Why is the internet on my mac so slow?

[Drodrey]

I have an aluminium macbook that I got just over a year ago. Internet was fine until about a month ago. Now it's completely sporadic. Sometimes it takes a second to load a page, sometimes it takes 5 minutes. Without rhyme or reason. I can open a page I've been loading for ages in a new tab and it will load straight away. We have three other computers (pc's) on the network and they're all completely fine.

I've done speed tests. They've ranged from 13kb/s to 2mb/s. It is ridiculously annoying and I have no idea what to do. I don't know why it's changed, I haven't changed any settings. Everything else, word, itunes etc. runs fine. I asked this a couple of weeks ago with no result, hopefully someone will be able to help me out now.

 

[tonyburkhart]

Just to double check.

The same speed tests on the other computers are consistent?

 

[spice weasel]

Check your router and modem first. Chances are, one or both are the culprit. Just power cycle each of them and see if that clears it up.

 

[yayitsezekiel]

Check your router and modem first. Chances are, one or both are the culprit. Just power cycle each of them and see if that clears it up.

same thing happened to me, and i have an aluminum macbook pro. reset the cable modem and the wireless router and it went from .83 mb/s download to 14 mb/s

 

[sanPietro98]

Is this wireless networking? If so, are all your devices (computers, iPhones, Apple TVs) using the same protocol (802.11b vs 802.11g vs 802.11n)? With some routers, mixing these protocols can cause one or more to seriously drop down in speed.

Have you added any new device to your network since this started?

 

[Drodrey]

Ok sorry it took so long to reply, it takes about half an hour to first google macrumors, login, find my past posts, load this one and get to the reply page.

When I reset the router it fixes it up for about five minutes. Well it goes from being unbearably slow to just average, but the internet connection should be fast really. But it gets annoying to get up and reset the router every five minutes. Plus anyone else using a computer gets annoyed, because it stops them.

And @SanPietro 98... probably stupid but what's protocol? I'm ok at some parts of computers but when it comes to networking I'm a complete noob so treat me like an idiot.

And yes, we have added a new device, and I *think* it coincides with the problem. It might not though. We got a new toshiba laptop at christmas. For some reason it wouldn't connect to the internet when we had a password protecting our wifi so we changed that, and we're getting a new router this week (hopefully that will fix my problem too). And yeah, since around then my laptop has been slow...

 

[Archon Gold]

Have you tried using a different device on your network?

It may not be the computer, modem, or router.

I've learned recently that the cable (looks like a standard TV cable) that connects from your ISP to your modem may be the culprit.

When your ISP (in my case, Rogers) installs your network connection, they use a very special cable that from the outside, looks just like a normal TV cable, but it actually uses a special foam core with metal sheathing to make it a two-way cable as normal TV cables are only one-way.

I was trying to fix the same problem at my Grandmother's house (Mac user aswell ) and even when I brought over my MacBook, Or my father's Toshiba laptop, it would take ages to load. I tried bypassing the router, bypassing the splitter (installed by rogers) and to no avail.

I called up Rogers and they dispatched a technician to inspect our connection. It turns out that my Grandfather added a long, non rogers, normal TV cable to extend the modem across the room so that they could move their Mac, this turned out to be the problem and the technician replaced the cable with a Rogers cable for free and presto, the internet was working again.

Even though the normal TV cable method works fine right when it is installed, it will dwindle over the course of time.

 

[tonyburkhart]

Have you tried using a different device on your network?

It may not be the computer, modem, or router.

I've learned recently that the cable (looks like a standard TV cable) that connects from your ISP to your modem may be the culprit.

When your ISP (in my case, Rogers) installs your network connection, they use a very special cable that from the outside, looks just like a normal TV cable, but it actually uses a special foam core with metal sheathing to make it a two-way cable as normal TV cables are only one-way.

I was trying to fix the same problem at my Grandmother's house (Mac user aswell ) and even when I brought over my MacBook, Or my father's Toshiba laptop, it would take ages to load. I tried bypassing the router, bypassing the splitter (installed by rogers) and to no avail.

I called up Rogers and they dispatched a technician to inspect our connection. It turns out that my Grandfather added a long, non rogers, normal TV cable to extend the modem across the room so that they could move their Mac, this turned out to be the problem and the technician replaced the cable with a Rogers cable for free and presto, the internet was working again.

Even though the normal TV cable method works fine right when it is installed, it will dwindle over the course of time.

Nothing special about it, he was probably using an older Coaxial cable. Most likely classified as RG-59, which the technician probably replaced with RG-6. Might not be a bad idea in your case... depending upon the cable coming into the MoDem.

Read up a bit, if you want to familiarize yourself with the differences : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable#Standards

love the wiki's

 

[Drodrey]

Have you tried using a different device on your network?

Yeah... we have four other computers on the network all working fine.

We've been having issues with our internet for a few months, we called out optus and now it's only my computer experiencing the problems. I'm going to take it to my friends house tomorrow and see whether my computer is slow on a different network.