[meagain]

My new computer is barely functioning. The ONLY thing that I'm running is a torrent. And this forum is open of course. Unless there's other things running that I don't know about, I feel the torrent download shouldn't be causing this trouble. Because I'm running the torrent, I can't shut down the computer at this point (at least I don't know how to and fear risking losing my torrent).

Do Macs work like PC's in that they constantly need their cache/temp files, etc. cleaned out constantly? If so, I'm unclear as to where/how this should be done. Or - would anyone offer a suggestion as to where I can look for what the problem is? Like..... for this 'post new thread' page, the little smilies at the right took forever to pop up. My gut says I need to do something but darned if I know what should be done. Core 2 duo, 1gb ram

[hookem2oo7]

what kind of internet connection are you on?

[meagain]

Gah! You wouldn't believe how long it took to refresh this page.
I have cable and the other computer's internet seems fine. It's this computer. I've searched around the net a bit but seem to only stumble into places selling some type of Mac cleanup dealie and I didn't want to rampantly download apps, etc. without the advise from here.

[CharlesS]

Sounds like something's messed up with your Mac. What I would do would be to open up Activity Monitor (it's in the Utilities folder) and see what process is using the most CPU time. Also, you should check the "System Memory" tab and see if there's an abnormally high number of pageouts.

[lpkmckenna]

Activity Monitor. Review your running apps.
EDIT: Charles beat me.

[larrinski]

Definately sounds like something wrong with your Mac. If your Torrent isn't REALLY important, I would recommend a reboot. As for you question about constant temp file cleaning, you don't need that very often on a Mac. I would recommend Onyx to do a clean up, but if your machine is fairly new(which it sounds like it is), then first try a reboot.

[hookem2oo7]

what program are you using for downloading torrents? the java based clients can bring the fastest machine to its knees...

[King Bob On The Cob]

Xtorrent. Torrents for Mac OS X.

Doesn't have all the features of Az or some other bit torrent applications, but it works amazing for the stuff it does do.

[larrinski]

I use transmission. It works well on my Powerbook and intel imac. No slowdowns here...you should really install menu meters to get a better understanding of what is slowing you down, if RAM useage is up etc... Activity monitor will do the same thing but isn't sitting in your menu bar.

[meagain]

Seems the most draw is the one Firefox open. 2.7% cpu percent, 142mb real memory. My torrent program running is 2.9% 127mb. A few are 18.34 and drops down after that.
Once I figure out if I can stop/resume my torrent, I can shut down, but it's been going for a day now and I'm 65% done. I'm using Azureus.

Any way to do a manual cleanup? Or is that a waste of time for a 1 week old computer.

[meagain]

Under 'System Memory'
Wired: 157mb
Active: 538
Inactive: 317mb
Used: 1,013
Free: 10.59mb
VM size 8.31gb
page in/outs: 4174078/1639027

[larrinski]

I don't see anything wrong there, but not an expert here. Those stats are comparable to my machine right now. A clean up on a week old machine is definately not the fix here. I do a clean up once every 9-12 months...Maybe some other imput from others may bring some results. But try the reboot... I don't run firefox, but I hear it is a resource hog.

[meagain]

Ånyone know what "Kernel_task" is? That's a big one also.

[crazyjohnson]

Is your computer slow or you internet?

As some have already mentioned torrent programs can sometimes hog a lot of resources (memory) and bandwidth. Your torrent program could be causing both your computer and internet to be slow.

Quit your torrent program and restart the computer. You can always restart and resume your download later. If you still have problems then it is something other than the torrent program.

If it is your torrent program then I would suggest Bits on Wheels.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by meagain 

Gah! You wouldn't believe how long it took to refresh this page.
I have cable and the other computer's internet seems fine. It's this computer. I've searched around the net a bit but seem to only stumble into places selling some type of Mac cleanup dealie and I didn't want to rampantly download apps, etc. without the advise from here.

[kmkkid]

You are most likely maxing out your upload bandwidth in the Torrent program, which also affects your downloading of web pages/dns lookup.

Try one of the following:

1. Limit your upload bandwidth - all torrent programs have this option.
2. Stop using torrent programs.
3. Learn how to use a computer and stop blaming everything on OS X.

[TheoCryst]

Originally Posted by kmkkid 

Learn how to use a computer and stop blaming everything on OS X.

Chill out a bit, k? He's just asking a question, no need to get defensive.

meagain, it definitely sounds like your torrent program is sapping your bandwidth, bringing your internet connection to its knees. If you're running Azureus, then you should be fine to quit it and pick up where you left off later. But just for fun, why don't you post your current total upload/download speeds in Azureus at the moment? And then feel free to limit your upload/download speeds.

And personally, I suggest you check out Transmission for future torrents. It's quite a bit lighter and faster than Azureus, as it uses native Cocoa drawing instead of Java (which is slower on any system, generally speaking).

[kmkkid]

Originally Posted by TheoCryst 

Chill out a bit, k? He's just asking a question, no need to get defensive.

Have you read his other threads? He's a switcher who doesn't want to switch, and all he does is complain about it.

[larrinski]

Originally Posted by kmkkid 

Have you read his other threads? He's a switcher who doesn't want to switch, and all he does is complain about it.

It really doesn't matter now does it... The more someone feels welcomed, the more they are willing to stay. It can be tough switching for some people... We can't all start out as geeks...geeks of course being a good thing

[meagain]

kmkkid - in a post you made a couple years ago, you stated you've been a pc user for 3 years. I've been using them since they came OUT! As it is, the OS is flawed and archaic in some ways and if you don't realize it - you're in denial.

[kmkkid]

Originally Posted by meagain 

kmkkid - in a post you made a couple years ago, you stated you've been a pc user for 3 years. I've been using them since they came OUT! As it is, the OS is flawed and archaic in some ways and if you don't realize it - you're in denial.

I've been a PC user for about 15 years.

I have Vista installed on my iMac. I'm not saying OS X is perfect but FFS quit your whining just because OS X isn't a carbon copy of windows.

[meagain]

uh.... ok, cuz in 2002, you said you've been a pc user for 3 years.
OK - I'll stop wanting it to be a carbon copy of xp. I've already learned the os is inferior in function to xp so I've adjusted my expectations.

[crazyjohnson]

Watch yourself. You have a lot of people being very patient and helping you.

Right now you are being a troll plain and simple. Let's all get back on track or else we should just lock the thread now.

Originally Posted by meagain 

I've already learned the os is inferior in function to xp so I've adjusted my expectations.

[kmkkid]

Originally Posted by meagain 

uh.... ok, cuz in 2002, you said you've been a pc user for 3 years.
OK - I'll stop wanting it to be a carbon copy of xp. I've already learned the os is inferior in function to xp so I've adjusted my expectations.

I searched my posts and the farthest they even go back is 2005. I've been using PC's before windows 95 was even out. Anyways this is irrelevant to you being a troll.

[meagain]

http://forums.macnn.com/58/imac-emac...s-on-new-imac/

[kmkkid]

Originally Posted by meagain 

http://forums.macnn.com/58/imac-emac...s-on-new-imac/

I don't know what I was thinking when posting that but I have used windows since at least the windows 95 days.

Again this isn't relevant, and I'm not going to lie about how long I've used a PC for .

In fact I'm embarrassed at some of the apologetic windows posts I've made in the past.

Point is, at least I switched and didn't bitch about every little differentiating factor between windows and OS X then say OS X is inferior, simply because I was too lazy/impatient to learn the OS.

[meagain]

Sorry, didn't think posting about flaws (which has nothing to do with windows, but simple common sense) was against the rules. My bad. I do appreciate and already thanked those that were Helpful elsewhere. I didn't realize before posting that this place wasn't very friendly to newbies.

[kmkkid]

It is friendly when you don't insult the OS you're asking help about.

[TheoCryst]

Look meagain, we all honestly want to help and are generally very friendly to newbies. But you are definitely being rude and a troll, and something tells me you are 100% aware. If you need help, you ask for help. I offered realistic and valid suggestions, and from the look of things you're more interested in complaining than in getting help. So if you want help, just take it back a notch, and we'll help. But do it without whining; you'll get much better results that way.

Oh, and sorry kmkkid. I changed my mind about your comment... nowhere near as inappropriate as I thought.

[King Bob On The Cob]

Apple's OS does make sense you troll.

Just read through this, in it's entirety, and you will have an appreciation for the OS and the thought that went into it.

Apple Human Interface Guidelines: Introduction to Apple Human Interface Guidelines

[crazyjohnson]

Just because you are more accustomed to Windows doesn't mean that Mac OS is junk. It isn't Windows so don't expect it to act like it. Give it a chance before you pass judgement.

[scotth_uk]

Originally Posted by meagain 

My new computer is barely functioning......

Meagain,

Torrents and their client software are an incredibly simple way to bring a machine to its knees, however many people don't understand why.

If you consider that a functioning torrent is a combination of the following:
1. The torrent application or client
2. The operating system running the application/client.
3. The router/modem that you use to connect to the internet.
4. The internet
5. The cloud of torrent users.

I typically find that most torrent issues happen somewhere between 1 and 3.

1. Torrent applications are quite demanding pieces of software, and I have personally experienced issues on OSX where particular versions of Azureus were very unco-operative on specific versions of OSX. Best to be sure that your application is a known worker on the version of OSX that you are on, although I am sure that you already have this covered.

2. The operating system that runs the torrent application or client is also having to track very high numbers of inbound and outbound connections. Much greater numbers of connections than for a simple ip application such as a chat client or a web browser. If you still have a windows box - run a 'netstat -a' command while a torrent is downloading and check out the size of the list. Compare it to the output of the same command, BEFORE loading the Torrent app, straight after booting up.

3. Your home router or modem will most likely be consider a low end device in the scheme of networking equipment, when compared to the robust product offerings such as Cisco, etc. Typically, home and small business devices are not traditionally built to support enormous amounts of NAT entries. On something like a Cisco router, you can typically fine tune the age-out times of NAT entries, the amount of RAM available to the NAT process overall, etc.

A combination of the above issues, or even one is isolation may render your machine next to useless. When then considered in conjunction with other networking services such as DNS, I am sure that you'll agree that it's not always immediately apparent what's causing an issue. You may even find that closing down the Torrent application makes no difference - most likely because other actual issues are not yet cleared yet - NAT tables overloaded, etc.

A suggestion would be to boot the machine and confirm that everything is working just fine before loading a torrent app, and systematically introducing component steps until the issues re-appear. You should then be in a position to isolate the cause of the fault by working backwards.

I've not yet met a machine that wouldn't run a Torrent app properly, but many have needed some close attention to find the weak point. Right now I'd say it's the version or settings of your torrent application, coupled with some aspects of your modem/router.

Scott

PS - The Mac's OS is unlikely to be the source of your issues, as it's a robust, proven technology based on an industry standard. Don't get me wrong, I have enormous respect for Windows (I have worked on every single version including such temporary oddities at Windows 97), but feel that OSX is the next evolutionary step in computing.

[Switched to OSX in 2005 after 19 years of PC use]

[meagain]

Scott - Thanks. I'll read this in more depth when I can sit down for a while. The thing is though, the computer was running slow after the torrent was done, removed, and shut down. Then when I restarted, everything was fine - so I've no clue what was going on.

I just have what some would consider minor irritations, but to me they are big as the irritations affect procedures I need to do a million times a day. The last thing that's an intermittant issue is not being able to type/select/etc. in a google, address bar. I figured it was a Firefox thing as I've read this happening to others, but it's affected Safari and even Mail. This happens about twice a day. Even when I was on the phone with Support. Totally gets hung up even when there's one net window open with mail, etc. I'll probably be taking it in for a check (tho' trying to avoid hauling it around as the store is in a goofy location that necessitates a long walk/stairs through crowds outside). If I had a MacBook, I'd be there right now.

[Sbtrfuge]

I think the problem is probably the intelligence of the user.

[meagain]

See?

[scotth_uk]

Originally Posted by meagain 

Scott - Thanks. I'll read this in more depth when I can sit down for a while. The thing is though, the computer was running slow after the torrent was done, removed, and shut down. Then when I restarted, everything was fine - so I've no clue what was going on.

Meagain, sounds to me like you are experiencing a problem that I have seen before.

When a torrent is finished downloading, and the torrent client software is shut down, your router/modem will still have an overloaded NAT table (A list of all of the people that you were connecting to, and people that were connecting to you. Some devices can only handle a list of 512 to 1024). Typically, the router will hold on to these entries for a particular period of time (probably 24 hours) , before releasing them. Until the entries 'age out' you'll find that the internet will go like a complete dog. The only thing you can do is reboot the router/modem, and for good measure the Mac as well. Once you've restarted the systems, the problem will definitely disappear immediately.

A quick search at Google, shows that plenty of people are suffering from this type of issue: torrent nat table - Google Search

Prior to P2P/Torrents, this particular issue wasn't often observed in the home environment, as there were very few people using appications capable of overloading the tables.

If you can provide the make and model of the router/modem, I can look up the size of it's table and recommend some advanced settings for your Torrent client that ought to help out.

[pyrite]

torrent has always been a resource hog, especially using java-based clients like azureus. nothing to do with OSX or mac

[meagain]

Scott - Interesting. I would have never thought that AFTER shutting off the torrent, closing the program, etc. that 'something' would still be going on with it as you say. Even after a few hours.

My modem is: Motorola sb5101 surfboard
Router: Netgear RangeMax 240 wpnt834

[ophiochos]

I run Bittorrent mainline 24/7 and reboot once every three months or so. Try using Mainline, I had problems with most of the ones mentioned. What is happening on your machine is odd, and unusual.

On etiquette, please note (everyone) that coming here for the first time and seeing trolling accusations and apparently irrelevant accusations is disquietening. If someone is a troll, it's surely best to ignore them. Other people do not decide our conduct. If I was a switcher and saw this page first, I would leave. Let's play nice if we post, huh? And it's not just the original poster you're speaking to, so even if you think it's a troll, maybe post a brief fix and someone else might be glad of it.

My thoughts for a happy community.

[ophiochos]

PS on the other issues, try repairing permissions (I have found them wonky on a fresh install).