Safari will not load from favourites or from links

Question

Hi all.
I have a eMac G4 using Leopard 10.5.6. (2 Gig RAM) I can not remember if this problem started after the last OS update or if it was here before as it has been some time since I last used the Mac .
My problem:
I open up Safari and click onto my "Favourites" at the top of the page and select an entry. The page loads up without fault. I then again click on the favourites tab and select another favourite wanting to go elsewhere.
This time the address is displayed and the blue progress bar moves to only just cover "http" and then freezes.
This very same problem occurs when I click from within any the current page, as was the case when I tried to go to another page from within this forum.
At the moment the only way I am able to bring up any new pages is to close Safari and then "Force Quit" then reload the browser and go from there..
This problem also presents it's self from the browser when some links are clicked and then I try for another page from the newly loaded page.
Needless to say it is driving me crazy and forcing me back to M$ I.E 8
Can someone please help me with this problem?
Regards

Answer 1

Could be from a variety of causes, but the following should cure it!
The following usually works on both Tiger and Leopard:
(First, if yours is an Intel Mac, check that Safari is not running in Rosetta, which is enough to slow it to a crawl.)
Adding DNS codes to your Network Settings, should gives good results in terms of speed-up:
Open System Preferences/Network. Double click on your connection type, or select it in the drop-down menu. Click on TCP/IP and in the box marked 'DNS Servers' enter the following two numbers:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
(An explanation of why that is both safe and a good idea can be read here: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/opendsn-what-is-opendns-why-required-2/2587 /
Open DNS also provides an anti-phishing feature: http://www.opendns.com/solutions/homenetwork/anti-phishing/ )
Whilst in System Preferences/Network you should also turn off 'IPv6' in your preference pane, as otherwise you may not get the full speed benefit (the DNS resolver will default to making SRV queries). If you want to know what IPv6 is:
This is Apple's guidance on iPv6:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8708.html
Click on Apply Now and close the window.
Restart Safari, and repair permissions.
If that didn't do it, then try this as well:
Empty Safari's cache (from the Safari menu), then close Safari.
Go to Home/Library/Safari and delete the following files:
form values
download.plist
Then go to Home/Library/Preferences and delete
com.apple.Safari.plist
Repair permissions (in Disk Utility).
Start up Safari again, and things should have improved.