[Lava Lamp Freak]

There was an old thread about this, but I decided to start a new one rather than bump a year+ old thread.

This is a continuing problem. It has been going on for more than a year. It happens at least three times a day, but sometimes more often. It happens on all Mac browsers that I have tried -- Safari, Camino, and Firefox.

After a time of browsing, sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, the browser will stop loading images and style sheets, and links become unclickable. HTML continues to load, but usually not full pages. Sometimes it starts as one image on a page not loading, or just links not clicking, but other times the first sign will be all images and the style sheet on a page not loading. You also can not visit a new web site by typing a location into the address bar. The browser becomes unresponsive. Menu items are no longer clickable. The only way to quit the browser is to force quit. Thankfully, in Firefox, I can restore the previous session and get back to work.

I have now been through two computers, two routers, and three cable modems while living in three different locations in the last year. I write this just to offer evidence that the problem can not be linked to either a specific computer or router.

I use a PC at work and have never had this problem. Firefox does crash from time to time, but not daily, and pages never just stop loading. I love my Mac, but the internet experience is extremely frustrating. This browser problem has occurred in the middle of the order process at Amazon.com and other very bad and frustrating times.

Here is a link to the old thread.
http://forums.macnn.com/82/applicati...s-seems-choke/

[headbirth]

I've been using a Mac for MANY YEARS and have never experienced this.

[Chuckit]

Macs are not likely to magically make all browsers not work in exactly the same way. You probably have some wonky plugin or a problem with your Internet connection at home. It's hard to say more without more info, as this isn't a common problem.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I have been using Macs for about 13 years now, and Firefox since before it was even Firefox, and this problem didn't start until last summer. However, it has continued since it started. If you read the thread I linked to, you will see that many others had the problems, though none of them ever posted back to say if they had found solutions to the problem. I'm hoping some of the previous posters read this thread and post updates.

Like I said, it isn't a problem with the internet connection, as I've lived in three different homes in the last year and had a different cable modem in each one. I just upgraded from a Linksys router to an Airport Extreme a couple months ago so that rules out router and cable modem issues. I don't have any plug-ins installed on Camino or Safari, so that takes away another possibility.

Since it isn't happening with everyone who has a Mac, there must be some commonality between us who are experiencing an unstable internet usage regardless of what browser we are using.

[Cold Warrior]

I'd say it may be your system installation or something funky you've installed, since you have problems with all browsers.

If it were my problem, I'd reinstall the Mac OS using a clean installation.

[Chuckit]

Just to check, do you have any of the following installed:

• QuickTime plugins
• Web plugins
• Haxies

Also, what are the details of your system (computer type, OS version)? What have you tried to solve the issue (e.g., creating a new user, or doing an archive-and-install)?

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Just to check, do you have any of the following installed:

• QuickTime plugins
• Web plugins
• Haxies

Also, what are the details of your system (computer type, OS version)? What have you tried to solve the issue (e.g., creating a new user, or doing an archive-and-install)?

No to all of the above. I have no plug-ins or anything extending system functionality.

Thinking back, this problem began while I still had my Mac Mini last Spring. I thought it might just be an issue with Intel Macs at the time. I was given a dual 2.5 G5 tower from work last September and I still had the problem on it. In December I bought a MacBook Pro 2.33 and the problem continued. I began wondering if it was a router issue since the problem continued even after I moved to a new house and had a new modem, but that didn't solve the problem either.

I have web and photo software like Textmate, Photoshop, and Aperture installed. Other than that I run iTunes and Firefox while I'm working. The only thing I can think of now is that I have been keeping my Firefox user directory when I move to a new system so that I can keep all of my authenticated sessions. I might try deleting that tonight and starting over fresh. That still wouldn't explain why other browsers produce the same problem, though.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I'm thinking it definitely has something to do with the fact that I've been keeping my profile folder every time I get a new computer for the last couple years. Searching macrumors.com I found numerous people having the same problem as me. I also found a bunch of Windows users having the same problem at neowin.net. I don't know why I would have had the same problem with Camino last year, but maybe it wasn't really related, maybe it was just a memory leak in the beta I tried. I'm going to wipe out the profile folder tonight and start over.

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak 

I began wondering if it was a router issue since the problem continued even after I moved to a new house and had a new modem, but that didn't solve the problem either.

Have you tried not using the router and plugging in your computer straight to the modem? Also have you always had cable modem or have you tried using DSL?

The reason I ask is because I had and still have a somewhat related issue. Let me start from the beginning. I have a home network with my family with me being the only Mac computer but I wasn't the only one experiencing problems. We had a cable modem connection but it kept going in and out at unpredictable times. At times it was very fast but at other times it slowed down to dial up speeds. I called the cable company to check it out and they said that everything was okay at their end and the repairman said I had a strong signal in the house so it was a mystery to everyone. Also the slowdowns weren't only at peak hours so I don't believe that was the cause.

Because of this problem we decided to switch over to DSL. Like magic just about everything was fixed and the internet was actually fast on a regular basis, but there was still a few websites that caused me trouble with slow connections or time outs. What was interesting was that some websites only affected my Mac while some websites effected both my Mac and my family's PCs. Also like you the problem persisted no matter what web browser I used; IE, Firefox, Safari, Camino.

After being frustrated I finally tried plugging in my computer straight into the DSL modem and no more problems. All the websites I had problems with worked on both my Mac and my family's PCs. I have my router setup as recommended by Linksys so I don't believe that was the problem, but it seems the router was somehow slowing down connections. Now that I look back on the problem I think connecting straight to my cable modem might have solved my problem too, but I'm liking my DSL connection so it's a moot issue anyway. I still have the problem when using my router but it's only a very small percentage of websites so it doesn't really bother me too much, so I never investigated further. It would be nice if someone knows how to solve the problem though.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by Lava Lamp Freak 

I'm thinking it definitely has something to do with the fact that I've been keeping my profile folder every time I get a new computer for the last couple years. Searching macrumors.com I found numerous people having the same problem as me. I also found a bunch of Windows users having the same problem at neowin.net. I don't know why I would have had the same problem with Camino last year, but maybe it wasn't really related, maybe it was just a memory leak in the beta I tried. I'm going to wipe out the profile folder tonight and start over.

Have you tried creating a new user account on your Mac and seeing if it has the same trouble?

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Thanks for the response. Yes, I have tried plugging directly into the cable modem. I was set up like that for about a week when I moved into my new house and still had the problem. When Firefox acts up, I just force quit it and then when I relaunch it I'm back in business until it happens again. It isn't a problem with the incoming connection, though I do have a problem with the internet connection intermittently dying, and haven't been able to resolve that. It only happens once every week or two, so I'm convinced it isn't worth taking time off of work to get looked at.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

Have you tried creating a new user account on your Mac and seeing if it has the same trouble?

I figure it was the same thing as creating a new account when I bought a new computer. I didn't copy over my old account to the new computer, so I started fresh. I really think it is a problem with Firefox and I plan to delete my profile and start fresh on that after dinner.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

My guess is it must be something to do with Comcast. Maybe bad data comes through the modem and causes the browser to no longer be able to render pages? It is the only way I can explain it happening across all browsers on multiple Macs. This does not happen if I use FireFox under Windows in Bootcamp, only on OSX.

I tried a new profile in Firefox, and also tried running Camino for a day. Camino also eventually stops working, but the problem is different. Images don't stop loading, but links quit working. It happened 3 times yesterday. Out of those 3 times, only once did a style sheet not load. The other two times all links quit working, including bookmarks. A quit and relaunch gets things back to normal.

I'm tempted to switch to DSL just to see if that makes a difference. I've been putting up with this for a year and am ready to give up. I need to find some folks who have Comcast and use a Mac in Nashville. If it is a problem with Comcast, I wouldn't be the only one experiencing it. I haven't tried Safari 3 beta yet, maybe I'll give that a try and see if it is any different.

Here is a screenshot of what it looked like in Camino when the style sheet didn't load for MacNN. At this same time, all links in this and my other open tabs quit working, including the ability to open sites by clicking bookmarks on my bookmarks bar.

[Cold Warrior]

That's dorked up. Maybe try changing your DNS settings, in case your ISP's isn't resolving some stuff correctly.
These are the ones from OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

That's dorked up. Maybe try changing your DNS settings, in case your ISP's isn't resolving some stuff correctly.
These are the ones from OpenDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Thanks. I'll give that a try tonight.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

The DNS settings from OpenDNS did not help.
I just realized another symptom in Camino. The menus are all messed up. In Firefox, I can't even access menu items when pages stop loading. In Camino, it lets me drop them down, but they are unreadable and nothing actually happens when I click one.

[mattco72]

It happens on occasion to me to and I have both Photoshop Master collection and Aperture. It doesn't happen nearly that often though, maybe once a week. I have only had this happen through Firefox though so I thought it might have been stumbleupon, or my weather plugin.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Just an update, I began using Safari 3 a few weeks ago and have not had a single occurrence of the problem. It seems to be limited to Mozilla. I had thought I had the same problem in Safari last year when I tried it, but it must have been a different issue that just looked similar. But all is well now. Still doesn't make sense that Mozilla browsers won't run very long without hanging up, but I actually like Safari 3, so I'm sticking with it.