Slow Internet with mac but not PC

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For the last few days, my Internet has been grindingly slow at times when my Mac is connected. I have 6 Mbps, and usually get around 5 via speedtest when everything is fine. Recently however it has been dropping to 0.5 mbps or so. The problem is intermittent. Someone from my ISP came to look at it, but says that everything is fine with the connection and the router. They don't offer tech support for Macs.

When I disconnect everything and hook up my PC, the connection speed is fine and consistent. The mac is not currently downloading anything in the background, or anything like that. I have rebooted the Mac in safe mode, disconnecting all peripherals, and still have the same problem.

Once the Mac and PC are connected together, the pc has more or less the same speed issues as the Mac.

The problem is the same whether connected by wireless or cable.

Could it be something like the modem not getting on with the Mac? In which case, would buying an Airport Express likely sort it?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance - I am tearing my hair out over this one and don't know where to turn!

Ps Mac is new this year, and has all the latest updates
 
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G'day and welcome to the forums.

Truth of the matter is very few ISP's have any serious knowledge of Macs. Your modem can handle a certain speed, using two computers together shares that speed. Others may disagree but an Airport Express is simply another router and modems are not PC/Mac friendly or otherwise. Any chance you are using AV software or have the firewall activated?

Try connecting by ethernet cable and set up again when on your Mac.
 
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Thanks for your response.

There's no AV software on there, and as far as I know, the firewall is whatever the default setting is (I also have very little Mac knowledge).

I have the same problem, even when only my Mac is connected (including by cable), and when all other devices are turned off. So it's not a bandwidth issue. Have you heard of anything similar?

Thanks
 

chscag

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Try connecting your Mac (you failed to tell us the model and year) to the router using an ethernet cable while at the same time shut the PC down. How are the speeds using the Mac on ethernet? Post back and we'll take it from there.
 
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Hi,
I have also had the same problem , starting on June 22, 2013. The internet just went very slow on the mac. Some pages would load, but not correctly while other wouldn't load at all. iTunes can't find cd track names, can't access the iTunes store. Apple TV only has the computers and setup come up when it turns on instead of like the 20 option that usually come up. I can still watch videos from my iTunes library on it though. But my PC with windows vista works just fine. The mac is from mid 2011 its running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. It just did this suddenly while all the PCs are acting no differently than they have been. I disconnected the PC and turned off the WiFi and just used Ethernet cable restarted, restarted the mac and router. It just seems to be the mac's internet. So thanks if you take the time to help.
 

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I disconnected the PC and turned off the WiFi and just used Ethernet cable restarted, restarted the mac and router. It just seems to be the mac's internet. So thanks if you take the time to help.

OK, that's a good way to check. Let's see what you're using for a DNS server as it may be DNS related. Follow along and go to:

System Preferences, Network, Advanced. Click on the DNS tab and tell us what the settings are in the box on the left labeled "DNS Servers". Post back and we'll go from there.
 
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OK, that's a good way to check. Let's see what you're using for a DNS server as it may be DNS related. Follow along and go to:

System Preferences, Network, Advanced. Click on the DNS tab and tell us what the settings are in the box on the left labeled "DNS Servers". Post back and we'll go from there.

Thank you for the help. The only thing in DNS Servers is 192.168.1.1 and its light grey in color.
 

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Thank you for the help. The only thing in DNS Servers is 192.168.1.1 and its light grey in color.

That's the default address for your Router which is why it's greyed out. Let's try this:

Go to the same place (DNS). Highlight 192.168.1.1 and then press the small minus button at the bottom of the box. That should remove those numbers. Now, press the small plus button at the bottom and enter the following: 8.8.8.8 and press OK.

What that does is enter the Google public DNS server as your primary DNS server. Restart your router (switch it off and on). Reboot your Mac. Connect to the net and see if that speeds things up for you.

If it doesn't, just go back to the DNS setting and remove the numbers. It will again default back to your Router's address.
 
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Hi guys

We are having the same kind of issues on ALL Apple devices in our household when running within our house. iMac, Iphones, iPods and iPads (which we have all of) all struggle to load certain web pages, whilst my Windows laptop speeds along laughing its head off.

If I go to a site like Homepage - Gary Numan – Official Website all is fine, but if I try to go to something like Lovefilm, Twitter or Strava then the page just hangs - most of the time the banner at the bottom of the browser looks like it's waiting for cloudfront (something to do with Amazon) or add7 (I think). On my Windows laptop when I go to one of these pages I don't see any of these things being reported, or they're flying past so fast I CAN'T see them. Whatever it is - no problems.

Now the more annoying thing is that my phone runs fine at work. So it's something isolated to the home network, but just like others posting here it is a recent change (and not one I have initiated).

It's driving us nuts as effectively half the internet is unusable...as such any help would be amazing!!!!!
 
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That's the default address for your Router which is why it's greyed out. Let's try this:

Go to the same place (DNS). Highlight 192.168.1.1 and then press the small minus button at the bottom of the box. That should remove those numbers. Now, press the small plus button at the bottom and enter the following: 8.8.8.8 and press OK.

What that does is enter the Google public DNS server as your primary DNS server. Restart your router (switch it off and on). Reboot your Mac. Connect to the net and see if that speeds things up for you.

If it doesn't, just go back to the DNS setting and remove the numbers. It will again default back to your Router's address.

Hey, thank you very much, that sped it up right away. But i didn't restart anything. i just went right to the internet and it was working like it did before this problem. What is the difference with te Google server and the one I was on. Do i need to do anything differently, like security or anything? Thank you that fixed the problem. You are a life saver, didn't really like using the old PC again.
 
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Hi guys

We are having the same kind of issues on ALL Apple devices in our household when running within our house. iMac, Iphones, iPods and iPads (which we have all of) all struggle to load certain web pages, whilst my Windows laptop speeds along laughing its head off.

If I go to a site like Homepage - Gary Numan – Official Website all is fine, but if I try to go to something like Lovefilm, Twitter or Strava then the page just hangs - most of the time the banner at the bottom of the browser looks like it's waiting for cloudfront (something to do with Amazon) or add7 (I think). On my Windows laptop when I go to one of these pages I don't see any of these things being reported, or they're flying past so fast I CAN'T see them. Whatever it is - no problems.

Now the more annoying thing is that my phone runs fine at work. So it's something isolated to the home network, but just like others posting here it is a recent change (and not one I have initiated).

It's driving us nuts as effectively half the internet is unusable...as such any help would be amazing!!!!!

Hey, try what chscag suggested for me. It sped up right away, but I only have an iMac and Apple TV that had problems. So your problem may require something else. So maybe you should wait for chscag to reply, it was a great help and i am very grateful.
 

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Hey, thank you very much, that sped it up right away. But i didn't restart anything. i just went right to the internet and it was working like it did before this problem. What is the difference with te Google server and the one I was on. Do i need to do anything differently, like security or anything? Thank you that fixed the problem. You are a life saver, didn't really like using the old PC again.

Great! No, you don't have to do anything by using the Google public server. What happens is that an ISP will sometimes use a designated server which is overloaded and slow. You don't have to use your ISP servers. I have Verizon as my ISP. Real fast download and upload speeds but lousy DNS using their server. Google server is many times faster.

Anyway, glad you're back in business again. Don't be a stranger..... :D
 
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Great! No, you don't have to do anything by using the Google public server. What happens is that an ISP will sometimes use a designated server which is overloaded and slow. You don't have to use your ISP servers. I have Verizon as my ISP. Real fast download and upload speeds but lousy DNS using their server. Google server is many times faster.

Anyway, glad you're back in business again. Don't be a stranger..... :D

Alright, Great, Thanks again for everything! You were a big help.! I'll try to stop by more. Thanks
 
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Takes some working out this internet speed. Who can tell any difference using DNS addresses?

My ISP has 0.0.0.0 as the default, and when connected this changes to a 202.136.xx.xxx and a similar secondary bad dress changing the last of x to the next highest digit. When using Google's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 get precisely the same speed, 8.2MB/ps being in rural Australia, no cable or fast ADSL.
 

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Yeah Harry, sometimes changing DNS servers does not help. If you're out in the boonies in rural Australia and getting 8.2 MB/per sec, that's probably the best you can do. Here in my area with Verizon FIOS high speed, we can get around 50 MB/per sec but it's not cheap. And Verizon keeps raising the rates every two years after the contract expires.
 
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Ahh shut up Charlie!

I am getting really browned off with no speed improvement here outside capital cities and regional users pay more!
 

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Hey Charlie, do you have an extra room there? :D Where I live on this side of town we are 15k+ feet from the CO and DSL here crawls. It's supposed to be 3 but due to the distance from the CO I am lucky to get 2 or less! :-( The cable company here are crooks so we dont' want to go with them.
 
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Hi chscag

I tried the recommendation to change DNS to 8.8.8.8 and in general it seems a bit better. The irony was that I couldn't get to this page on a Mac to see what to do! I can at least get here now having changed the DNS settings. They were previously set as 193.238.80.30 and 91.212.90.30. Entering the 8.8.8.8 settings didn't appear to add 8.8.8.8 as a third option, but rather binned the other two. Is this correct or should I see all three?

Also, some sites I am still having problems with - these do seem to relate to those using cloudfront - an Amazon thing I believe. So Strava (Strava | Running and Cycling GPS Tracker, Performance Analytics, Maps, Clubs and Competition) and Lovefilm (LOVEFiLM | Watch movies & TV series online) are two particular particular ones that just don't load. On the Strava one I just see the message at the foot of the browser "waiting for d26ifou2tyrp3u.cloudfront.net and it's similar with Lovefilm.

The other thing is, whilst I am changing the DNS setting on the iMac, am I also able to do this for my home network for the iPads/pods/phones?

Many thanks for your help!

Matt
 

chscag

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Entering the 8.8.8.8 settings didn't appear to add 8.8.8.8 as a third option, but rather binned the other two. Is this correct or should I see all three?

That's correct. The Google Public DNS replaces your ISP DNS servers.

The other thing is, whilst I am changing the DNS setting on the iMac, am I also able to do this for my home network for the iPads/pods/phones?

Yes, you can change it for all your devices, however, it means doing it from within your router's setup menu. For that you'll need to dig into your router manual and find out how to enter its setup menu and make the changes. It's actually quite easy to do once you have the required info. Every router that I have dealt with can be accessed from a browser, however, there is one thing you'll need to do before entering the router menu, and that is to connect an ethernet cable from the router to your Mac first. This prevents connection loss while you're making changes.
 
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Thanks for the advice. Have dug around in the router before so I think I know where to find that. I can actually connect my work laptop up to it and leave the iMac on wireless to be able to test changes etc. Our house isn't very friendly in terms of where sockets etc are! :)

Have you any idea about why certain web pages seem to be almost blocked though? This site comes up okay, as does Facebook and loads of others (although even on the ones that come up the spinning logo never disappears of the Chrome tab at the top of the window, as if it's permanently loading). Yet Strava, Tumblr, Lovefilm etc etc just don't ever load. In fact, Facebook is the only one so far that both loads fast AND doesn't keep the spinning logo. My phone and iPad has the same trouble yet when I take them to work there's no problem, and my PC is fine. It's just confined to all Apple devices - never seen anything like it and haven't a clue what is going on!! :-(
 

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