PLEASE dear Lord, why is my internet CRAWLING??!?! (Weird problem)

[Head_Unit]

iMac PPC G5 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, OS 10.5.8

I'd posted another thread saying the connection was dropping, but it appears not true. I noticed today that
a) Transmission was showing continous upload
b) Browser response was not dead-just veeeeeeery slooooooow. Like 3 minutes to load the default Wikipedia page in the latest Safari (4.0.3 for this PPC). And the same under Firefox 3.5.7.

The only thing that "fixes" this for a while is reboot of the machine. No apparent pattern as to how long the machine has been awake or asleep. Rebooting the modem (even disconnecting the cable &/or removing the Ethernet from the iMac) does nothing if the iMac is awake.

Network Diagnostics never helps. Tonight actually it showed "fine" when the left buttons showed ISP, Internet, and Server all red...maybe because the connection was too slow to respond?

Should I delete all my connection settings and start fresh (if so how)? Paint a pentagram on the back of the iMac with Steve Jobs' blood? Or with Steve Ballmer's? Aaaaargghh, please help! And thanks in advance.

 

[cuhnool]

It may be your ISP. . . that's what it was for me about 99% of the time. I switched to a different ISP and the problem hasn't come back yet. Not suggesting you to switch to a different ISP, but they may be having issues or a slight hang up. How long has this been going on for?

 

[VegasGeorge]

I had the same thing going on earlier today. I reset Safari, then I rebooted my system: modem, router, Macs. It seemed to help some. But later in the day all the trouble went away. I think the Internet itself just gets constipated at times.

 

[Collin Bl]

Try this for troubleshooting - go into Sys Prefs > Accounts and add another Admin User and enable 'Fast User Switching in Login Options. Next time you get the slowdown log into that new user and try loading same page. If that is quicker then u need to download Onyx and start some spring cleaning on your standard user. Note to log out of a User go to Apple Menu

 

[Head_Unit]

It may be your ISP. . . that's what it was for me about 99% of the time. I switched to a different ISP and the problem hasn't come back yet. Not suggesting you to switch to a different ISP, but they may be having issues or a slight hang up. How long has this been going on for?

Well, I have Charter, but I could switch to...nobody

It's been going on since last summer. Lately, I downgraded my speed to reduce my bill, and with Transmission running it was terrible. I thought the browser was stopped, but seems it was just very very slow. But the problem has often occurred with nothing open but Safari.

Oddly, it seems to be happening less now after the speed downgrade.

I'll try the other suggestion about setting up a new user, and might call tech support to ask to completely delete this connection and set up a new one...

 

[Head_Unit]

By the way, for the edification of anyone with similar issues, the problem has now gone away.

My only guess is that I changed the service tier and downgraded the speed to save money. Maybe that reset something on Charter's end.