A Spyware Problem?

hledgardhledgard
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
On my daughter's iBook, every time she bring up a new webpage, the computer stops to think,

and she gets the rainbow swirly ball for a few seconds. She has been told that she may have some invisible program running.



Would spyware software ferret out the problem and get it off her system?



Thanks!

Henry Ledgard

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Does this happen with every browser? Try Firefox if you are using Safari or vice versa. There isn't any widely used spyware for the Mac so it's unlikely to be that.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    yamayama Posts: 427member
    Try the usual routine of clearing out the browser cache, icon cache and deleting preferences.



    "Empty cache..." is available from the Safari application menu. The icon cache can be found under ~/Library/Safari/Icons/. The preference file is ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist.



    Also check that you don't have any 3rd party plug-ins installed for Safari like Saft or Pith Helmet which are known to screw things up here and there.



    Spyware is basically non-existent on the Mac, so I seriously doubt that's what's going on here.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    aquamacaquamac Posts: 585member
    A few questions to help locate the problem.
    • What kind of internet connection does she have (Wireless, cable or DSL broadband, T1 or dial up)?

    • Is she using a proxy server?

    • How much RAM is on her iBook?

    • Does she have other programs open when this happens?

    • What speed is her hard disk?

    • Repaired permissions lately or run the Daily, Weekly or Monthly CRON scripts?

    • How much free space does her hard drive have?

  • Reply 4 of 5
    ricksbrainricksbrain Posts: 517member
    Is it a G3 or G4? I used an 800Mhz G3 the other day and was shocked at how slowly it loaded pages. It's no different, but the pages generally have more to render, it seems.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    ricksbrainricksbrain Posts: 517member
    Oh, and in Energy Saver, make sure the cpu is set for better performance.
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