Serious internet hanging - NETServer?

[JNB]

Here's the problem.

MacBook 2.16, just upgraded to 10.5.3, experiencing massive hangs in all my browsers (including IE & Firefox in Windows using VMWare) when loading almost any page (but downloads seem to breeze along--the 10.5.3 d/l came in at over 1.6MB/sec).

The symptom is the page will start to load, then beach ball with a progress shown as "26 of 27 items loaded," or similar reports of one or two elements just not passing. Some of the time, the page will finish with graphic elements missing, others it'll just time out.

What I've checked: Wired & wireless through Airport Extreme and wired directly to the cable modem. DNS is fine, just grabbing my provider (ph.cox.net). One issue I have seen is when this happens, a look in Activity Monitor shows the NETServer process not responding. Using my G5 iMac wired has not had fewer problems but just loading this Post New Thread page brought up 20 errors.

I'm haven't lately installed or used any apps or utilities that would be reasonably expected to clobber it so suddenly & completely. Cables, phone, electrical, all the other local environment factors haven't altered in months.
Everything's been rebooted and settings inspected a dozen times, but I'm at a loss, even looking to Archive & Install just to see if I've gotten some unexpected clutter or corruption. If that doesn't resolve it, I can restore from the SuperDuper! clone to bring me back to this morning's configuration.

The common factors: 10.5.3 on both machines, the Airport Extreme (but I think I've eliminated that), the cable modem (LinkSys BEFCMU10), and the ISP (Cox).

Any good guesses?

 

[bacaramac]

Hi my friend, I was on the phone with Apple today for 4 hours. Basically it appears that 10.5.3 has broken something. I have serious hangs (MR is really bad). I have to refresh 5-6 times to get pages to load. The first rep said it is too early for Apple to identify the issue, but said he came in today and was advised there appears to be an issue with this. He said calls are just now starting to come in.

I am also unable to use iPhoto web gallery, iWeb or iDisk (all return network errors). The tier 2 person I got to is sending me some app via email to pull data and then send it off the engineers for Monday review (they don't work weekends). My only option is to restore back to 10.5.2.

Can't wait.

Connectivity is perfect (as verified by Apple), so it is definitely something in the way 10.5.3 is handling network related items. Didn't 10.5.3 update something with networking? Hmmm, guess I will have to wait for Apple to get back to me.

My brother's macbook is doing the same thing (same web pages hang), at least he doesn't need .Mac services like I do.

 

[G-Com]

I'm having no problems.

Have you tried Firefox?

 

[gmanterry]

I have two out of three.

I upgraded to 10.5.3 and i have Cox. I have the same problems. Suddenly my MBP just won't load a page. I have tried both Safari and FireFox with the same results. Hope someone figures out what the fix is.

 

[JNB]

I downgraded to 10.5.0, still mostly the same issues on the MB. I'm beginning to narrow it down to Cox (Phoenix) or my cable modem. With the storms we had this month and the general state of the drops near property lines, I think a call to Cox may be in order.

It's actually improved to near-normal again, but I know there'll be issues later, and I'm going to be out of town all week. Carajo!

 

[gmanterry]

Cox?? Phoenix??

I downgraded to 10.5.0, still mostly the same issues on the MB. I'm beginning to narrow it down to Cox (Phoenix) or my cable modem. With the storms we had this month and the general state of the drops near property lines, I think a call to Cox may be in order.

It's actually improved to near-normal again, but I know there'll be issues later, and I'm going to be out of town all week. Carajo!

That's interesting as I just tested my G5 and a couple of my G4s and they suffer too. I think you're right. It is more likely Cox than OS X. Mine is better now too. I just was able to get my Earthlink web mail. The first time today. I am also in Phoenix with Cox.

 

[bacaramac]

Cox Phoenix here. Now it is working. I unhooked and rebooted everything one final time and all the sudden it works. Sorry Apple, not your fault.

 

[JNB]

Late last evening all was mostly normal. I'm beginning to think that Cox was the culprit myself (and naturally I'm in Pittsburgh for the week). Cox's site is woefully inadequate for being detailed with network problems, which admittedly, are rare enough.

Gonna stay rolled back to 10.5.2 for a while, though, not good timing to play OS games. I have enough of those virtualized now, just having added Win2K3 Server & Oracle 11 in a VM, then on the original Windows VM, a HUGE video surveillance app on SQL to go along with the Oracle 9 db there. I need a new drive!