Scirocco Central

Hiya
following on from the keyboard trouble i was having with my PC last month i decided to take the plunge and buy an Apple I Mac Ive always had IBM based Windows PC,s up until now and its a bit of a learning curve
Id like to say im very Happy with my £1k Purchase but im actually quiet dissapointed I feel a little like ive just wasted a Grand

Im hoping theres some Mac users on here can help?
The Mac itself is very quick and very stable but the internet is not

One minute its really fast online next thing its ground to a halt and wont load anything despite doing a broadband speed test and getting a constant 10mb speed and loading the same pages on my two year old Toshiba laptop next to the max they have no problems loading whatsoever!

Whats wrong with it? is there some sort of settings that need altering?
When its fast on the web,its fast but when i starts crashing pages its worse than any IBM based PC ive ever had before and i got a Mac because everybody told me they are more stable and dont crash,dont get viruses etc Yada Yada Yada

This mac has twice the size Processor than my old IBM based Toshiba Laptop and twice as much ram but keeps comming to spectacular halts on the Web??????

Am i stuck with a £1k Lemon or is this a known issue that can be rectified?

Huggz
Jodie

Usually they're great. You rarely have to change any settings at all.

Have you tried a different browser? I always use firefox without any bother on my macbook.

You could also try a search of the apple site support forums. They usually have everything covered. If you live anywhere near an apple store it might be worth a visit to check.

Thanks Kev
yeh i have firefox on it it doesnt seem to make much difference whether i use Firefox or Safari its slow with both though i prefer using Firefox No Mac stores really that close We bought this through argos for that very reason as i didnt fancy dragging this back from London

The Macbooks are really light but the I macs despite being flatscreen LED are really Heavy

I guess ill figure it out afterall theres lots of mac users out there and i think there would be a riot if they all worked this slow on the web

Somebody Somewhere probably knows how to improve it ?

just thought id ask here as when my keyboard went on my Toshiba one of the member pointed me in the right direction and now thats fixed

Jodie

Your profile says Wiltshire. You've got an Apple store at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. I was there on friday , dead easy to get to. If you do go, you have to book in advance on the apple site for that store. Or there's one in Southampton.

Another place to post is the macrumors.com forums. They're pretty hot on all things apple and have a separate iMac forum.

Yeh your right there actually been to the Cribs Store a few times guess i just dont want to take it in unless i have to
Been speaking to friends tonight and they told me to download a plug in it seems to of helped a little

Theres lots of Plug Ins out there i guess i just need to know which ones i need and those i dont?
I will try Macrumors im looking for some good Mac Forums to join but theres soo many

Im sure ill get there its just a huge learning curve at the moment

Thanks Again for your help and advice

Jodie

I bought a Mac Book Air and run Windows 7 on it, works a treat and I use all my work applications.

I only boot it up in Mac OSX when I need to play.

I have the same problem with my mp and mbp. But I think it might be the router because when I join a hotspot everything works fine..

Well i dont want to Count my Chickens before theyve hatched but i was recommended another browser Google Chrome which ive downloaded and it seems at present to be a bit better fingers crossed

I use both Safari and Chrome as sometimes either one has a 'slow day' and I switch to the other without bother. You can import all your bookmarks and settings too.

Download the 'iStat Pro' widget for the dashboard and it gives you an idea of the network activity and CPU usage amongst a host of other things.

One thing that regularly slows down Mac browsing is Adobe Flash. The Adobe plugin is not as reliable as it could be and tends to hog memory, freeze up or misbehave in a hundred and one other ways.

Good point about Flash, it does have a notable impact. I would suggest checking you have the latest version installed...if you don't want tobgo into the Apple Store call AppleCare, you have automatic cover and they are very good...also has the benefit that you in the place where you are experiencing the problem...

A couple of other suggestions..

Have you tried physically plugging into your router with a cable or just tried wifi?

Could it be problem with the settings on your router if only transmitting at a slower wifi standard have you checked the config?

Do you have a secure n/w? Could someone else be connected and stealing your bandwidth?

What are you doing? Some ISP's throttle back connection speeds on p2p traffic?

Is there a time pattern? Some ISP's throttle back connection speeds at busy times.

Personally I hate n/w's

Thanx for all your replies guyz
Im taking everything on board and samdub sorry your having the same issues but at least i know im not alone
Lots of good advice there Gronk and i did wonder if my setting were wrong but not being that technically minded regarding the setting i wouldnt know what i was looking for?
I have only tried the Air port at present but did mention to my other half last night it may be worth trying the ethernet cable like in the good old days

Timewise it was worse over the weekend though the first time i noticed it was late thursday evening which im guessing aint that busy?
P2P traffic? not sure what that means? i use my internet mainly for forum dont use any chat to speak of maybe msn messenger once every 6 months and have Facebook running in the background at most times
how can i check if my router is running at the best speed?

yes we have a secure network just myself and my partner using it and its been slow when im the only one on line???
The weird thing is and im determined to get to the bottom of it,it doesnt appear to be a speed problem it really does appear to be the browser loading it slowely
Our speed seems fine its available for the Mac to take it just appears to be the browser is slow on the uptake

Though i have to say Google Chrome does appear to have the edge??

Im also not sure what to do now as i downloaded and installed the silverlight plug in for Firefox and that has flash i notice,should i get rid of it? I only downloaded it on sunday night so i assume its the most up to date version of flash?

Either way ill keep using Chrome at present as im confortable using it and it does seem a Tad More Nippy

Jodie

Jodie,

Silverlight is Microsoft's incompatible version of Flash's functionality. I didn't think the plugin for Silverlight supported Flash. If you have content that you can only view using Silverlight then keep the plugin. If not, in the spirit of "keep it simple", uninstall it. It won't affect performance of the internet, but the route to a speedy and more secure computer is to keep the amount of stuff running on it to an absolute minimum.

Chrome has a different driver for Flash, the result of cooperation between Google and Adobe. If you're comfortable in Chrome, and all the sites you regularly use render correctly in Chrome, then stick with it.

One other thing to watch out for is interference between wireless and DECT-style phones or other sources of radio - Gronk's suggestion to use a wired network and compare performance is spot-on.

Final thing - here's a post describing similar symptoms to you: http://appletoolbox.com/2010/09/fix-saf ... efetching/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

robrain wrote:Jodie,

Silverlight is Microsoft's incompatible version of Flash's functionality. I didn't think the plugin for Silverlight supported Flash. If you have content that you can only view using Silverlight then keep the plugin. If not, in the spirit of "keep it simple", uninstall it. It won't affect performance of the internet, but the route to a speedy and more secure computer is to keep the amount of stuff running on it to an absolute minimum.

Chrome has a different driver for Flash, the result of cooperation between Google and Adobe. If you're comfortable in Chrome, and all the sites you regularly use render correctly in Chrome, then stick with it.

One other thing to watch out for is interference between wireless and DECT-style phones or other sources of radio - Gronk's suggestion to use a wired network and compare performance is spot-on.

Final thing - here's a post describing similar symptoms to you: http://appletoolbox.com/2010/09/fix-saf ... efetching/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks ill try that,ill try anything to be honest
Things do appear to be improving though i will try it hard wired to the router only thing is i cannot use it like that long term I will end up moving the Mac sometime in the new year but if i have it hard wired im going to need a longer than average ethernet cable

My partner also went Mac at the same time as me but she has a Macbook Pro so it isnt as practical to use a cable with that
Shes also noticed this problem but it doesnt appear to happen as often on her machine?
She thought it might be screen resolution as hers is just 13" whereas mine is 21.5"

Im sure we will get it sorted out and our connection speed is soon to be doubled which i guess can only help?
Again thanks for all the help and tips and ill keep you posted

Jodie

i had the same problem, it on the router not your mac! you need to make sure your using WEP key instead of a pasword if you are using a wep key just change it or reset it and it should work it took me days of searching the net for an answer and this is what helped me, oh by the way you havent got an d-link router have you?

yeah that could well be it. I only ever use WEP at home and have no problem with the connection on my Macbook and iPad.

let us know how you get on matey

Thanks guys forgive me for being a bit ignorant but whats a wep?
And yes i do have a D link Router

We use Virgin Broadband so the kit is just the standard kit that they give you
Any help would be appreciated,is this wep key something specific or something i can choose my own?

Be gentle with me if possible i need Spoon Feeding the whole proceedure

I remember theres some sort of web address i have to type in to get into the routers settings its written down somewhere im a little worried about getting rid of my network password as it took ages to set it up,it was a nightmare

also if i just use this WEP thing and have no password will my network be secure?

Thanks In advance
Jodie

WEP is one of the encryption types for the wireless password.

Any idea how i find mine and then where i type it in? Ive been into the routers admin tabs and cannot find anything labled Wep
This does sound promising though as our internet connection is fast it just feel a little like the macs arnt quite speaking the connections language quite fast enough at times

Its funny i get one problem sorted out and another rises its head

i havnt used a desktop for several years now and im finding im getting severe pains in my hand using the mouse
Im going to try out one of apples new magic trackpads tommorow and if that feels better no doubt ill be swopping mouse for trackpad for that laptop like experience