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Sloooooww AT&T? Virus? New i5

A

Alleyoop

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
87
0
Got the i5 unibody and it ran fantastically for a month or two. In the last couple weeks it started running incredibly slow surfing the web. Every fourth or fifth link I try ends up hanging for like 10-20 seconds or more or times out. The modem needs to be reset multiple times a day. Other Mac computers in our house seem to be dragging too, but not as much as the unibody. It really feels like dial-up and makes it almost impossible to work on the thing.

We have AT&T DSL wifi-the "Downstream Speed: Up to 6.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed: Up to 768 Kbps"

I know 2 other people in my city running Macs using AT&T as the provider. They both said their service has been slow and timing out. So, wondering if anything is up with AT&T or if this is simply a coincidence and I have a virus?

I have had Macs since 1995 and never had a virus, so know nothing about them. Don't know the first thing to even do. Get Norton? Is there even any Mac viruses going around? Is this what they do?

I did install bootcamp about a month ago with windows xp I think. I hated it and only used it a few times. Tried not to use explorer at all. Didn't really go online other than to do their updates.

Oh, and did call AT&T. They did troubleshoot online by asking for my modem information. The guy 'went in' and adjusted some settings he said. It wasn't running faster. We got disconnected a couple times. He called back once, but didn't call back the second time to resume the troubleshooting. He wouldn't give me his direct line of course, and I haven't had the time to sit on hold for a half and hour yet.

So, help! I am having dial up flashbacks!!
 
Could be a few different things, one of which is interference of some kind if you are using a wireless router.

But I will tell you what causes this all the time: Lame DNS servers. When you are hitting a website, the request to go to a site hits a DNS server to alias the site to the sites IP Address. If those DNS servers are busy, or not properly load balanced then you can get a time out intermittently that will cause your system to just sit there waiting for the site address.

I started using Google's DNS servers and ALL my machines are much snappier surfing the web. Googles DNS servers are:

Primary: 8.8.8.8
Secondary: 8.8.4.4

You set this up under System Preferences > Networking

Definitely worth a shot. Win, loose or draw they will be much faster then ATT's DNS servers.
 
MrFlynn is probably right about your DNS servers. Just to see what your xfer speeds are now, go to speedtest.net and post your results here.
 
Another option for DNS is OpenDNS. Also free and you can put some level of controls around what sites are resolvable if you have kids etc...

# 208.67.222.222 (resolver1.opendns.com)
# 208.67.220.220 (resolver2.opendns.com)
 
BobbyCarbn said:
Another option for DNS is OpenDNS. Also free and you can put some level of controls around what sites are resolvable if you have kids etc...

# 208.67.222.222 (resolver1.opendns.com)
# 208.67.220.220 (resolver2.opendns.com)
Click to expand...

Bobby is right, have also heard really good things about these guys. Several friends using OpenDNS.
 
Wow you guys are lucky, Im limited to time warner cable turbo which is the fastest here and only goes up to 12mbps (15 turbo) which i really dont get that much.
I live in LA btw.
 
Sorry I didn't post my results sooner. Just to go to speedtest and back to this forum are irritating because of how slow it is running and all the dropped connections-plus I wanted to try some of the things suggested and deal with AT&T and report back.

Here is the speedtest:


AT&T has done multiple line checks and said everything looks fine. The modem log does show at least 5-10 dropped connections a day though. They are coming tomorrow to take a look.

I tried to put the google DNS server numbers in my system preferences. I am wondering if I am putting them in the right place, because I type them in and they don't show up. Is this right? System Preferences>Network (on airport)>advanced>DNS>type in numbers. Ok, nevermind-just typed them in and they stuck this time. So after I write this I will play around and report back if this worked. Is this bad to do this in any way, by the way?

I also installed Sophos anti-virus software to see if I had any trojons or anything. I had 100 errors but 0 threats. I am not sure what that means, but I figure it could be worse. Most errors spoke of encrypted files.

Other computers are going faster than the MBP still. Yes, even the iPhone wifi! It almost seems as if the line is dropped more when the MBP is online too, but I have not tested this conclusively by any means. But my husband and I noticed this.

Just wondering if there is some MBP setting interfering with something...
 
It does not sound as if your MBP has a virus, but to be sure I recommend doing a clean install of OSX, and if the problem still persists, it may be a hardware issue. If the problem is gone, it is likely a virus or software issue, I would recommend not restoring your MBP from a backup, but place important files on the computer one by one.
 
AlphaDogg said:
It does not sound as if your MBP has a virus, but to be sure I recommend doing a clean install of OSX, and if the problem still persists, it may be a hardware issue. If the problem is gone, it is likely a virus or software issue, I would recommend not restoring your MBP from a backup, but place important files on the computer one by one.
Click to expand...

There ARE no viruses in the wild that run on current Mac OS X. It is NOT a virus!
 
kny3twalker said:


Damn and I thought I had good speeds. Verizon FiOS here.
Click to expand...

I thought I had good speeds too :p
But I thought FiOS was suppose to be the king of the hills?

This is what I'm getting on Wifi (cheap $40 Netgear router with wireless G):


I want to upgrade to the 30/7 plan, for only +$10/mo :D


By the way, OP, I think your problem is AT&T. Everyone in my area has problems with AT&T.
 
MrFlynn said:
Could be a few different things, one of which is interference of some kind if you are using a wireless router.

But I will tell you what causes this all the time: Lame DNS servers. When you are hitting a website, the request to go to a site hits a DNS server to alias the site to the sites IP Address. If those DNS servers are busy, or not properly load balanced then you can get a time out intermittently that will cause your system to just sit there waiting for the site address.

I started using Google's DNS servers and ALL my machines are much snappier surfing the web. Googles DNS servers are:

Primary: 8.8.8.8
Secondary: 8.8.4.4

You set this up under System Preferences > Networking

Definitely worth a shot. Win, loose or draw they will be much faster then ATT's DNS servers.
Click to expand...

yep, google or openDNS DNS servers. a lot faster than ISP DNS which is like a bastard step child in their infrastructure
 
hey OP do u have the 2wire wireless gateway with your att dsl? because my gf has that and runs her mbp core2 and it drops the connection like crazy
 
Thank you everybody! Trying google DNS last night for a few hours and this morning did the trick! I finally have my computer back!! I wonder why the other computers in my house are not as affected by AT&T DNS servers as my new MBP? And why it is a sudden problem-with in the last few weeks?

I did ask AT&T about the DNS servers, and they acted like that couldn't possibly affect anything.

I still have terrible problems with the DSL line disconnecting, but I'm sure that is AT&T.

On a side note, AT&T customer support was nicer than ever. They have to send out a survey after each call, so they sure were better to deal with than ever before. Now they just criticize us after they hang up!
 
Alleyoop said:
Trying google DNS last night for a few hours and this morning did the trick!
Click to expand...
This is indicative of ALL of these "do I have a virus?" threads. Exactly 100% of these issues turn out to be something OTHER than a virus. Ex-Windows users need to get the message that if you're having a problem on Mac OS X, it's something OTHER than a virus!
 
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