Why are these problems starting to appear on OS 10.6.8?

Question

Downloads and app updates hang for several seconds a couple of kb's short before finally completing.
Occasionally clicking on a bookmark, even repeatedly, fails to open the page.
When clicking back to a previous page I often get a message stating that the browser can't find the server.  Clicking the "Try Again" button or clicking the page's bookmark fails to resolve the problem.
These problems occur no matter which of my five browsers i use so the problem must be in the system.  Disk Utility, Disk Warrior and all my monitoring devices say everything "seems" to be ok.
What could the problem be?

Answer 1

It's rather difficult to diagnosis the issue, could be your machine, the router, the network or the ISP.
We can take some harmless procedures on your machine.
First backup your files off the machine to a regular storage drive (not TimeMachine or TimeCapsule) and disconnect this drive.
Next stick in the 10.6 disk that came with your computer (or upgrade) and reboot the machine holding the c key down, now simply install 10.6, will just overwrite OS X and bundled programs.
Reboot, log in and immediatly update to 10.6.8 under the Appel Menu>Software update, that will bring OS X and bundled programs current with your files and security updates.
What that did was basically kick any crap out of OS X itself (not users or applications) and make sure OS X itself is fine.
Next you may have to reinstall certain programs that place "hooks" into OS X, make sure they are updated to work with 10.6.8.
If your still having problems, it could be confined to your User, create another one in System Preferences, log into it and try things out again. If things are running normal there, you might decide to just use the "Users"/Shared folder to transfer your personal data to the new user, eventually deleting the old user. You need to have enough space on the drive to do this, preferable a external drive for transfer would be a better choice.
Lastly, if your problems return, it could be a program your running or installed.  Or it could be a issue with your network.
Some ISP's are testing out IPv6, or are having DNS issues. Only time and using other networks can tell if this is the issue.
Another possibility is your WiFI has been compromised, it's either got a open, weak standard or weak password and someone is hogging your bandwidth where your not getting any.
Only WPA2 (AES) with a 20+ random character, letter, number, symbol, case password for both the Admin (kept off all machines) and a Guest Internet access password is strong enough to defeat these new "bot net based" and "GPU based" router cracking malware.
Another possibility is your router needs a firmware update. If it's older G, it's likely not going to get one as they all want you to buy N routers now.
The only thing I can suggest is try to develop a plan to narrow down the culprit, sometimes it's a loose cable that a tree branch fell and hit, slightly pulling the coax out of the connector someplace, analog TV connects fine, but then the Internet keeps dropping out.
You might have to install 10.6 on a external GUID OS X Extended (J) drive, hold option boot from it and see if the problems continue or not, if it's a hard drive issue.
Really hard to narrow something like this down, you just have to play detective and narrow down the possibilities.