Internet Browsers and Speed

[A less presumptuous name.]

So I'm more and more frustrated with my internet service. I'm on a 7 year old PowerBook G4 running 10.5.8, so I don't expect fantastic internet service. Also, I'm about as far away from my router as possible in my house, and my wireless card is as old as the computer.

 

My gripe is this: most websites load slowly given the internet connection that I have. Will switching browsers help this significantly? I had been using Firefox and I'm trying Opera at the moment. Is there any way I can get websites like Youtube and Facebook to load at higher rates, or will I need a new computer before any significant changes can occur?

 

That said, my desktop (an equally old G5 iMac, PPC with same OS) runs slowly on the internet as well, although not quite as slowly.

[Niemand]

I have a very similar laptop (17 inch PB, 8 years old, I think) which I'm obliged to use from time to time (when my newer laptop is unavailable). It's still running 10.4, and I just use whatever is the last/latest version of Safari it can run. There's no discernible difference in speed when loading pages from my 2008 Macbook Pro, although it start struggling rapidly when there's a lot of Javascript, or worse, Flash on the pages.

[A less presumptuous name.]

I suppose that's to be expected. Java and Flash are known for being terribly slow. I guess a big part of my inquiry is whether newer hardware will help with the wireless connection and let me use the full bandwidth being paid for.

[Lilith]

Are you sure the bottleneck is your computer's ability to render pages and not the internet connection itself? Internet plans almost never actually operate at anywhere near the advertised speed.

[Tyranicus]

One thing you might try is using Safari with the ClickToFlash plugin. ClickToFlash disables all Flash on a page until you click on it.

[Erebus the Black]

Are you using ad block plus on your firefox?

[Rowen]

Check that your internet is running at the speed that you are paying for. Go to Speedtest.net and run a dozen or so tests during a day and check that they speeds match or are within what service you are receiving.

 

If it is slower they what you pay for call up your provider and talk to them about it and get it worked out. Most of the time its not a hardware issue but every now and then it is.

[A less presumptuous name.]

Originally Posted By: Erasmus

Are you using ad block plus on your firefox?

Yes. Would this increase or decrease the speed of the browser?

Originally Posted By: Rowen

Check that your internet is running at the speed that you are paying for. Go to Speedtest.net and run a dozen or so tests during a day and check that they speeds match or are within what service you are receiving.

I don't know what I'm paying for, but I did some checking. My laptop was getting single-digit down and uploads in my room, averaging maybe 3.5 and 1. Moving down to the room with the router, I was up closer to 18 and 4. When I plugged it into the modem with an ethernet, it was 30.95 and 4.39.

The download is about the same as my desktop, but the upload is screwy. My desktop was getting about 30 and 22, not 30 and 5.

I guess now the question is: is the router or my computer causing the slow wifi in my room. Maybe I can use my dad's laptop when he gets home in a few days.

EDIT: 14.5 and 9.5 - the numbers I just got. I was up in my room again, only the airport signal still claimed to be strong. The numbers were on average produced by 1.5/4 "bars" of strength.

[Rowen]

Routers that use Wifi can make a difference depending on how far away you are from them but it sounds like you are in the same house with everything, but that is extreme.

 

If you have an upstairs and downstairs putting the router upstairs always seems to help, but that may be superstition on my part.

 

Whenever I can I will avoid using a router and plug strait into the wall.

[Niemand]

Originally Posted By: Master1

Yes. Would this increase or decrease the speed of the browser?

Of course it doesn't make the browser actually process data faster (technically it will make it slower), but it makes it process less data. On some pages the ads can be many hundreds of kilobytes when the page itself is nearly all text and a few repetitive images (which can be cached effectively) and so only needs a few tens of kilobytes. Include the consideration that the ads are frequently on other servers and so extra DNS lookups and connections have to be made, and you can see that just by deciding not to load the ads you can get some very worthwhile gains.

EDIT: Just for fun I tried that download and upload speed test page. While the numbers it got seem rather high compared to what I typically observe (for loading many small items), it will be quite fun the next time AT&T calls to beg me to buy their 'high speed' internet service to question how it compares to my current 100/65 Megabits per second for download/upload. (According to the glossy, multipage catalogue they sent me last week, which I just pulled back out of the recycling sack, their fanciest option promises download speeds of 'up to' 6 Mbps) There are some definite advantages to living in university owned housing.

[Soul of Wit]

There's quite a disparity between your hard-wired numbers and your w-fi numbers. That's a wi-fi problem. Do repeated speed tests to confirm. Try another computer when you get a chance. That leads me to suspect either interference or competing routers. Interference could be a running microwave nearby or a cordless landline in use. All three things can use the same part of the wireless frequency. Another possibility, with the same symptoms as interference, is someone else using your wi-fi. Obviously, make sure that no one else is using the wi-fi in the house--at least when you're doing speed tests. Also, make sure that you are using a password on the wi-fi and that you're not using the WEP protocol (it's too easy to hack.) You can check on the wi-fi setup using the airport (or other router) utility. If it's an airport router, the utility is found in the utilities subfolder of the applications folder.

 

Competing routers is another possibility. This is the likely culprit if nothing has changed in your house, your wi-fi security is good and the problem is new. Routers (including airport) operate on 11 channels. If you and a close neighbor are on the same channel (or close) then that can significantly degrade your wi-fi signal. You can try randomly changing your channel and then checking the bars/running speed tests. For the airport utility, the channel is changed on the wireless tab. Changing the channel is transparent to a user's computer, so you change only the router and don't have to worry about any matching tweaks on the computer(s). I use a utility called iStumbler that let's me see wi-fi channels in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it's Snow Leopard (10.6.x) only. If you can see the channels, try to be as far as possible from other channels in use.

 

There are also utilities to let you see what devices are using your home network's wi-fi signal. I have two on my Mac. One is an ancient java app called host_monitor. The other is from the Mac App Store (again, Snow Leopard) and is called IP Scanner. If you try one of these scanners, be aware that lots of things can use wi-fi these days--game consoles, hand-held game systems, mobile phones, iPod Touches, even some TVs.

[Venom]

Originally Posted By: Master1

My gripe is this: most websites load slowly given the internet connection that I have. Will switching browsers help this significantly? I had been using Firefox and I'm trying Opera at the moment.

I just read a Computer Science article comparing different browsers and if I recall correctly, Opera was the quickest with Google Chrome just behind. That said, the speed differences are not very noticeable.

The real problem, as you may have realized, has to do with your computer's hardware. Even with the good throughput numbers you found, your computer still has to display those pages. Processing speed and RAM both impact this. I'd suggest upgrading your computer as the most effective solution. Seven years old is ancient in computer terms.

EDIT: Just noticed you have a Mac. Not sure how well the age difference transfers, but the principle still holds.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted By: Venom

EDIT: Just noticed you have a Mac. Not sure how well the age difference transfers, but the principle still holds.

At this point, there is a definite line in the sand as far as Macs go. Intel Macs of any age (5 years old or newer, more or less) are still quite capable of any kind of web browsing. PPC Macs of any age (more than 5 years old, more or less) are not, especially when you add Flash to the picture.

[A less presumptuous name.]

As far as upgrading anything is concerned, I'll be getting a new laptop (Apple, unless my brother's girlfriend can convince me otherwise) in just over a year, so I'll just be making due with this one.