Hep With My First Mac

Help With My First Mac

Hiya

Im Jodie from the UK ;D Im hoping somebody can help me as ive just switched to Mac after many years with IBM based PC,s and to say i feel cheated is an understatement following on from the keyboard trouble i was having with my PC last month i decided to take the plunge and buy an Apple I Mac Ive always had IBM based Windows PC,s up until now and its a bit of a learning curve :eyepop:
Id like to say im very Happy with my £1k Purchase but im actually quiet dissapointed I feel a little like ive just wasted a Grand

Im hoping theres some Mac users on here can help?
The Mac itself is very quick and very stable but the internet is not :grumpy:

One minute its really fast online next thing its ground to a halt and wont load anything despite doing a broadband speed test and getting a constant 10mb speed and loading the same pages on my two year old Toshiba laptop next to the max they have no problems loading whatsoever!

Whats wrong with it? is there some sort of settings that need altering?
When its fast on the web,its fast but when i starts crashing pages its worse than any IBM based PC ive ever had before and i got a Mac because everybody told me they are more stable and dont crash,dont get viruses etc Yada Yada Yada

This mac has twice the size Processor than my old IBM based Toshiba Laptop and twice as much ram but keeps comming to spectacular halts on the Web??????

Am i stuck with a £1k Lemon or is this a known issue that can be rectified?

Huggz
Jodie

OK, what browser are you using?

I assume you are not moving too far away from the wifi when the internet slows down.

Does the computer's fan go into overdrive before a crash, and have the sites got flash banners when this happens. Flash shouldn't really cause crashes, but unfortunately the Mac version of Flash is even worse than the windows version.

If it seems that it is the aweful version of flash, I would first consider upgrading Flash, if that doesn't work I would block Flash.

Well as far as browsers go i was using Safari but as ive used Firefox on windows Pc,s i downloaded that too ive tried both and to be honest they are both as bad,though i prefer Firefox
Airport Signal Strength is Fine its 100% im only about 2 feet away from my router anyhow

I know deep down it cannot be the Mac itself im assuming its something in its configuration or settings because it it was something like the Mac itself was too slow opening up things like Files,Folders,Photos,Programmes like Office etc would be slow but they are not :-

I can open up numerous Programmes similtanious without problem it just doesnt like the internet very much

We are considering upping our Broadband package to 20m but though this may help i dont think the ISP is the issue as the same pages load quicker on my Toshiba Laptop

Most annoying thing is the internet pages can load very fast for hours on end then all of a sudden they start stalling even though broadband speed or traffic doesnt appear to have changed and my tosh is unnafected

I read somewhere about somebody having a similar problem that was solved by changing settings but i wouldnt have a clue how to configure it all manually

I notice that you didn't say anything in response to the suggestion to update your Flash, so I'm going to make an alternate suggestion: download a flash BLOCKER for Firefox (sorry I use Safari so I'm not sure which one that would be, on Safari it's ClickToFlash extension for Safari 5 or better) and see if that clears up the problem.

Let us know.

Also NoScript for Firefox.
NoScript - JavaScript/Java/Flash blocker for a safer Firefox experience! - what is it? - InformAction

Thanx for all the suggestions guyz
Im playing around with a few options a nearby friend who has used Macs suggested downloading a plug in called Silverlight for Firefox that appeared to help browsing speed a little on firefox but im also trying a third browser now(not all at the same time) called Google Chrome which boasts its the fastest browser and i must say it does appear to be an improvement ;D

Id love to hear from experienced I Mac users who have recently got the same machine as me ie a MC508 I Mac and whether they find pages load slow in their browsers? If not at least i know its something that can be rectified

Thanks
Jodie

I'd stay away from Silverlight as it's primarily a development tool for use with Web browsers - promulgated by none other than Microsoft. And from my experience with it, it spreads junk files all over your Mac. Give Chrome a try. I found Chrome (other than Safari) to be fast and intuitive.

chscag said:

I'd stay away from Silverlight as it's primarily a development tool for use with Web browsers - promulgated by none other than Microsoft. And from my experience with it, it spreads junk files all over your Mac. Give Chrome a try. I found Chrome (other than Safari) to be fast and intuitive.

Click to expand...

Im actually now using Google Chrome and im more than happy with it
Only time will tell? The one thing i have noted though is although i have no problem with Safari compared to Firefox and Chrome Safari appears to be the slowest by far

Im just hoping the slow loading is something that i can overcome as being my first Mac im hoping my first experience of them wont be a bad one

I don't know if this will make ant sense or even if it is the same on a Mac as it is in a Windows based PC.
My thought is that if there is a place on a Mac where Temp Internet files are stored like in a Windows PC, maybe the storage fills up after hours of surfing so won't let more sites load. Then, when you shut down, the cache empties and you're good to go next time you start it up.

5tevie said:

I don't know if this will make ant sense or even if it is the same on a Mac as it is in a Windows based PC.
My thought is that if there is a place on a Mac where Temp Internet files are stored like in a Windows PC, maybe the storage fills up after hours of surfing so won't let more sites load. Then, when you shut down, the cache empties and you're good to go next time you start it up.

Click to expand...

Hi Stevie
thanks for your reply though you may be right i find that a little dissapointing as my windows PC hold around Three Weeks Cookies in the cash at a time and it doesnt slow that down

I thought Cookies/Temp internet files were there to speed things up a little ie a memory of that said page to help it load quicker the next time?

Not the other way around

If that is the case that its cookies slowing down the pc im a bit dissapointed as its less than one week old it was slow to load after 1 day surely you shouldnt have to clear the cache every few hours or similar?

Thanks for the thoughts though,Apple arnt doing very well at convincing me their computers are a better alternative to PC,s though

On my Mac, Safari loads MUCH faster than Firefox or any other browser. Safari was designed to run quickly on Mac computers, so your issue is not the norm. You might consider taking your Mac to a Genius Bar to see if they can troubleshoot it better in person. Maybe you need to trash the Safari preferences folder or something. Or if that's that only thing that's slow, you can just keep using another browser. Are you sure your Mac is detecting your router's signal and not someone else's nearby? Even if a signal is at 100%, if it's not yours it could still run quite slow.

Safari was designed to run quickly on Mac computers, so your issue seems to be an anomaly.

May I suggest that you put your iMac specs in so that we all know which macine you're using.

I'm UK based.

I use Firefox. Since migrating to iMac from PC in May I've had no problems with it. I don't seem to have needed Flash to date and, whenever updating Firefox, have ignored all suggestions to update Flash.

As far as e-mail is concerned, I have found Apple's Mail works so I have stopped using Thunderbird as I've never succeeded in making it work.

However, in spite of instructing Mail preferences to erase deleted mails permanently when quitting mail they don't seem to be removed from the server.

Hi,

I am also UK based and have no issues re Safari on my Wifi setup, very quick as all is on the Mac.

What version of safari are you running as I believe looking at my updates it is V 5.0.3 this was on the 18/11/2010.

I have to say I'm on wifi. The two best programs I use are Safari and Mail. They work great for me. So much better than IE8 and outlook or win mail. Mine just work flawlessly. This is some of what makes the MBP worth the money for me.

We hopefully have this issue sorted now fingers crossed?
Determined to get to the bottom of the problem ive been trying out allsorts,different browsers etc but all to no avail

It was suggested that our router may be the weak link? Andre suggested this and asked if our router was a D link?

Indeed it was and what a nightmare

We tried to get new firmware but d Link only ist two versions for hardware type B2 or D1 and ours is D2 :eyepop:
Not a propblem we thought we will email D link but you have to register to email them
When we tried to register their page crashed and told us we couldnt carry the registration out on anything but a microsoft based pc and browser

Thats interesting :fall:

So if you cant even register to email them unless its on a windows PC what hope have you got getting a mac and their router to communicate? :eyepop: :eyepop: :eyepop:
In the meantime we noticed having just upgraded our Virgin Broadband we were entitled to a new hub not a D link thankfully

so before we rang them we thought we would try something?
after turning the place upside down we finally found our etnernet cable and bypassed the router completely and plugged directly into the Modem
Suprize Suprize the browser no longer stalls,and is faster and it doesnt really matter which browser you use

So Virgin are sending us a new hub (combined Modem/Router) and we are hoping that the wireless will be better with that?
Only Time will tell :nod:

In the meantime though ill use the cable its not very practical but at least i can browse ok

I am begining to wish id bought a Macbook pro though the mouse on this is differcult to use and i think im getting RSI the magic mouse eats batteries and everything you have to buy to make the experience better costs more and more money

If anybody is thinking of getting a Mac get a Macbook its a far better package

Huggz
Jodie

In the meantime though ill use the cable its not very practical but at least i can browse ok

Click to expand...

This was the easiest acid test re hardware issue as we were saying, and am
very pleased you have found the problem. Hope Virgin sends new M/R ASAP.

If anybody is thinking of getting a Mac get a Macbook its a far better package

Click to expand...

I suspect it really depends on what you want from your Mac,;D but never had iMac Macbook is great will never revert back to Windows PC or use Bootcamp. This is a Mac and only run Mac software.

Just thought I'd pipe in about the Magic Mouse batteries... I've had my iMac about a month now, and JUST had to change batteries for the first time in my Magic Mouse last night. I got the Apple battery charger, which came with batteries, and I have no doubt they will all last just as long (and I use this thing daily, so it's not like it was on once a week) So if you're burning through batteries with it, you must either be leaving it on, using the wrong kind, or there may be a problem with it.

Have you tried the old Mighty Mouse? IMO it works a little more comfortably and reliably than the new Magic Mouse.

However if you really don't like either one, you don't have to use an Apple mouse at all. There are many different kinds of Mac-compatible mice out there.

I don't think I've ever like the mouse that a computer came with, even with my Windows machine. I always end up replacing it.