Safari issue

I have an iMac (Mac OS X). When trying to get to various websites, I have the address in the address line at the top of Safari page. I hit "return" and more often lately the blue bar goes about 1" and stops. The rotating arrow keeps turning. This goes on for one to two minutes. Then one of two messages come up on the white page: 1. "You are not connected to the Internet. Safari can;t open the page: (address) because your computer isn't connected to the Internet." (I then do the "Network Diagnostics" just below and it always comes back telling me "You internet connection appears to be working correctly."
or 2. "Safari can't find the server www.(address)."
After all of that time, I then can place my cursor at the end of the address in the address bar and hit "return" and the web page comes up IMMEDIATELY.
What is going on? This is happening alot when it used to be infrequently. Thanks for any help. This is my first time on here so if I am in the wrong place, please let me know which area this question would best be answered. Thanks. Linda

It sounds like you're having connection problems and not with Safari. That can be caused by a weak WiFi signal (if you're connected via wireless) or thru your ISP. You didn't say how you're connecting (wireless, ethernet) or have given us any other details.

Regards.

I am connected through an ISP. My husband has his laptop on wireless via the same modem as my iMac is on. We got a router for that. Sorry for being short on details. Linda

OK, you're connected via ethernet (wired cable) and your husband is using wireless from the same router. Is he having the same problem as you're having? If his connection is OK and yours is not, then we can assume that either your machine is having hardware problems or that some setting is not correct.

There really isn't much to setting up an ethernet connection since there is no encryption involved. Let us also know which version of OS X you have and what version of Safari you're running. Sorry for so many questions but if we are to narrow this down, we have to do it by the process of elimination.

Regards.

Thanks for getting back with me.
1. My husband's laptop is not having the same stall problem although his laptop is older and not a Mac. It is slow but the page comes up.
2. Mac OSX 10.5.8
3. Safari 5.0 (5533.16)

This is a sporadic issue but is happening far more often. My husband thought it would be our provider, a cable company in town... Charter. Since his laptop is not doing this, we don't know.

Thanks for any help.
Linda

Glad you got back and mentioned Charter as your ISP. I was a Charter subscriber myself for several years until their service degraded to the point where it was frustrating to even do simple things. I haven't been with them for quite some time now so I don't know if their service has improved or not. (Your husband is probably correct)

I would contact them first and have them run diagnostics on the line. I'm assuming you're using a Charter cable modem and router. They will likely tell you everything is OK and it must be your computer that is at fault. (typical response) Post back what you found out from them. The next thing we'll try is to change your DNS settings to see if that speeds things up and stops the page not displaying problem.

Regards.

Thanks

Thanks. I will call Charter and let you know what they say. Linda

I contacted Charter and went through a drill with an automated system. They had me unplug the router (for my husband's wireless laptop) from the modem and directly wire the cable to the Mac from the Charter modem. It changed nothing. They finally gave me to a real person. He walked me through a similar reroute and had me turning off and on computer, modem, and restart everything. At first, nothing changed, but then he had me restart everything again. Now, the computer is running great, fast, and seems back to the way it was working months ago, although it ran this way with the wireless router attached in the early months of using.
Charter left me with the direct hookup to my computer. So we disconnected the laptop for now and are both using the Mac.
The laptop did not go through this though so I am baffled as to why one computer and not the other. And would we be able to hardwire the laptop directly to the cable and have both working? I guess I need to go by Charter and ask them about a second computer on the line. More bucks I imagine.
Thanks for your help. Linda