Safari in tiger broken, firefox works

Question

Installed Tiger, Safari stopped working. Firefox works. Internet Explorer doesn't work. Just tried updating to 10.2 (automatic updates don't work either), and still the same.
Symptom: Safari tries to open home page (google), times out with blank page. Same with all other pages tried. Message is: "Safari can’t open the page.
Safari could not open the page “http://www.google.com/” because the server stopped responding."
Network connection is through airport connecting to DSL modem using PPPoE. Network preferences look fine.
Many network connections work fine; FireFox (now used to post this), Mail, ssh to other hosts, etc.
I tried turning on the debug menue and playing around, but no magic appeared. Page Load Test finishes with status OK, but page hasn't loaded.
Wits end... thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Hi Norman, a better log to look at would be ~/library/crash reporter/safari.
Have you tested with a hard wired connection? Have you tried entering an ip number? Try this in Safari:
http://17.254.0.91/
What do you mean in your first post " Just tried updating to 10.2 (automatic updates don't work either), and still the same"? I got confused because your specs say 10.4.2 but if you mean you haven't yet updated to 10.4.2 because you can't download it through SU, then there is a better option.
First repair Permission and DIsk:
Repair Permissions: This should be done BEFORE and AFTER all software installs and updates.
1. Navigate to Utilities/DiskUtility and launch Disk Utility.
2. Choose your volume (usually the second icon)
3. Choose "First Aid" tab
4. Click on "Repair Permissions"
Repair Disk:
Steps for using Disk Utility
1. Insert your Mac OS X CD-ROM disc or Restore DVD disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key until you see the spinning gear..
2. Once started up from CD or DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary.
6. Click Repair.
If you repair errors run it until no errors found.
Now, you may be able to repair this with the 10.4.2 Stand Alone Combo Update.
This is a full install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before. It has worked well for many.
Good luck, let us know.