Internet gradually getting slower?!

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I've been online for two weeks, and I've noticed that pages are gradually taking longer to load. Sometimes it is disastrously slow, forcing me to restart. This makes it better - but still not nearly as good as it was when I first got online. Any thoughts?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yeah, call your ISP and have them clear your lines.



    Just make sure you unplug your machine from the walljack unless you want it filled with overflow bits.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Yeah, call your ISP and have them clear your lines.



    Just make sure you unplug your machine from the walljack unless you want it filled with overflow bits.




    I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it. I do tis every so often and I find that it helps. If I'm in a rush, a hard reboot does fine too.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Yeah, call your ISP and have them clear your lines.



    Just make sure you unplug your machine from the walljack unless you want it filled with overflow bits.




    can you explain what this does and why it needs to be done?



    and yes i did check out google (very quickly though) and didn't find anything...ok ok i actually check in about 10 seconds and the page i wanted wouldn't load
  • Reply 4 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ast3r3x

    can you explain what this does and why it needs to be done?



    and yes i did check out google (very quickly though) and didn't find anything...ok ok i actually check in about 10 seconds and the page i wanted wouldn't load




    Well, as packets get sent across the ISP's lines they sometimes get caught up in places. Since they haven't reached their destination, they keep trying. But if you've moved on (e.g., pressed stop in your browser or quit the download), they don't need to get there so there's a backup in the system. This is why just rebooting doesn't totally clear up the problem - the packets have an IP they NEED to get to. If the line is not cleared out after a while, you can get jibberish in certain forms on webpages in addition to the slowdown you'll experience. That jibberish can sometimes look like it's legit so be careful.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    Well, as packets get sent across the ISP's lines they sometimes get caught up in places. Since they haven't reached their destination, they keep trying. But if you've moved on (e.g., pressed stop in your browser or quit the download), they don't need to get there so there's a backup in the system. This is why just rebooting doesn't totally clear up the problem - the packets have an IP they NEED to get to. If the line is not cleared out after a while, you can get jibberish in certain forms on webpages in addition to the slowdown you'll experience. That jibberish can sometimes look like it's legit so be careful.



    thanks...its not really a problem for me but its definatly interesting...so a hard reboot solves this problem as well?
  • Reply 6 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    If the line is not cleared out after a while, you can get jibberish in certain forms on webpages in addition to the slowdown you'll experience. That jibberish can sometimes look like it's legit so be careful.



    Read that last part very carefully.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    torifile, you're a b*astard. Okay, I started it, but jeez mon.



    ast3r3x, grimson, what I posted was strictly a joke. tori ran with it. If you call your ISP, they're just going to think you're a loonie. To be honest, I haven't seen the problem you're seeing... does quitting and restarting the browser alone help the problem any? Or is this not limited to one application?



    (BTW, that joke dates back to the early days of the telephone, when an April Fool's prank was run by a major metropolitan newspaper (London Times?) advising that the phone company was going to blow the lines clear, and that customers should take the handset off the unit, and place a bag over it to prevent dust from being blown into their house.)
  • Reply 8 of 12
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    I am proud to say I suspected this wasn't legit!



    Quitting and then re-opening the browser does help a little - but why should I have to do even that?
  • Reply 9 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    torifile, you're a b*astard. Okay, I started it, but jeez mon.





    That was the most fun I've had on a discussion board in a while. Not my usual style, but I was sick yesterday, so.... Yes, it was complete BS.



    On a more serious note, I find that quitting and restarting the browser helps too. I'm not sure why that works. I think it's about the cache needing to get cleared out... Anyone got a more plausible explanation?
  • Reply 10 of 12
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Well, it could be that it's consuming large amounts of RAM to keep cached data in memory to make rerendering of pages when you hit 'back' *snappy*.



    How much RAM do you have, what's your CPU, and which browser are you using?
  • Reply 11 of 12
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    eh...made enough sense to me...i mean i dont have the problem that grimson does...i was just gonna file that away in knowledge haha
  • Reply 12 of 12
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ast3r3x

    eh...made enough sense to me...i mean i dont have the problem that grimson does...i was just gonna file that away in knowledge haha



    I fixed the original problem. I noticed that, for some reason, I had no less than 3 complete, seperate Internet Explorer folders: one for version 5.1, and two for 4.5. The 5.1 folder was in the OS9 folder. One of the 4.5 folders was on the hard drive, and the other was in the system folder. I trashed the two 4.5 folders, and web browsing has returned to snappy. Don't know why this would matter, but it seems to have made a difference.
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