Internet problems...

Hi all
This has been ongoing for a couple of years, so last call for help before I deposit my
G5 iMac through the nearest window.
Have BT Infinity and all works well with son's MacBook and daughter's PC via WiFi and Airport.
As for me, mine is cable based and despite the BT boffins telling me all is well with the speed etc and after many a test, the result of which is still an internet which is slower than Greece's economic recovery.
Has anyone out there got any tips/hints/ideas - no Geekese please, just plain simple English?
Yours in advance.
DQ

How old is your iMac G5... these were circa 2004 and discontinued in 2006? The early model would put yours close on 7+ years old and the specs say your wireless is 802.11B/g standard so you could connect wirelessly.
I think your machine may be competing with some fitter specimens on the network and losing the battle.

What maintenance do you do with your iMac and your Router? Emptying caches, resetting Safari, resetting the router now and again and updating it's firmware helps. Is your Cat5 intact or is it chewed and kinked like a wizard's sleeve? How full is your desktop and hard drive? Have you updated Flash? Why has the son got a better machine than his Dad?

Questions need to asked;D

Is yours the iSight model or an older one? Also what version of OSX is installed? Give us a bit more info if you can.

Gentlemen....

Here goes...and please excuse any ignorance on my part. Bought said machine three years ago as a refurb. Has tons of stuff loaded on that I never use but I'm loathe to delete in case I balls it up.
Adobe Illustrator, Fireworks and Bridge (among others) have never been opened except in error.
It has never had a cache emptying (as far as I am aware (how does one?). Sorry, but lost me on Cat5. Desktop is good to go with little on there.
Have been bashing the thing writing a book using InDesign CS4 since I have had it but the main files are on mem stick with back ups in Dropbox and an external source.
Got a feeling that hard drive may be donald ducked as it constantly sounds like a plane coming into land.
Never updated Flash - does one need to, as I thought Macs just prompted one as soon as software upgrades were needed?
He bought his a few years back and earns way too much money.
All I know about the Pendle Witch was that she was the north's version of Bertie Smalls.

Secondly, if by isight you mean an internal camera then no and it runs on 10.5.8.

Apologies if I sound a bit vague but give me InDesign and Photoshop and I can knock you up a thing of beauty within days but as for the rest...don't have a clue.
Hope this helps.
DF

Now then Westlands2011,

This is my two-penneth.

The very best thing that you can do initially is to post the specs of your machine. If you click on the Apple icon on the menu bar top left and click 'About this Mac', the tech details of your machine will appear. Post these back first.

You should be able to run Snow Leopard 10.6 on your machine, however you could probably do with some basic maintenance on your machine for starters before an update so try these for now in no particular order except for this one... BACK UP your necessary data.

1. De-clutter your desktop of all unnecessary images, folders etc. File things away neatly and leave the desktop as clean as possible. Yes all that clutter will slow you up.

2. With regards to Safari, there is an option called Safari/Empty Cache click on it. Whilst you are at it it might be a good idea to Reset Safari, this option is in the same sub-menu.

3. Have a 'house' clearance of all unnecessary files and folders that you have created but can do without.

4. Go into Applications/Disk Utility and click on your drive- probably called 'Macintosh HD' and tell us how much disk space you have spare, this will give you some indication of how effective your clear out will be. You will need at least 20% headroom spare on your hard drive at all times.

5. Your Cat5 is the cable that you are using to connect to your router. I would imagine it is a combined Modem and Wireless Router because that is typical of a UK set-up. Check it's integrity, disconnect/reconnect.

6. Access your routers' settings on your network and update the firmware. Your router will have an IP address on your local network. Copy/Paste that into the address bar in Safari, it will more than likely be something like 192.168.2. something or other..you can find this in System Prefs/Network/Wi-Fi. Enter your router and update the firmware.
7.Enter Disk Utility and choose the drive and click repair Disk Permissions.


There will be lot's more things we can try but you need to get it on it's feet first before upgrading your OS etc

BTW I laughed my socks off at Bertie Smalls!!

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16126109

I'd add to Pendlewitches info:

BT Infinity is fibre optic broadband and has a very specific config as far as the BT hardware goes. The router self updates firmware. So as far as router tweaks go, at this stage, I'd limit it to turning it off and on again every now and then.

Also, while in disk utility I'd run a verify/repair disk too.


In addition you may want to download Firefox and or Google Chrome browsers just as a way of comparing speeds with Safari. I.e. if another browser is significantly quicker you'll know it's Safari at fault.

Disk Utility thing says I have 32.8mb left on disk...

and here is the other stuff.

Model Name: iMac G5
Model Identifier: PowerMac8,1
Processor Name: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Processor Speed: 1.8 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 1
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 600 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.2f2
Serial Number (system): W84480G2PP8
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-000D9370DB06

Don't normally use Safari (Firefox is my weapon of choice).

I am very OCD when it comes to a clean desk top and apart from constantly plugged in mem stick, there are just a couple of other folders with quite a few InDesign documents but with limited pics, although there are hundreds of pics on mem stick.

Somebody once said that all the Adobe stuff that is loaded on it, takes up so much space but always loathe to press a few buttons in case I bugger it.

I bought the Mac through a friend in Wimbledon but I live in east London and apart from having approached a few of the staff in the Apple shop in Romford (who weren't exactly helpful, despite being offered coinage of the realm to give it the once over), I haven't been able to find anyone local to sort it for me.

In case this helps, it was always slow regardless of the fan sounding like its got emphysema, so bear with me if I respond a stupid kind of way.
DF

Concurred mrplow, didn't spot the F.O. issue as still on steam up here.

Mate, your disk is bursting full to the brim. 32mb is tiny and I guess that some of your huge apps may need to go but wait for sage advice from dTravis7 and mrplow also before you start.

Do you have the original install disks at all?

Nope, nothing original. Just went to the shop weighed out my dosh and off I went with my new toy.

Got the following loaded, which I never use so must be taking up a lot of space.

ADOBE
Bridge - 340.3mb on disk
Contribute - 210.3
Dreamweaver - 343.3
Fireworks - 438.1
Illustrator - 327.8
Media Encoder 438.7
Does the last one effect anything else that I may use?
plus....ichat, imove, iphoto, garage band, iweb, my dock is larger than Harland & Wolfe at the turn of the last century.
I have Adobe Flash, but the dock logo turned into a question mark after I tried using a Mac Cleaner about a year ago.
Sorry to sound so vague but I am only good with the bits I know and understand.
Cheers
DF

I have wanted to rid some of them for ages, but I get panic stricken
in case I press the wrong buttons and my InDesign is affected, as
it is a work thingy and would be knackered without it.
DF

Right click on the folder for each one in Applications and click 'get info'.... note the file size for each one.
Compare this list with the overall size of your hard drive. (It's not on your list of specs so I don't know).

Also Mac Cleaner has a poor reputation on this forum. Onyx is the recommended app for maintenance.

Edited above with said info...

Sorry to be a pain but noticed that ichat, imove, iphoto, garage band, iweb all take up a lot of space.
The first four can go but not sure about the last one in case it is essential to normal operations.

I am just going outside and may be some time...back later.

Westlands2011 said:

Sorry to be a pain but noticed that ichat, imove, iphoto, garage band, iweb all take up a lot of space.
The first four can go but not sure about the last one in case it is essential to normal operations.

Click to expand...

No leave them for now, they are nice apps to have and some come bundled with the package called iLife and iChat is part of Leopard.

What we need to ascertain is what is using all your disk space. You highlight above only 2gb of software anmd Leopard is about 9gb.

Where are you storing your CS4 Files?

Edit.

Can you also check the condition of your mailboxes in Mail, particularly the Trash(Deleted) folder

That's really no space at all.

Start by going through your own files and either delete old stuff or or archive off stuff you want to keep onto on of your backup solutions.

Once you've got a little rom to spare get Onyx and run the automated scripts then get Disk InventoryX which, once run, will give you a graphic representation of where your disk is being used. That may help you identify app or files that are hogging disk space.

Sorry chaps...took longer than expected...so where were we?

@pendlewitch - Cleared out all mail boxes, although I don't use the one that is on the dock, but 90% were just text with few attachments.
The bulk of CS4 files, with 100s of picss, are stored on mem stick/drop box. The one folder I have on the desk top contains about 50 ID documents, but they have minimal content and are text only.

@mrplow - To be honest there was little to clear out so no real extra space created. I did download Onyx but it will not open, says something about not supported on this architecture.

One more thing [sounds like a naughty schoolboy], I did fiddle around with the coding numbers in the Internet network area about a year ago, but to be honest it made little difference and even before I battered my system with a 100,000,000 key strokes and then some, it was always sluggish, including CS4, especially where tints and pics are involved.

Mate, I've been away all day thus the late response.

In a nutshell, we're still none the wiser about your hard drive, even with regards to it's total OEM capacity e.g. 120 Gb or 160Gb?

With just 32 Mb left on anything of any capacity you are, these days, maxed out and need to start seriously kicking some files into touch. If you are saying that you don't save anything large to your hard drive then this figure you quote must be a erroneous so check again and do run verify/repair disk permissions as per mrplow's instructions. We need to start somewhere.

Just been told that I have 120GB free