[deedar]

I have a MB Pro 2.16ghz core2duo running OSX10.58 and am using an AP Extreme as my WAP for Comcast high speed. First thing in the am, pages load super-fast for the first couple of minutes then the thing bogs down and it seems like it takes forever to load a page. Every now and then, things are faster, but after the first few pages of the day, things are typically slow. With ethernet, things are consistently fast. Obviously I'm not a super-technical, but I am not retarded either. Any suggrstions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[kangbroke]

Comcast is slow here on the east coast too. I even upgraded recently, Id turn off wireless, Wireless usally tends to be slower here.

[Cold Warrior]

flush your dns cache then set up your MBP to use OpenDNS.

dscacheutil -flushcache in Terminal.

Many ISPs have relatively slow dns servers, which often explain members' slow Internet browsing.

For a raw look at your bandwidth, visit speedtest.net and run it with several nearby locations to let us know what your overall speeds are.

Comcast also throttles connections under certain conditions, but it doesn't sound like that's happening here.

[deedar]

Right now, without doing anything, I am looking at:

3.62 down
2.42 up
ping 16ms

San Jose server about 100 mi away.

[deedar]

Now:

1.69 down
2.46 up

It was slower a minute ago.

[Cold Warrior]

have you made any of the opendns changes I suggested?
Is your wifi shared with any neighbors?
Does it have a password, does it use wep or wpa encryption?
Have you tried reseating/reattaching the coaxial cable from wall to modem?

[deedar]

Not yet. Hopefully, I will be able to tomorrow. I will definitely let you know what happens and I also very much appreciate the suggestions! Thanks!

[deedar]

Ok..... How do I set up my MBP to use openDNS..... for that matter - what is open DNS? Maybe I am retarded....

[Cold Warrior]

OpenDNS | Internet Navigation And Security

[deedar]

Ok. Thanks. I went there, but I wasn't ready to take the plunge until I knew that was indeed where I should be...

Thanks again.

[ghporter]

With a wireless-related issue, there are a lot of possibilities, including things that Cold Warrior had mentioned. It would be a good idea to keep track of not only when you experience these slow downs, but where you are when it happens. Are you in roughly the same part of the house when it happens, or more in one part when it happens and other parts when it's fine? There could be structural barriers to the signal in the walls, or you could be close to some other network on the same channel which would interfere with your signal.

Under Snow Leopard, it's easy to see what other wireless networks are available to you, and even what channels they're on, but since you're still using Leopard, it takes a little more work to get this information. Basically you need a program that will use your AirPort card to scan for all available networks, this will tell you who's on what channel and that will tell you if you have a conflict. Something like AP Grapher will work (and it's not a "sniffer" that can be used to break passwords, so it's pretty benign, too).

[deedar]

I signed up, but still don't know how to use it.

I am usually in the same spot in the house. It ALWAYS happens when I first use the system in the am (between 6 and 8) and then intermittently during the day.

[deedar]

Do I set the MBP and AP to use openDNS?

have you made any of the opendns changes I suggested? - slowly trying
Is your wifi shared with any neighbors? - no
Does it have a password, does it use wep or wpa encryption? - yes/wpa
Have you tried reseating/reattaching the coaxial cable from wall to modem? - not yet

Thanks again!

[Cold Warrior]

you can just set up your mbp to use it

system preferences > network > airport > advanced > DNS

add dns servers:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

OK. Apply.

[deedar]

It"s my MBP. My daughter's MB is 10x faster down and 5x faster up at any given time.

[ghporter]

Well that's pretty definitive. Have you manually set your MBP to use the OpenDNS servers? You do that by going to the Network prefs pane, then selecting the network connection you're interested in and going from there. The Ethernet and AirPort settings sort of walk you through setting up specific things like DNS servers-just click on the Advanced button, then click on the DNS tab/button. When you're there, you can add or delete server addresses by clicking on the "+" and entering the numbers or highlighting an entry and clicking on the "-".

[deedar]

Why would I need to set my MBP to use the open DNS servers? I did this before and it didn't help. My question is why is the MB sooooooo much faster than the MBP???? Near as I can tell, the settings are the same (hard to compare; MB running OSX 10.4, MBP running 10.5).

[ghporter]

When you say "faster," you could be referring to two different things:
A) it takes a long, long time before anything happens, then the page finally loads pretty quickly or
B) the page starts to load, but you only get tiny bits of it at a time and it takes a long time before it finishes loading.

Situation A is a DNS problem (99.99+% certainty), while situation B is either a communication problem or a processing problem. Changing your computer's DNS server settings so use OpenDNS eliminates this as a potential cause of the problem. It certainly can't hurt anything, and you weren't specific as to whether you were experiencing situation A or B. Either way, if you positively eliminate the DNS issue, you've taken a positive step in troubleshooting the problem.

[deedar]

Thanks for the input. Using OpenDNS has no effect on the situation. Still, why would one computer just a few feet away frm the other, behave so much differently? My MBP is slow loading pages, downloading files etc.

[ghporter]

By slow then you mean that pages load bit by bit and over an extended period of time? Your original post mentions that pages load quickly first thing in the morning but slow after a little while. You also mention that things stay consistently fast with Ethernet. I have reviewed the thread and I haven't seen mention of verifying that your MBP is connected to your wireless network. I also don't see any mention of how your network is set up.

There is a distinct possibility that you're either sometimes or always connecting to a neighbor's wireless network, which would explain why Ethernet was always fast in comparison to your other machines. One good way to make sure you're on the correct network is to change your network name to something quite unique. Unfortunately for most people, they never bother with this and thus a neighborhood winds up with a plethora of "linksys" and "2wire2345" wireless networks. What brand is your wireless router, and if you can tell us, which model? We can help you figure out what's going on if we know how your MBP is connecting wirelessly, and it should be almost trivial to fix this if it's indeed a "connecting to the wrong network" issue.

[deedar]

Both the MB and MBP are indeed connecting to my network via and AP extreme.

By slow I mean the MBP just sits there forever, then after a mjoe pause, slowly downloads the page. Files are downloaded slowly too, speed tests are almost universally slow n the MBP too.

Given the difference in performance on the same network, it obviously is the computer, but I just dont know what to do about it.

[ibook_steve]

Have you tried turning off wireless security and testing? Have you tried using a different wireless channel on your router (especially if there are a lot of other visible networks around)?

Steve

[deedar]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Have you tried turning off wireless security and testing? Have you tried using a different wireless channel on your router (especially if there are a lot of other visible networks around)?

Steve

Thanks, but I am not sure what this would show me. It seems to be a computing issue not a network one - yes? I mean with such a difference in performance between the two laptops on the same network, it seems that the difference must lie in the laptops not the network - no?

[Cold Warrior]

Download and install the 10.5.8 combo update.

If that doesn't help, create a new user on your machine. See if the issue persists for that new user.

If that doesn't help, you can also try reinstalling your OS. Boot from the 10.5 DVD and perform an archive-install, choosing to preserve users but not network settings. This will keep your data and applications but give you a fresh underlying OS.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by deedar 

Thanks, but I am not sure what this would show me. It seems to be a computing issue not a network one - yes? I mean with such a difference in performance between the two laptops on the same network, it seems that the difference must lie in the laptops not the network - no?

It's possible that the security settings on the problem machine make it take longer to process data and thus make the connection slow. By turning off the security on the AirPort Extreme, you would be able to eliminate the security settings as an issue, or the MBP would suddenly be just as fast as the other wireless computers and you'd have identified the culprit.

Cold Warrior's suggestion for downloading and installing the latest Tiger update is a very good one. You should do that ASAP. It a) could fix the problem, b) will improve security for your computer and c) enhance stability of the OS on that machine. Unlike Microsoft, Apple only puts out updates that do something useful; keeping the OS up to date is helpful for a lot of things.

[deedar]

Thanks for all of the input guys. I am already running 10.5.8, so I will try turning off security, creating a new user and perhaps re-installing the os. Good suggestions and I will report back!!!

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by deedar 

Thanks for all of the input guys. I am already running 10.5.8, so I will try turning off security, creating a new user and perhaps re-installing the os. Good suggestions and I will report back!!!

I realize you're already running 10.5.8, but reinstalling the combo updater is important and useful for troubleshooting. It often rectifies problems, and there is no drawback to doing it.

[deedar]

Looks like I will need to re-install the os. None of the other changes did anything.

[deedar]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Download and install the 10.5.8 combo update.

If that doesn't help, create a new user on your machine. See if the issue persists for that new user.

If that doesn't help, you can also try reinstalling your OS. Boot from the 10.5 DVD and perform an archive-install, choosing to preserve users but not network settings. This will keep your data and applications but give you a fresh underlying OS.

Archive install only gives users AND network settings or neither as an option. What to do?

[Cold Warrior]

You need a clean system with clean network settings, so leave it unchecked. Just make sure you have a backup of your stuff.

[deedar]

I have a time machine backup - how do I use that to restore my users after installing a clean system?

[Cold Warrior]

Mac 101: Time Machine

if you immediately restore from backup, you may just restore your current problems. I suggest testing the new system before restoring.

[deedar]

Friggin great. Have have performed an archive install and now there is not enough room on my hardrive to restore my users. If I go ahead and set the machine up with a new user, what happens to all my stuff (email, ical, blah, blah, blah) associated with my prior user(s). Will I be able to get to it? Should I just wipe the disk and perform a clean install and migrate everything but network settings from the time machine backup? Im pretty frustrated gere and worried about my stuff on the HD.

[Cold Warrior]

Well it's still on your Time Machine drive, so it's ok as long as that drive is ok.

On your Mac's HDD you'll have a Previous System or similar folder, which will be eating up a lot of space. You can safely move it to an external drive or, if you're confident in your TM backup, delete the Previous folder altogether.

This may free up enough space to restore your user(s).

What about your real problem though? Did it fix your network speed issues?

[deedar]

I don't know yet, I have been too paranoid to go thru setup, creating another user in fear that I would not be able to access my stuff from my old user.

[deedar]

I am also worried that if I set up a new user, it will use my external drive that I use for time machine for a new time machine ans somehow render it not usable to restore my original stuff. Am I being way too paranoid?

[deedar]

Should I just unplug (USB) my external drive before I set up my new system and then if I need to later just plug it back in if I need to restore my system from the time machine backup?

[Cold Warrior]

go ahead and try. That's why you did all this anyway.

yes

yes

[deedar]

ok

thanks

thanks

[deedar]

Since the computer is in the midst of set up, I cannot eject the usb disk, should I just unplug it? It's usb powered, so it is basically always on.

[Cold Warrior]

just leave it plugged in

it's not going to overwrite anything so long as you don't do anything to it

[bishopazrael]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

you can just set up your mbp to use it

system preferences > network > airport > advanced > DNS

add dns servers:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

OK. Apply.

Will this work if I have a static IP address on verizon fios?

[Cold Warrior]

yeah, it doesn't matter.

The only drawback is if one use's VPN but doesn't allow the VPN to set DNS, they might run into issues whenever LAN-type name resolutions are required.

[deedar]

ok. wish me luck

Should I copy my previous system over to my backup drive and the migrate my old users back to the new system with migration assistant?

[Cold Warrior]

if you want, unless you were going to restore from Time Machine.

[deedar]

and yes, so far it appears to be muuuuuch faster!

[deedar]

I was going to restore from time machine using migration assistant. How else would I do it? I just want my users and their associated stuff back.

I just wanted yet another backup copy of my stuff! I'm paranoid, remember....

[deedar]

After all this, it doesn't seem to have helped at all. Starts out fast and then slooooooooooowwwwwwww. Crap.

[Cold Warrior]

Is this still with a clean system or did you restore from your backup already? Did you install anything after your reinstall? Do you have any other computers or devices on the network?

[deedar]

Wow... wrong again....

29 Mb/s down
3.7Mb/s up

quite an improvement... let's see if this stays around
I only restored the users - not the network settings
Have one other MB on the network - my daughter's

deedar