Slow Firefox/Safari browsing but fast DLs

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Hey everyone,

About a week ago I noticed a serious slowdown in my internet browsing, whether it was loading pages or streaming video on a website, and it's really beginning to irritate me. The weird thing is that when I download torrents through uTorrent, they're as fast as they've ever been, as is any direct download. (Before you tell me to close filesharing programs and shut off filesharing in System Preferences, I already have done both of those.) I have a MacBook Air (1.8GHz processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM) and OS 10.5.8, fully up-to-date. I tested my connection on one of those speed test websites and got ~3.7mbps down but only 0.65mbps up.

Any help is MUCH appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Anyone? I've tried many different internet searches and can't find anything conclusive/comprehensible that applies only to wireless.
 

vansmith

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If it is getting stuck on the "contacting" stage, try switching your DNS servers. I recommend OpenDNS. Instructions for switching to OpenDNS can be found here.
 
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Thanks, but I live in an apartment building and the wireless is controlled centrally...and that said, my roommate running a MacBook Pro on the same network has had no problems. Anything else?
 

vansmith

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You don't actually have to change it in the router (I should have mentioned this the first time). Go to System Preferences > Network > AirPort (since you seem to have implied you are connecting wirelessly) > Advanced... > DNS. Under "DNS Servers", add the name of the two nameservers on that page: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
 

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