Ultra slow internet on Macbook Pro Retina 15" running Mavericks

[icymountain]

First, I am not sure the problem is the Laptop, or the OS.

I have a 15" Retina Macbook Pro (2013) that has been getting slower and slower when accessing websites, whatever the browser (I usually use Chrome and Safari). I am using Wifi.

This is getting annoying, to the point where I sometimes need to either restart the Wifi or the laptop itself. I think it appeared gradually but I am 99% sure it was not there before the upgrade to Mavericks.
I made comparisons with other laptops (I also have an old 15" MBP I am using to type this message, and an iPad Air; both work much much better).

Is there any known issue I should look for ?

Thanks.

 

[MacInTO]

Malware? I had that on my 2012 rMBP. I did a clean install and my worries were over.

 

[icymountain]

Yeah, I am thinking about a clean reinstall as well, but that will take me quite a bit of time, and if there was a way to avoid it, I would be glad to.

 

[MacInTO]

You can try to remove all of the non mainstream software that you've loaded from your machine manually. However, this won't get it all, because sometime when you open a package, it installs other objects that could be part of the problem. You'll probably spend more time doing this than the reload would take.

 

[icymountain]

In that case, I would do a clean install for sure.

Though, the problem occurs only on Wifi, and not on Ethernet. To me that would make Maleware less likely, and issues with Hardware drivers more likely.

 

[MacInTO]

I thought of something else.

Did you ever check the speed of what your network card was working at? Maybe you have a bad card?

 

[icymountain]

This issue is rather painful to investigate as it is not a "work / does not work" kind of thing, but more a question of time (or maybe, even just latency).

After I reboot, the machine behaves much more normally. After a few days of use, it starts to lag more and more. So the fact that it behaves more normally shortly after startup would make me rule out a purely hardware issue.

I have been thinking of upgrading to Yosemite beta, just to see. In the worst case, I will just have to re-install it all, as we discussed. I will see if I have time tonight.