Slow Mac and ISP

[jashtiani]

I bought a 27'' iMac last July that had 4GB of RAM installed, it also has a core i5 processor. Now, it is running really slow. When I just run 2 programs at a time it is slow at times too. Could you explain the changes that I will be seeing with RAM, a SSD or another alternative?

In addition, my internet connection at my house is around 1.2-1.3 Mbps. I have 4 computers in the house and 2 smartphones, but the point is that the internet is painfully slow, and if I even want to watch a 4 minute video, it starts and stops for buffering many times during the video. My ISP is AT&T and they only provide this internet speed to my neighborhood. Comcast provides another internet speed but Comcast has had a ton of complaints from my neighbors, and I don't want to go that route. How could I fix the internet speed without changing the ISP? How could I go about getting another ISP in the neighborhood? How does that work?

Please Help!!

 

[GGJstudios]

I bought a 27'' iMac last July that had 4GB of RAM installed, it also has a core i5 processor. Now, it is running really slow. When I just run 2 programs at a time it is slow at times too. Could you explain the changes that I will be seeing with RAM, a SSD or another alternative?

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the whole Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

My ISP is AT&T and they only provide this internet speed to my neighborhood. Comcast provides another internet speed but Comcast has had a ton of complaints from my neighbors, and I don't want to go that route. How could I fix the internet speed without changing the ISP?

If you haven't already done so, try changing your DNS servers on your Mac and your router to OpenDNS servers. This will show you how: Why am I being redirected to other sites?

Also, check your actual speed using www.speedtest.net

 

[jashtiani]

I changed the DNS, the photos are attached, and here is the actual speed.

2.05 Mbps Download
0.24 Mbps Upload

 

[GGJstudios]

I changed the DNS, the photos are attached,

Nothing jumps out as being a resource hog on the list. How long since your last restart? You do show some paging activity. To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

and here is the actual speed.

2.05 Mbps Download
0.24 Mbps Upload

Dismal! Mine aren't that great, but I get 21-25 Mbps download and 3-4 Mbps upload.

 

[jashtiani]

My ISP is AT&T and they only provide this internet speed to my neighborhood. Comcast provides another internet speed but Comcast has had a ton of complaints from my neighbors, and I don't want to go that route. How could I fix the internet speed without changing the ISP? How could I go about getting another ISP in the neighborhood? How does that work?

Do you have any answers for the rest of the question?

How could I get my internet speed up?

 

[GGJstudios]

Do you have any answers for the rest of the question?

How could I get my internet speed up?

You can't make it faster than the service they provide. You could switch to another ISP or check with your current one to see if they have a faster service option available.

 

[jashtiani]

As I mentioned in my post, that is the only speed available. Do you know of a way to get another ISP into the neighborhood?

 

[GGJstudios]

As I mentioned in my post, that is the only speed available. Do you know of a way to get another ISP into the neighborhood?

You'd just have to contact other ISPs and ask them. That would be a very long process, taking months or years. Comcast would be much faster than what you have, despite the neighbors' complaints.

 

[jashtiani]

The page outs are 1.66 GB, so if I were to buy 8 GB of RAM, how much of an improvement would I see? Is there anyway to tell?

 

[GGJstudios]

The page outs are 1.66 GB, so if I were to buy 8 GB of RAM, how much of an improvement would I see? Is there anyway to tell?

Read post #4 again. You need to restart your Mac and track page outs under normal workload.