks for the update. VPN software can cause all kinds of strange problems, especially when it’s a corporate-access VPN, because all network access will get filtered according to your corporate network policy.
For my employer, all traffic not aimed at devices on my LAN (like printers) is all sent through a corporate proxy server where the requests and replies may be allowed, blocked or modified. When the VPN is disconnected, networking returns to normal.
That makes sense - the pernicious part of this particular software is that it blocked traffic even when it was disconnected!