Today I upgraded my sister's two year old iMac (Intel based) from Tiger to Leopard, bringing her up to OS X 10.5.4.
She was curious as to whether something was amiss with the Airport Extreme which she uses to connect to the internet as the download time for websites was, as she saw it, exceedingly slow.
I ran a quick test using Safari to visit sites such as <nytimes.com> and <usatoday.com> and they took around 40 seconds to complete the download.
I then tried exactly the same thing on my MacBook Pro, connecting via Safari to the very same Airport Extreme and in my case the download times were 1 to 2 seconds.
We are both running Safari 3.1.2.
Why would there be such a huge difference in performance between the two computers?
-- James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesins...@mac.com
TaliesinSoft wrote: > Today I upgraded my sister's two year old iMac (Intel based) from Tiger to > Leopard, bringing her up to OS X 10.5.4.
> She was curious as to whether something was amiss with the Airport Extreme > which she uses to connect to the internet as the download time for websites > was, as she saw it, exceedingly slow.
> I ran a quick test using Safari to visit sites such as <nytimes.com> and > <usatoday.com> and they took around 40 seconds to complete the download.
> I then tried exactly the same thing on my MacBook Pro, connecting via Safari > to the very same Airport Extreme and in my case the download times were 1 to > 2 seconds.
> We are both running Safari 3.1.2.
> Why would there be such a huge difference in performance between the two > computers?
How big was the "download"?
What is the processor speed on the two year old iMac?
On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:52:46 -0500, jack ak wrote (in article <iNltk.11143$L_.3...@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com>):
[responding to my query as to why two different Intel based Macs would have a literal order of magnitude difference in downloading the same websites over the same Airport Extreme wireless base station]
> How big was the "download"?
> What is the processor speed on the two year old iMac?
Both my sister's iMac and my MacBook Pro are just above the 2 GHz processor speed. My MacBook Pro has 160 GB hard disk and my sister's iMac has something in the range of 2.5 GB hard disk. She has 1 GB memory and my MacBook Pro has 2 GB memory.
-- James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesins...@mac.com
On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:50:10 -0500, Wes Groleau wrote (in article <mvntk.885$UX.382@trnddc03>):
> TaliesinSoft wrote: >> Today I upgraded my sister's two year old iMac (Intel based) from Tiger >> to Leopard, bringing her up to OS X 10.5.4.
>> [snip]
>> Why would there be such a huge difference in performance between the two >> computers?
> Is it a website with ten zillion stupid useless images? Did the upgrade > clear the browser cache?
> I'm not bitter.....
I don't think that the New York Times and USA Today websites are filled with "ten zillion stupid useless images" but the fact remains that there was a twentyfold difference in the download time on the two different computers, both running the very same versions of the software, and both having near identical processor speeds. And, the browser cache was cleared on both computers and such clearing didn't make any difference.
-- James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesins...@mac.com
> Today I upgraded my sister's two year old iMac (Intel based) from Tiger to > Leopard, bringing her up to OS X 10.5.4.
> She was curious as to whether something was amiss with the Airport Extreme > which she uses to connect to the internet as the download time for websites > was, as she saw it, exceedingly slow.
> I ran a quick test using Safari to visit sites such as <nytimes.com> and > <usatoday.com> and they took around 40 seconds to complete the download.
> I then tried exactly the same thing on my MacBook Pro, connecting via Safari > to the very same Airport Extreme and in my case the download times were 1 to > 2 seconds.
> We are both running Safari 3.1.2.
> Why would there be such a huge difference in performance between the two > computers?
I presume all TCP/IP traffic is slowed in the new machine, not just web pages - things like FTP. Tried a speed test like at speedtest.net ?
A thought is maybe its something to do with the MTU (maximum transfer unit) size It was a while ago but I seem to recall 1500 was standard but some networks used a smaller one. Just check a see if it is different between the 2 computers. Sys prefs->network->ethenet or airport ->advanced -> ethernet. Its on the bottom and should be 1500.
TaliesinSoft <taliesins...@mac.coom> wrote: > Today I upgraded my sister's two year old iMac (Intel based) from Tiger to > Leopard, bringing her up to OS X 10.5.4.
> She was curious as to whether something was amiss with the Airport Extreme > which she uses to connect to the internet as the download time for websites > was, as she saw it, exceedingly slow.
> I ran a quick test using Safari to visit sites such as <nytimes.com> and > <usatoday.com> and they took around 40 seconds to complete the download.
> I then tried exactly the same thing on my MacBook Pro, connecting via Safari > to the very same Airport Extreme and in my case the download times were 1 to > 2 seconds.
> We are both running Safari 3.1.2.
> Why would there be such a huge difference in performance between the two > computers?
Check the network settings to see if there is a bad DNS entry. A bad one will delay the lookup of every domain name.
-- Google is a pro-spamming service. I will not see your reply if you use Google.
On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:37:53 -0500, Nigel wrote (in article <C4DC5AB1.378D7%no...@nowhere.com>):
[offering suggestions as to why the internet access is so different on two different Macs (both Intel based) connecting via the same Airport Extreme]
> I presume all TCP/IP traffic is slowed in the new machine, not just web > pages - things like FTP. Tried a speed test like at speedtest.net ?
I checked the speed on both computers using speedtest.net and they were virtually identical.
> A thought is maybe its something to do with the MTU (maximum transfer unit) > size It was a while ago but I seem to recall 1500 was standard but some > networks used a smaller one. Just check a see if it is different between > the 2 computers. Sys prefs->network->ethenet or airport ->advanced -> > ethernet. Its on the bottom and should be 1500.
The MTU onl both computers is set to 1500.
Today I also checked both computers with a different wireless router and the behavior on both remained unchanged, my MacBook Pro running ten to twenty times faster for internet access than my sister's iMac.
This Saturday I'll be taking my sister's iMac to the Genius Bar at the Apple store. We shall see!
-- James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesins...@mac.com
TaliesinSoft <taliesins...@mac.coom> wrote: > > Check the network settings to see if there is a bad DNS entry. A bad > > one will delay the lookup of every domain name.
> How does one know if a DNS entry is "bad"?
Well, for starters, is it different on the two Macs? Seriously, if it's different, I'd try using the one from the Mac with the good connection on the one with the bad one.
TaliesinSoft <taliesins...@mac.coom> writes: > I checked the speed on both computers using speedtest.net and they were > virtually identical.
Is the thing generally slow or is it only Safari? You could start Activity Monitor and look for extremely high CPU or memory consumption by other processes.
Jochem
-- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>> I checked the speed on both computers using speedtest.net and they were >> virtually identical.
> Is the thing generally slow or is it only Safari? You could start Activity > Monitor and look for extremely high CPU or memory consumption by other > processes.
Things on my sister's computer, with the exceptions of Safari and Firefox (the two browsers checked), appear to be running at "normal" speeds. The next chance I have I will check with Activity Monitor.
-- James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesins...@mac.com
