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dsl slow or browser sux?

C

chrisfx811

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 18, 2002
115
0
louisville
i recently got verizon dsl, and am currently using ie 5.2.2 on my imac 800.
my question is why is my dsl not that fast? i had previously used cable and it blows away what i have now. my mom's dial-up using msn is just as fast as my set-up. and when visiting some sites that were slow with dial-up. i still find myself waiting for pages to load.
what do you think is the main cause of my problem?
1. verizon dsl is DiSappointing
2. ie 5.2 is a slow browser
3. my mom's pc w/dial-up is just plain faster for browsing the net?
also, i have been having a problem lately where i have to hit the refresh button in order for pages to load fully. first the page will load, then it will look blank, and as i scroll around the page icons will appear as my cursor crosses over it. when i hit the refresh button everything loads fine... what gives?
 
I can't really help but I can offer some advice. I used to use IE all the time and got tired of the problems you were having, among other things. I switched to Chimera and have never looked back. you should consider it too.
 
I too went from Cable to Verizon DSL (but this was a year ago now).. I did notice a speed decrease, it may be because my area isn't officially "supported" (but it works..). But it's a lot faster than dialup.

IE may be the problem, it is by far the slowest browser on OS X, but if it was still pretty fast with Cable, then signs point to your DSL as being the problem. Get Chimera anyway :)
 
I've had some friends who have gotten verizon and they say it sucks. they get 14 to 20k a sec. thats pathetic. this doesnt seem normal. i have sbc yahoo and i get 400-500k downloads a second for 40 dollars a month. but im not an expert on dsl though. hope i can be of some help.

iJon
 
i used cable on my old 266 imac with ie and/ or netscape approx 2 years ago.
i have only used either earthlink or verizon dsl with current set-up.
i just downloaded chimera and will give that a try.
is there anything i should be wary of with using this browser? is it prone to crashes or any other conflicts? i am a relative computer newbie so any help is appreciated...
 
Chimera is really a browser still in beta, hence the 0.x version number. With betas, you should expect either conflicts with the software code, something not functioning, or a minor bug. Some betas are more stable than others: Use at your own risk.

I have heard a lot of positive reviews about Chimera, and very few negatives about Chimera. you may want to have a look at it, and see what other people using Chimera have to say (in other words, read some less casual reviews about Chimera from Cnet). Here is a sample of reviews from various people using Chimera. Read through the more lengthy reviews, as they should provide more detail.

http://download.com.com/3302-2143-10165335.html?tag=lst

I don't mean to be rude, but, in response to your dial-up vs. DSL comment, chrisfx811, I have had dial-up at home for 10 years with Macs, and my HS has at least one T1 line. Sometimes I find it a Gregsend to have the 20 year old technology, known as 28.8Kbps dial-up, compared to how many sites load with the T1 lines at HS. :)
 
I'll chime in with my support. Chimera rules.

Sometimes (sometimes) I have to jump on IE to get a page to render correctly or to watch RealPlayer video. When I do have to use IE, it further convinces me that Chimera is still the better choice simply because of how much longer it takes IE to load the same pages.

Also, using OS X and broadband, I'd consider tweaking some of your settings using the Terminal. You could also download Broadband Optimizer (it esentially does the work for you).

P.S. I had the same problems with IE. It's some bug they have yet to correct. (shocker)
 
checking connection speed

Well, I also have Verizon and I am trying to figure out what kind of speed I am getting. It is sold as 768Mbits/sec, but when I look at IE it always says that I am getting aroung 80kb/sec. When I look at Real Player it says that I am getting 300Kbps/sec. So, WTF is going on ? can you guys recommend a utility to check/monitor speed ? I should no basic differences between various units, but I am truly lost here.
 
Re: checking connection speed

Originally posted by giovanni
Well, I also have Verizon and I am trying to figure out what kind of speed I am getting. It is sold as 768Mbits/sec, but when I look at IE it always says that I am getting aroung 80kb/sec. When I look at Real Player it says that I am getting 300Kbps/sec. So, WTF is going on ? can you guys recommend a utility to check/monitor speed ? I should no basic differences between various units, but I am truly lost here.
Click to expand...
Here are some links i try to see what my bandwidth is.
http://webservices.cnet.com/bandwidth/
http://www.dslreports.com/stest/0

these are really good, i recommend everyone to use it to see if they are getting what they are paying for.

iJon
 
If you are even slightly outside of the "maximum" DSL range, what you get is not actually ADSL (the most common type), but IDSL, which is about 3x slower, and offers no real advantages to ISDN except that the modem is smaller and doesn't require two phone lines. And besides all that, Verizon sucks. If you can, get SBC.
 
i have verizon dsl for the great discount pkg i get with my phone an dall.
i downloaded chimera, thus far it is awesome. much faster. i am a simple user so i think the overload of stuff on ie 5.2 won't be missed. i am getting used to it's functionality and i like it. thanks for all the help.
p.s. are opera and/or mozilla as nice as chimera?
 
Originally posted by chrisfx811
p.s. are opera and/or mozilla as nice as chimera?
Click to expand...
I have never liked Opera that much. The latest beta is quite buggy--I wouldn't recommend it. Mozilla is nice, but offers few advantages over Chimera. Both are buit on the same source code, but Chimera is cocoa (the "most native" OS X language), lean (w/o a mail, chat, or newsgroup client), and a little faster. I am still a big fan of Mozilla, though. It is generally a little less crash-prone and is a bit more configurable.

I have used Chimera as my primary browser for about 4 months and haven't regretted it. It is making some great strides in the nightlies. I would also recommend going to versiontracker.com and getting ChimeraKnight (helps automate keeping up with nightlies) and Chimericon (helps use different themes with Chimera). Both are written by the same guy and are very good (and very free).

Chris
 
I'm using Chimera and love it - was IE5.2 but it seemed to get slower as it went from 5 to 5.1 to 5.2. One thing I do miss is access to "History". I know there's an amendment you can make to show History on the toolbar/drawer but I'm not sure what it is - can anyone help? I'm not a techie so I need words of one syllable! Ta.
 
Re: checking connection speed

Originally posted by giovanni
Well, I also have Verizon and I am trying to figure out what kind of speed I am getting. It is sold as 768Mbits/sec, but when I look at IE it always says that I am getting aroung 80kb/sec. When I look at Real Player it says that I am getting 300Kbps/sec. So, WTF is going on ? can you guys recommend a utility to check/monitor speed ? I should no basic differences between various units, but I am truly lost here.
Click to expand...

80KB/s is 640Kb/s. That is 8 kilobits for every kilobyte. Real Player is just displaying the size of the data stream I would not use it for a gauge.

Here are the facts.

I have an AT&T Cable Modem. I get around 180KB to 200KB/s downloads. I use to get around 500KB/s mac downloads but they limited it to provide better service to everyone though they did also increased our upload speeds at the same time.

200KB/s is the equal to 1600Kb/s or 1.6Mb/s. So to get these speeds with DSL you are going to have to pay a whole hell of a lot more. That is more then double what your max rated speed is and I doubt you will ever achieve the max that they sell you.
 
Originally posted by steve-not-jobs
I'm using Chimera and love it - was IE5.2 but it seemed to get slower as it went from 5 to 5.1 to 5.2. One thing I do miss is access to "History". I know there's an amendment you can make to show History on the toolbar/drawer but I'm not sure what it is - can anyone help? I'm not a techie so I need words of one syllable! Ta.
Click to expand...
The very easiest thing is to get the latest Chimera nightly. It's actually a bit more stable than 0.6 on my machine, and it has a number of improvements, as well (including enabling history by default).

If you'd rather stick with what you have, here are the instructions provided by Somebody on 11/6:
First, check to see if the history is already enabled: Open the sidebar (cmd-/). If there's a tab in the sidebar that looks like a clock face, click it: that's the history.

Now, if the history isn't already enabled, you'll need to edit a prefs file. Exit Navigator, then find the file <home>/Library/Application Support/Chimera/Profiles/default/<SOMETHING>/prefs.js. (<SOMETHING> will be a directory with a name that looks like gibberish. It's the only subdirectory under 'default'.) Open the prefs.js file in a text editor, and add the line:

user_pref("chimera.show_history", true);

to the end of this file. Restart chimera, and the tab in the sidebar that I described above should be present. However, I should warn you: The history UI is very slow, and not organized in a very coherent manner; I can understand why they keep it hidden by default, right now.
Click to expand...

Of the two, I'd highly recommend just getting the latest nightly.

Chris
 
uhm... what are you guys talking about?!

768 Mbps DSL line..?? Equals to 80 Kbps?! And 200 KBps equals 1.6 Gbps? Errr... LOL

Do the math. I'm sure you ment 768 Kilobits/s DSL line, because that's the same as 96 Kilobytes/s. And 200 KBps equals 1.6 Mbps. Not giga..

Maybe a LOT of typos, but i just couldn't resist on posting some correct calculations...
 
Originally posted by Zenith
uhm... what are you guys talking about?!

768 Mbps DSL line..?? Equals to 80 Kbps?! And 200 KBps equals 1.6 Gbps? Errr... LOL

Do the math. I'm sure you ment 768 Kilobits/s DSL line, because that's the same as 96 Kilobytes/s. And 200 KBps equals 1.6 Mbps. Not giga..

Maybe a LOT of typos, but i just couldn't resist on posting some correct calculations...
Click to expand...

True true. I must have been really tired when I posted the Gb thing. I went ahead and fixed it thanks for pointing it out. I assumed that he meant 768kb/s. Since it would be one hell of a connection for anyone to have a 768Mb/s connection.
 
wow do i feel special. i get 500k/s downloads for 39.99 a month with sbc. glad i dont have verizon.

iJon
 
ok - so we are now all on the same frequency. I was tired of my stupid confusion with bits and bytes (damn, I used to know this stuff !!!) so did my homework last night and realized what the truth is, which Bandit explained pretty well.
Conclusion: Verizon DSL sux; this friend of mine with cable gets 3 times my speed. What is all this b. s. about cable being affected by how many users are near you ?? I mean I am in manhattan and this dude lives a few blocks from me, doh ! That was the main reason I went for DSL, I wanted my line, with access speeds independent of what my neighbour does ! But if cable gives me 3 times the speed, than f*** that, how many neighbours do I have to have to get down to the DSL pathetic speed ??

And I pay $52 a month ....

Anyhow, my building is rewiring fro digital cable, here I come Time Warner !

ok, thx for the info,
giovanni
 
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