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Level 1

12 points

10.5.6 causing terribly slow Internet access

I have of course been searching on this for a while now, a few weeks, but every result is usually some conclusion about DNS issues, which I find tough to believe is the cause for two reason.

1) I have wiped clean my iMac and reinstalled everything fresh, no restored data and everything was as quick as it had ever been up to 10.5.5, installing 10.5.6 either by 5.5>5.6 patch or the entire combo update has caused many internet enabled applications to take a painfully long time to load information.

2) One of my friends supporting a university Mac OS (etc) network has said that this same issue has been reported on about 190 of his machines.

My DNS is cached locally on the router and is used by my PS3, 360, iPod Touch, PSP, DS, Windows XP machine & iBook (10.3.x), the only two devices with any problems at all are the two 2008/iMacs and only when they run 10.5.6.

So, getting that out of the way has anyone got any news about this? Has anyone found a solution that does not lay blame entirely on the DNS server?

The two prime examples would probably best be Safari 3 had gone from loading pages with ease to the connecting phase for several seconds to upwards of a minute before a page even starts to load, on other occasions loading about 70% of a page and the last 30 taking a good while to complete. This is also true of Safari 4 beta.

I use dashboard a lot, I use the weather widgets every morning before I go to work and under 10.5.5 or below the access time was from immediate to 2 seconds maximum. I am now waiting 20 seconds or double every time I load DB up to check.

There were other examples but I fear this is long enough as it is. Any information would be appreciated as I finally caved in and updated my girlfriends iMac because I was not happy leaving it on old security updates for so long. She is not at all pleased.

We have two times:
Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version: 1.29f1

Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Feb 26, 2009 1:54 PM

90 replies

opto

Level 1

29 points

Apr 16, 2009 12:19 PM in response to unclemiltie

Well, I can confirm that ever since I bought a new router, I no longer have any problem with this in 10.5.6. Everything is working fine.

roames

Level 1

0 points

Apr 18, 2009 12:18 PM in response to unclemiltie

Couldn't agree more. You have the exact same problem I did with a different router.

I find it particularly interesting that constructive criticism is deemed inappropriate. Simply suggesting that users should be warned of introduced incompatibilities and support staff should also know of these is a great idea. Yet, somehow, it's deemed poor etiquette to suggest such things.

Apr 18, 2009 1:24 PM in response to roames

When I post to Apple Discussions I try to remember Use Agreement section 2.3:

"Post constructive comments and questions. Unless otherwise noted, your Submission should either be a technical support question or a technical support answer. Constructive feedback about product features is welcome as well. If your Submission contains the phrase “I’m sorry for the rant, but…” you are likely in violation of this policy."

This may be stricter than other forums but we all signed up to it. Even this explanation could be considered to contravene this condition but in the circumstances I hope a degree of flexibility will be permitted.

Message was edited by: Host

Apr 18, 2009 4:02 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

I see that my earlier message was reduced to half its length by 'Host'.

I am not too surprised but it would have been polite to have been notified by email.

James Snook Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 19, 2009 4:42 AM in response to Neville Hillyer

I read the thread you linked to, I'd have an opinion but it would not last.

I have in-fact not been using OpenDNS servers for about 2 weeks now, out of curiosity. And although there is a mild degradation in performance it is as I say, mild.

This makes me wonder if my ISP has updated it's DNSd in the meantime and along with keggo's suggestion that our routers were merely acting proxy to them this would seem to be a possibility.

I apologise for earlier discounting that the ISP may be involved when suggested - it had never before crossed my mind that a simple router would not replicate an entire DNS server locally, having known how to do that with my own server previously it seemed like a possibility, but with a bit of thought, perhaps not. I have not yet verified quite what my router is doing server wise, and relying on the fact it was the local DNS server was clearly not a very smart thing to do. It is a simple machine.

I'll update the thread, and read replies in a few days probably. A bit ill right now.

--edit
I'd like to make clear of course though, this entire issue was certainly only coming with OS 10.5.6, and whatever else is happening I am bothered an OS update wrecked a working set-up.

Message was edited by: James Snook

May 2, 2009 12:13 PM in response to unclemiltie

After a lot of investigation and trying things, I finally got around to re-installing leopard from a retail DVD of 10.5.6 and all is well. Something went wacko in the upgrade process from Panther-Tiger-Leopard-10.5.6 on this machine.

One other thing. Before I re-installed, I brought the machine to a point where I could connect it to the Airport Extreme with a cable instead of the Airport. As I suspected, I had no issues with internet access. So, whatever was going on was wireless Airport access only.

The thing that frustrates me is that there are so many people here and other places posting about this and Apple has so far made no mention of this. Something in the 10.5.6 upgrade made this go bad!

May 5, 2009 8:15 PM in response to unclemiltie

Spoke too soon

After a day and a half, the system is back to its horribly slow connection. I've done NOTHING to this iMac since a complete re-install of 10.5.6 from a retail 10.5.6 DVD. It's definitely got something to do with the Airport.

Since the DVD was recently purchased, I'm thinking I'm gonna show up at the apple store with the imac and my Airport extreme and see what they say....

Wingsy

Level 2

210 points

May 6, 2009 4:28 AM in response to unclemiltie

I'm really late to this thread but I'll add my 2 cents to what has already been said.

I had the same problem as described by the O.P. My problem started out of the blue, and not triggered by the install of 10.5.6. Both computers at my house started having the problem at the same time. I'm using an Airport Extreme w/ ethernet to the Mac Pro and iMac. I discovered that my ISP (Roadrunner in Greensboro, NC) had installed an upgrade to the DNS machines on the very same weekend that my problem started. The only thing I have found to resolve my problem was to switch to a public DNS, 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2. Like most here, I had tried everything under the sun before switching DNS.

Everything has been running fine for months now.

May 6, 2009 4:59 AM in response to Wingsy

I would be interested to know if the problem persists if you take the following measures:

1 - Use a wire rather than wireless, at least for a few tests
2 - Turn off IPv6 - Network Preferences, Advanced
3 - Flush DNS cache: dscacheutil -flushcache
4 - Eliminate DHCP - See my post towards the end of: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080725172011439

May 6, 2009 7:47 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

Neville

the answers to your questions:

1: I wrote somewhere above that when I used a wire, all was well, both before the re-install of 10.5.6 and after

2: Yes, I have turned off IPv6 (and turned it back on) with no change in results
3: Yes, I have flushed the cache which appears to work for a few minutes, then things go bad again. (the same happens if I turn the airport off and on again)
4: I have not eliminated DHCP, hadn't thought of that.

As a reminder, I have two other Mac's in the house (actually three if you count the Dell Mini running MacOS) and have no issues with any of them. The mini and the MacBook can be sitting right next to the imac and have no issues while the iMac is struggling.

-bill

BTW, I saw on my MBP today that Software update had an update that improves the performance of Airport cards on 10.5.6 when switching between modes. Unfortunately, when I got home, I found that SW update for the iMac isn't offering me that upgrade. Maybe Apple actually is listening and found something?

May 7, 2009 1:30 AM in response to unclemiltie

I wonder if it is a DNS cache issue linked to certain wireless cards or wireless cards on certain Macs.

Changing some network settings (including changing DNS servers) appears to clear the DNS cache. Perhaps switching wireless off and on also clears the cache.

It would be good if somebody could eliminate DHCP. Don't forget that with OS X DHCP you can still define DNS servers so make sure that your normal (non-DHCP) DNS servers are listed for use with DHCP or you will be changing too many things at once.

There are several Airport updates at http://support.apple.com/downloads/ - keep clicking next page until you find them.

A while ago I gave advice to those who had suffered a partial 10.5.6 update - this was a widespread problem - some had no initial symptoms, see: - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1829014

dridma

Level 1

0 points

Jun 26, 2009 8:37 AM in response to James Snook

Folks:

I just got a brand new MAC PRO running 10.5.6. Safari, Firefox, and Opera all ran SUPER slow (30-70 secs to open a site). Even google.com took 30-45 secs!

Windows based PCs worked lightning fast on the same network. I called apple and they had no clue. I upgraded to 10.5.7 - same problem.

I found the fix by changing my DNS to use opendns and now google.com (for ex) takes 1 sec to load. I don't get why this fixed it, but as long as it works I am fine with it.

Instructions on how to change your DNS to 208.67.220.220:

https://www.opendns.com/start/device/apple-osx-leopard

Good luck!

James Snook Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 6, 2009 11:35 AM in response to James Snook

I don't remember marking this as finished, certainly it is no longer active but the only resolution was not good enough and not fixing the actual problem.

If I did mark this as answered though, I no longer remember why. Makes no sense.

Aug 12, 2009 10:08 AM in response to James Snook

Hi James,

did you ever get this problem resolved? I tried all of the things discussed in this post, with no luck. Then I stumbled across something on google, quite by chance, that claimed to be the only real solution to this problem. All I had to do was to restore the router and change from a mixed network to wireless n only. It completely cured the problem and I've had no problems since (about 3 months).

I hope you have found a solution because I remember how infuriating it was, I do empathise. I'll try and find the article for you if you want?

Good luck.

James Snook Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 26, 2009 1:12 AM in response to Design Gallery

All I learnt really was that (and upon doing so it was obvious) my local, small network router is not a full on DNS server, probably only a gateway to the ISP at best. And as such my ISP's DNSd was probably somewhat old. OpenDNS annoyingly has been the only fix. And still ONLY on the Macs. No other device OR operating system on the same hardware had any issues at all.

I must reiterate though my network was at no point involved, it was OS DNS resolution.

At this point, I really stopped caring. OpenDNS works but is a poor solution, I have now had an instance where some person on my ISP set up internet site blocking on his ODNS account, clearly ignoring that IP's are reset every 24 hours and the next customer to be assigned the IP will have filters applied to them. Needless to say this makes OpenDNS a very poor choice for anyone with such an ISP, and they are common in Europe.

Weather or not Apple's DNS choices are more secure or not, I do not know, all I know is only the Macs are the problem. Perhaps 10.6 will be a bit nicer!

10.5.6 causing terribly slow Internet access