Suddenly, Slow Browsing

Question

I've had some issues lately.
Right now though I'm trying to isolate a problem I'm having browsing. Sometimes it just takes forever for pages to load and it hasn't been that way before.
I replaced my router with a Belkin Wireless N and I've spoken to tech support for Belkin and my ISP. Neither could detect any problem.
I've just been doing speed tests with Speakeasy while pages slowwwwwly load in another browser window, and the tests are always in the mid-8s to 9s for download and mid 3s to 4s for upload speed.
I have tried using Firefox but that is also slow, though seemingly not as bad as Safari.
My computer has also crashed multiple times over the last few days - before and after switching out the router - during network diagnostics, or even when I pull down the wireless list from the toolbar.
Does any of this ring any bells? My computer is old and I'm starting to think it's an internal problem. It's so hard to tell though because of the other "moving parts" in the system. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

Try this:
Do you have enough RAM? Less than 1GB can cause slowness. Is your hard drive too full? Less than 15%, or 15GB, of free space can also cause slowness.
Adding DNS codes to your Network Preferences, should give good results in terms of speed-up as well as added security:
If you are using a single computer: Open System Preferences/Network. Double click on your connection type, or select it in the drop-down menu, and in the box marked 'DNS Servers' add the following two numbers:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
(You can also enter them if you click on Advanced and then DNS)
Sometimes reversing the order of the DNS numbers can be beneficial in cases where there is a long delay before web pages start to load, and then suddenly load at normal speed:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2296
If your computer is part of a network: please refer to this page: http://www.opendns.com/start/bestpractices/#yournetwork and follow the advice given.
(An explanation of why using Open DNS 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/ )
Wikipedia also has an interesting article about Open DNS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS
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.
More useful information here:
http://guides.macrumors.com/SpeedupSafari