Why is Mac internet browsing so ssslllooowwwwwww

[mtoddy]

I love my MacBook Pro.

But I often find myself walking to my home office to use my Windows machine instead when on websites with lots of intense content. For example, on MySpace people load up their profiles with LOTS of junk and those profiles become basically innavigable on my Mac, while on my slower Windows machine (slower by hardware) the sites load quickly and I can scroll and fly through them no problem.

What gives? Can I allot more power to Safari than it currently uses? I'm sick of not being able to browse parts of the internet as the beach ball takes over my screen.

Oh, and Firefox and Camino are even slower.

Any information you have is appreciated!

 

[theman5725]

That's wierd. On my Macbook everything still goes nice and fast. I don't realy know what u should do.

 

[steelphantom]

I love my MacBook Pro.

But I often find myself walking to my home office to use my Windows machine instead when on websites with lots of intense content. For example, on MySpace people load up their profiles with LOTS of junk and those profiles become basically innavigable on my Mac, while on my slower Windows machine (slower by hardware) the sites load quickly and I can scroll and fly through them no problem.

What gives? Can I allot more power to Safari than it currently uses? I'm sick of not being able to browse parts of the internet as the beach ball takes over my screen.

Oh, and Firefox and Camino are even slower.

Any information you have is appreciated!

Many Myspace sites are browser killers on the Mac. Is it mainly junky Myspace sites causing the problem? If so, that's normal.

 

[mtoddy]

Many Myspace sites are browser killers on the Mac. Is it mainly junky Myspace sites causing the problem? If so, that's normal.

I also notice that pages that are comprised of something like a giant Flash applet slow it down dramatically. These are things that just run so much smoother on Firefox/IE in Windows.

And by the way, Myspace being a Mac browser killer is no good excuse for Apple. I believe MySpace was recently named the most visited site daily in the country. With a statistic like that, Apple should have a browser that runs well on that site.

 

[maxrobertson]

uh... it's not...

Sorry, but if you want slow, try the PC I'm using. I'm just aching to use my 350 Mhz iMac and this thing's from '03!

 

[mtoddy]

uh... it's not...

Sorry, but if you want slow, try the PC I'm using. I'm just aching to use my 350 Mhz iMac and this thing's from '03!

Ok well if I boot this same MacBook Pro in Windows, it'll FLY on every page I take it to. I'm comparing with modern equipment here.

 

[Rend It]

I love my MacBook Pro.

But I often find myself walking to my home office to use my Windows machine instead when on websites with lots of intense content. For example, on MySpace people load up their profiles with LOTS of junk and those profiles become basically innavigable on my Mac, while on my slower Windows machine (slower by hardware) the sites load quickly and I can scroll and fly through them no problem.

What gives? Can I allot more power to Safari than it currently uses? I'm sick of not being able to browse parts of the internet as the beach ball takes over my screen.

Oh, and Firefox and Camino are even slower.

Any information you have is appreciated!

There are more qualified people in these forums to answer this question, but I think that it comes down to a difference in the way that the different browsers (or OSs) work: If I recall correctly, Safari (Mac OSX) likes to wait until all the information is loaded before displaying the page. Internet Explorer (Windows) loads the page as the info becomes available (incrementally). Sorry I can't remember whether the dependence is on the browser or the OS. Try searching the MacRumors forum archive for more info.

You didn't mention what browser you're using in Windows, but it could also be that the pages are encoded specially for Internet Explorer. Have you compared speeds using Firefox on both platforms? Finally, if just about everything else is equal (same internet connection and browser) it may be that you actually have a problem with the network interface on your MBP. Contact AppleCare.

 

[mtoddy]

There are more qualified people in these forums to answer this question, but I think that it comes down to a difference in the way that the different browsers (or OSs) work: If I recall correctly, Safari (Mac OSX) likes to wait until all the information is loaded before displaying the page. Internet Explorer (Windows) loads the page as the info becomes available (incrementally). Sorry I can't remember whether the dependence is on the browser or the OS. Try searching the MacRumors forum archive for more info.

You didn't mention what browser you're using in Windows, but it could also be that the pages are encoded specially for Internet Explorer. Have you compared speeds using Firefox on both platforms? Finally, if just about everything else is equal (same internet connection and browser) it may be that you actually have a problem with the network interface on your MBP. Contact AppleCare.

Using Firefox on both systems, Firefox is virtually unusable on some of these pages on Mac. They fly on Windows.

Here's an example of one that is slow and makes the fans in my MacBook Pro start spinning:
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

 

[pianoman]

safari is not a good browser. it does not load pages quickly and it freezes often. of course, this all comes from my experience with it.

i use the camino browser - from the mozilla group (the same people who make firefox). i would recommend downloading it and using it unless it is necessary to use safari (never have i had to use safari). people often debate whether it really is faster or whether it has to do with internet speed/hardware/etc. but i think this is worth a shot.

 

[mtoddy]

safari is not a good browser. it does not load pages quickly and it freezes often. of course, this all comes from my experience with it.

i use the camino browser - from the mozilla group (the same people who make firefox). i would recommend downloading it and using it unless it is necessary to use safari (never have i had to use safari). people often debate whether it really is faster or whether it has to do with internet speed/hardware/etc. but i think this is worth a shot.

Can you please try this sample page and let me know how it runs in Camino? I've found Camino to be as slow as the others.
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

 

[SteveRichardson]

Using Firefox on both systems, Firefox is virtually unusable on some of these pages on Mac. They fly on Windows.

Here's an example of one that is slow and makes the fans in my MacBook Pro start spinning:
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

OMG that site you posted the link to is probably one of the ugliest things I've seen in a while. But It loaded perfectly fine on my 800Mhz iBook.

Then again, I stopped using myspace months ago.

*disgust*

 

[mtoddy]

OMG that site you posted the link to is probably one of the ugliest things I've seen in a while. But It loaded perfectly fine on my 800Mhz iBook.

Then again, I stopped using myspace months ago.

*disgust*

lol sorry to disappoint you... i did a random browse and that was the first one that really didn't run well on my computer

 

[SteveRichardson]

lol sorry to disappoint you... i did a random browse and that was the first one that really didn't run well on my computer

That's okay. Just don't tell the guy who made it...

because he blows.

 

[Rend It]

Using Firefox on both systems, Firefox is virtually unusable on some of these pages on Mac. They fly on Windows.

Here's an example of one that is slow and makes the fans in my MacBook Pro start spinning:
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

Loading that myspace page in Safari only took a few seconds on my Powerbook G4 1.25GHz. How much RAM do you have?

 

[ham_man]

I also notice that pages that are comprised of something like a giant Flash applet slow it down dramatically. These are things that just run so much smoother on Firefox/IE in Windows.

And by the way, Myspace being a Mac browser killer is no good excuse for Apple. I believe MySpace was recently named the most visited site daily in the country. With a statistic like that, Apple should have a browser that runs well on that site.

Why should Apple lower its standards? Shouldn't others (i.e. MySpace) up their's...?

 

[mduser63]

Can you please try this sample page and let me know how it runs in Camino? I've found Camino to be as slow as the others.
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

I run Camino as my main browser right now. That page loaded fine, although I think I'm partially blind from looking at it now. Anyway, I did notice a little bit of stuttering when scrolling past the Flash videos, but the rest of the page scrolled fine, and the original render was as fast as I would expect. I'm using the iMac in my signature (2.0 GHz CD).

 

[KingYaba]

Using Firefox on both systems, Firefox is virtually unusable on some of these pages on Mac. They fly on Windows.

Here's an example of one that is slow and makes the fans in my MacBook Pro start spinning:
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

That is a huge reason why I hate myspace. People put so much dribble on there with absolute no importance.

Anyway about your web issues. You might want to use SafariSpeed Link to download It's cut down on display loading times to a noticeable level. But I doubt it will solve your myspace issues.

 

[Coolnat2004]

Safari does NOT like the transparency used on some myspace profiles (like the one you linked to). Scrolling is very slow and unresponsive when they do that.

 

[Powerbook G5]

It loaded in seconds on my PowerBook. I don't have a super slick fast MacBook like you guys. I just have a 1.25 GHz G4 with 512 megs RAM. I use Safari, too. Perhaps it's your connection or the way your network is setup? I have a 8 Mbps cable modem connected to a linksys router and then hooked up to an AirPort Express.

 

[KingYaba]

I'm on my Pismo and that took quite a while to load. Forget scrolling down.

 

[FredClausen]

The issue is the quality of the flash plugins. It seems to me that any flash page is abnormally slow, relative to using other plugins while browsing.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Can you please try this sample page and let me know how it runs in Camino? I've found Camino to be as slow as the others.
http://www.myspace.com/86225654

I did a little testing and Netscape 7.2 for Mac OSX was the only one that loaded that page fast without taking the browser down. I don't use Netscape often but it seems to be the only Mac browser that works well for me on myspace.com. It has to run in Rosetta because they have not released a univeral one yet. My guess is version 8 will be universal. Give it a try, it works pretty well on my Intel iMac see if it works on your MBP.

 

[MisterMe]

safari is not a good browser. it does not load pages quickly and it freezes often. of course, this all comes from my experience with it.

...

There is no browser on any platform that is more standards-compliant than Safari. In addition to following W3C standards, it does what a browser is supposed to do--it browses the World Wide Web.

As for MySpace.com, it is a Microsoft shop. The tools provided by the site for its pimply-faced users are notorious for their non-standard HTML code. However, the problem with the posted link is not so much bad HTML as it is that the site's owner never heard the saying: Less is more.

 

[yarngrrl]

I was having incredibly slow internet problems as well that seem to have manifested after 10.4.5 maybe? Didn't matter the browser, my mail and iTunes were also slow, but the PC in the house was fine.

After some research, I changed the IPv6 settings, which helped a tiny bit, dumped the Safari history and prefs, and a few other tweaks others recommended. Still crawling like dial up. Then I specified my ISP's DNS servers. I am back to lightning speed. You may want to try that. Hopefully, that will work for you.

I have also read that some brands of routers are not the best at communicating with OS X. You may want to upgrade your router's firmware if you are using one.

 

[yojitani]

just to say that I have not been able to get that horrendous page to load in more than about 2 seconds.
Seriously, page loads quickly in a PB 1.67 using wireless and on my PM dual 1.8 - both on firefox. Windows was a tad slower (the 2.4 P4 in my sig). Now, from the intels I've seen, page rendering is superfast. So I'm guessing that some other factor is choking up your machine... have you got something running that might be using some of your upload bandwidth? I find that even though browsing is downstream, if i'm running bittorrent (seeding) the whole experience is a crawl.

yt