Slow Internet speed on new iMac

Dear Mac Forum; Hoping this is the right place to post this...I am experiencing an unusual delay with our Internet connectivity when using my new (~10/20/11) iMac, and hoping to gain some insight/ideas/next steps. When pulling up a new page from the Internet using Safari browser, via clicking a link or entering a URL, there is an unusual delay that I cannot understand. I have a fast cable modem (25MB down 4MB up) connection. To perform a sanity check, I setup my notebook pc in my office next to the iMac: Toshiba Satellite (1st generation) i5 @ 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 1/2TB 7200 RPM drive, Windows 7 64-Bit, MS Internet Explorer browser. The first thing I tried was an Internet speed test. Really strange that when I run an Internet speed test on both machines, they seem to come out about the same, ~26MB down and ~4MB up. The only difference seems to be that the test on the iMac takes much longer to load before it starts. When testing with the exact same links and URL's, I often experience a delay of 10-15 seconds or more to begin to download the page on my iMac vs. the notebook that has nowhere near the specs of the iMac: Mid 2011 27" (2nd generation) i7 @ 3.4GHz, 12GB RAM, 1TB 7200 RPM HD, Lion 10.7.2. After the initial download delay ends, there are sometimes additional delays with the downloads that just don't seem to occur on the laptop. Since the iMac is new, the only applications that I have installed are MS Office for Mac and Adobe Flash. Note that I am connected using WiFi with both the iMac and notebook, and have tried connecting the iMac via Ethernet to take that out of the equation, but no change. Does anyone have any ideas or comments that may shed some light or assist in resolving this issue? Thank you in advance for any help you may provide...

I've moved your thread to a more appropriate forum. I've also deleted your duplicate threads. Please only post a single thread per topic - not as in this case where you've started 3 and posted a question to an already existing thread. Thanks.

That much delay makes no sense to me at all. I am on my iPad over at a friends house and pages are coming right up just as soon as I click on them. No delay at all. My iMac at home is an older 2007 with 4-gb ram and it flies. Is this page load issue with safari? If so have you tried say firefox or google chrome?

Sorry Brian...thanks kindly for your help.

Dennis: I KNOW it has to be operator error, just can't figure out what I'm doing (or did) wrong. I'm brand new with the iMac, it's been well over a decade since my last Mac-xperience. I didn't even know there were versions of google chrome and firefox for the Mac. I'll check them out and report back. Much obliged for the heads-up!

Did you try Google Chrome or Firefox to see if you get the same delay?

Hi Dennis, I downloaded Google Chrome as my daughters both agreed that it's a really fast browser and offered the most hope of an increase in performance. Unfortunately, it hasn't made a difference for us...it's the same, increasingly frustratingly speed.

I'm not running any sort of utilities on the iMac, in fact I wouldn't know what utility to purchase, as my experience is on the PC side of the isle. Is there a utility, or set of tools that I need to run, or might help identify the issue that is causing the performance issues?

I REALLY like the functionality and design of the iMac - it's awesome to look at! and performance on every application has been awesome! - with the exception of Internet performance...very frustrating.

I highly appreciate your feedback, it was certainly worth a try! Any other ideas you may have would be most appreciated...

Hi Dennis, Thanks kindly for your advice. After talking with my daughters, they suggested Google Chrome, they said it has really excellent performance. Unfortunately, it made no difference with the increasingly frustrating Internet performance issue. I'm testing the speed with sites that I know have good bandwidth, such as Intel, Motorola, Apple etc.

I haven't run any sort of utility of any kind to try and isolate this, as my experience lies on the PC side of the isle, I wouldn't know what utility to try. The Charter (my Internet provider) speed test I normally use shows that the speed is still good today, once the test starts anyway. I tried another speed test at speedtest.net and it showed a fast connection as well, it was 17.4 download and 4.1 upload, so pretty sure it's not the connection. When I went to speedtest, they try to sell you a utility called "Mackeeper". Normally, in the PC world, these are just huge rip-offs. They do little or nothing and can sometimes even cause harm. Is there a utility that might be worth trying that you or someone is aware of?

I LOVE the iMac for everything that it is. It's a great looking workstation, runs all of the other applications we use very well, and I'm still happy I bought the machine, but with my spend on the workstation over $2,500 just can't imagine what could be causing the Internet performance issues. Any ideas would be highly appreciated. If I need to purchase a utility of some sort, I'll be happy to do so if necessary, so please advise if there is really one that's worthwhile.

Thanks for your thoughts, and any additional assistance / ideas you may provide.

It's an interesting problem - especially given that you're seeing about the performance you expect to when you run speed test. Makes me wonder if your problem is in the OS somewhere. Just for giggles - down load Onyx and run a repair permissions...and do a cache flush. Make sure you have a backup in place for all your files - because given your symptoms - if you can't fix it with running Onyx - I'd be trying a clean reinstall of the OS.