Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Speeding up internet. PC is faster :(.

M

mikesjo

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have a pc laptop w/ wireless B sitting beside my ibook with wireless G. The PC loads pages faster and surfs faster compared to the ibook on safari. PC is using firefox.

Is there a way to make them equal at least? Some tweak settings?

Thanks.
 
From what I understand, this is because of the way in which Safari renders pages rather than the speed of the Internet connection. If you want your iBook's Internet to 'feel' faster, maybe you could try a different browser.
 
Yeah, Safari likes to download the page before displaying it although there are hacks that can change that (like SafariSpeed).

Also, many sites are optimised for Internet Explorer 6.0 (and PCs) first and foremost which can be the reason that sometimes PCs seem faster than Macs at displaying pages. I realise you're using Firefox, but the same theory carries through because there are so many more Firefox (on the PC) users than Safari users. 🙁
 
mikesjo said:
So firefox on the mac won't be any faster than safari?
Click to expand...

Try firefox on the mac. I have firefox on a windows laptop and a mini and I don't see any difference in speed.
 
its the way the browsers work eg. internet explorer waits for the whole page to download before it renders where as firefox and opera will render as it downloads, now this idea of half rendering and stuff would annoy a normal user where as a power user loves this becuase we begin to read stuff while it downloads


PS find a online speed test and compare them
 
I'm on dial up and I reckon Camino renders pages faster than Safari, it also doesn't quit loading pictures and fill the rest of the image with grey like Safari does on iLounge.com. Everytime I go there with Safari it will take ages to load images and the suddenly stop and I'll find that all the pictures are only half-loaded and the rest of it is grey.
 
I also find Camino to be faster than Safari, but I like Safari's interface and features better, so I use it. I found that typing my DNS servers into the Network settings in System Preferences drastically sped up browsing in Safari for me. Enough so that I don't really notice a difference between it and Camino anymore. According to what I read somewhere, if the computer is using your router for DNS service, there can be long delays in resolving URLs.
 
mduser63 said:
I also find Camino to be faster than Safari, but I like Safari's interface and features better, so I use it. I found that typing my DNS servers into the Network settings in System Preferences drastically sped up browsing in Safari for me. Enough so that I don't really notice a difference between it and Camino anymore. According to what I read somewhere, if the computer is using your router for DNS service, there can be long delays in resolving URLs.
Click to expand...
I'll have to try this. I use Safari Speed. It helps a bit. FireFox is slow to load. Camino is faster and it has FireFox's page rendering benefits. I just love RSS feeds in Safai though.
 
Safari is slow.
Powerbook Wireless is less reliable than most.
Depending on your router, if you have both a Wireless B and a Wireless G machine on the same router, your router may change to the lowest common mode so the G machine may be running B speeds.
 
mikesjo said:
So firefox on the mac won't be any faster than safari?
Click to expand...


I've never worked out if they'd be the same speed. At a guess, I'd say the Windows version is still slightly faster but I don't have anything hard to back that up with. CanadaRAM, that is not an excuse to start talking about my hard bits.


ITASOR said:
Holy crap, I just installed that and Safari feels way faster!!!
Click to expand...


I've always thought it was a placebo effect but I haven't tried it with 2.0 yet. I probably won't bother because I use tabs so that loading pages are always hidden from me.


CanadaRAM said:
Safari is slow.
Click to expand...


Well, it depends what's being done. There are some pretty good browser comparison test sites out in the Wildernet™ but these things are always getting updated so many of them are a bit behind the times. I find the general consensus seems to be that all the mainstream browsers on OSX are pretty much equal for day-to-day usage with some excelling in different areas.

The great part is that they're free, so you can try them all. 🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back