Crazy Internet Browsing Problem

[cwalex18]

I am having an interesting problem while trying to browse the internet from my MacBook Pro. Sorry for the lengthy post, but my problem takes a lot to describe.

It first started about a week ago. When I type a URL into Safari, the blue progress bar starts and goes about a quarter of the way, then stops, and the page slowly loads from there, and if I am lucky, the webpage will load after about 2-4 Minutes. After experiencing this problem for about a week, it started to drive me nuts. So today I decided to try and troubleshoot, but tonight I have hit a dead end. First, I tried using a different web browser on my Mac. I used firefox 3 to browse the same webpages as I did on safari. Firefox loaded the webpages just as slow as safari did. So this led me to believe it was a problem with my wireless connection. I connected my mac directly to my router using an ethernet cable, but webpages still load slow in safari and firefox. This then led me to believe that it was a problem with my ISP. To test this, I loaded two webpages on my MacBook Pro and my Dell running XP (both computers using safari browser), one page I visit a lot, and another that I have never visited. Both computers are connected to the same router with ethernet cable. I also loaded the same two pages on my iPod Touch over Wi-Fi. Here were the results, My Dell loaded the pages first after a couple seconds, then my iPod Touch loaded the pages second after about 12 seconds. My MacBook Pro took almost 2 minutes to load each page.

So, here I am. I have ruled out my ISP and my computer's hardware being the problem (I used wireless and ethernet with my XP bootcamp partition on my MBP using Safari, and did not experience this problem). Also, the problem is not web browser specific as Firefox and Safari experienced the same load time problems. So this leads me to believe it is some other software issue (but one that affects all web browsers). This problem seems to be progressive as well. As the day has gone on, the problem is getting worse and worse.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I am going to call AppleCare tomorrow and run this past them, though I bet they will be stumped as well, but you never know.

BTW, I ran an internet speedtest from my MBP, and my download/upload speeds are normal. Additionally, I went to apple.com/downloads and downloaded a large file (iTunes installer), and after I can actually browse to the file and click to the start the download (and the download starts), the file downloads at a normal speed (for me, its 570 KB/sec).

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[GGJstudios]

Is it the same few sites where you experience this? If so, which sites? Perhaps the problem lies with the sites themselves, or with a router between your ISP and the site. Also, when you tested your Dell on the same router, had you cleared the cache on the Dell first? It's possible the Dell appeared to load the pages faster because they were cached, not because it was actually faster.

 

[cwalex18]

Is it the same few sites where you experience this? If so, which sites? Perhaps the problem lies with the sites themselves, or with a router between your ISP and the site. Also, when you tested your Dell on the same router, had you cleared the cache on the Dell first? It's possible the Dell appeared to load the pages faster because they were cached, not because it was actually faster.

Yes, I cleared the cache on both systems before running the test. This is happening with all sites (macrumors, macworld, apple, my bank, best buy, amazon to name a few). I have also just restarted my Mac and zapped the PRAM and Reset SMC, just for kicks, and no go.

 

[Amdahl]

There was a post about this a few weeks ago, complicated by a VPN in the mix as well. I don't think there was a conclusion. What is your OS version? Do you have any gadgety programs like OnyX or some kind of network speed optimizer installed?

You say it gets slower through the day; if you reboot, does it go back to normal speed?

Have you checked to see if there is a firmware update for your router?

If you know how to use terminal, try lowering your MTU on your Ethernet (by cable) and see if Ethernet gets any faster:

sudo ifconfig en0 mtu 1390

You will have to enter your password.

 

[cwalex18]

Solved Problem!

Good News. I just got off the phone with AppleCare. We went through a bunch of steps to try and solve, and the guy I had was almost out of options. The last thing he said to try, short of reinstalling the OS, was to download the latest WebKit nightly for Safari. I am now using the latest WebKit for my browser, and it seems to have solved the problem. Mysteriously, Firefox has also resolved itself, though I don't know how webkit for Safari could have solved that.

 

[Amdahl]

That is great news; now we know what to tell other people who show up with that problem. I just wonder why it seems to affect such a small number of people.

 

[GGJstudios]

Do you have a link for that webkit?

 

[MatchFrame]

I started a thread here just recently about the EXACT same problem that started on my Mac Pro recently.

It's unfortunate there isn't a permanent fix from Apple. I did find a thread that had a very similar problem with a permanent fix, but I haven't been able to try it out yet. You can view it here.

I'm curious to see what solutions can be come up with for such a common problem.

 

[Amdahl]

I started a thread here just recently about the EXACT same problem that started on my Mac Pro recently.

It's unfortunate there isn't a permanent fix from Apple. I did find a thread that had a very similar problem with a permanent fix, but I haven't been able to try it out yet. You can view it here.

I'm curious to see what solutions can be come up with for such a common problem.

WOW! I bet the IPv6 angle is right on. Some DNS servers (or home routers) don't deal well with IPv6 queries, and if Apple is sending them out (which is perfectly reasonable), that might explain the problem, and why the same hardware running Windows moves at normal speeds.

 

[cwalex18]

Do you have a link for that webkit?

WebKit Nightly Builds can be downloaded at http://nightly.webkit.org/. Just open the WebKit program instead of Safari, and you have the latest version of WebKit.

It's unfortunate there isn't a permanent fix from Apple. I did find a thread that had a very similar problem with a permanent fix, but I haven't been able to try it out yet. You can view it here.

I also have had this problem with my Cable ISP (though not related to the problem in this thread) where my ISP's DNS servers are super slow. When this occurred, I just called them up and they gave me a different one to use.

EDIT: I also remember Macworld had a good video segment on using the latest version of WebKit with Safari. I found the link to the videocast: http://www.macworld.com/article/133272/2008/05/mwvodcast49.html . It is at the last part of the movie.

 

[MatchFrame]

You can view the permanent fix to this exact problem at this thread here.

It involves adding two DNS servers (4.2.2.1 & 4.2.2.2) in your advanced network preferences. It was a piece of cake.

It has worked perfectly for me so far, and this way I won't have to think about it again.

Let us know if it works out for any of you, too. It's always good to have confirmation or to let others know any problems you run into. Good luck!

 

[switcher3365]

You can view the permanent fix to this exact problem at this thread here.

It involves adding two DNS servers (4.2.2.1 & 4.2.2.2) in your advanced network preferences. It was a piece of cake.

It has worked perfectly for me so far, and this way I won't have to think about it again.

Let us know if it works out for any of you, too. It's always good to have confirmation or to let others know any problems you run into. Good luck!

I searched about this issue and just tried this solution, and it works wonderfully now! I would usually have that "connecting to http://whatever" for up to 10 seconds at time before I could actually load a website. Now, I load pages normally!

 

[Beric]

This works! My internet is now "blazing fast" on a Wireless-B only router.

My only question is: WHY does this work?