internet vs computer

What internet software?

What exactly is slowing down your computer?

What did you install recently?

Describe your concern as if we can't read your mind or observe what's going on with your Mac, since we can't do either one. Please read Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question.

The code behind the websites should not in any way affect the speed of your computer. Generally speaking all websites have the same type of code (HTML, CSS, some javascript) but may be used differently.

You may have an extension or plug-in for your browser that is getting affected.

Give us some examples of websites this slowness happens on so we may check them out. Also if you post an Etrecheck report we may be able to more accurately determine what is causing the slow down.

Using EtreCheck

If you are being inundated with advertisements please read How to install adware for a description of how that may have occurred, how to avoid it in the future, and for Apple's recommended actions. Apple's instructions are linked in the Recovery Procedure near the end of that document. Read and follow them carefully. Pay particular attention to the easily overlooked passages directing you to restart your Mac when required.

Review your Gatekeeper settings: OS X : About Gatekeeper - Apple Support. Gatekeeper is designed to help prevent you from inadvertently installing garbage software.

Are you really on 10.5.8?

You should give us the link to web pages you think are causing a problem. We can check them out.

Some semi-random thoughts on addressing performance problems.

Activity Monitor
Look at what is happening with your Mac when you run Activity Monitor.

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor

Look at my activity monitor image below.

Make sure you are looking at all processes.

Make sure that you have clicked on the cpu tab. make sure the triangle is down.

You can gain some understanding of Activity Monitor by looking at it every once in a while. Look at the small graph below to see the total cpu time used. See what processes are listed on top.

Here is how I have my cpu display set up:

AppleJack
"AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use."
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

Console
You can use the console application to examine Mac OS log files. The logs will contain information on various system processes.

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Console

File > open console log
this will display the startup messages

and
file > open system log
once the system is started, messages will go into the system log

Other folks
bdaqua advises running disk utility from install disk ( or recover partition ) and performing a safe boot:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2256611
Using the Recovery partition

Hold down command+r at boot.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4718
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/03/how-to-boot-into-os-x-lions-recovery-hd-partition /

K Shaffer advises checking for available RAM

Loewenzahn wrote:

Thank you. EtreCheck seems to have no problem downloading, but appears then with a symbol that seems to block further access. I am really on a 10.5.8.

Hello Loewenzahn,

I'm sorry, but EtreCheck requires 10.6 or later.

We need the actual links. Copy the address of the web page to your reply. There are a lot of government sites out there.

Try a different web browser. firefox, chrome

If Safari is getting very slow:

(Presumably you regularly empty your Safari cache by deleting the following file:

Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/cache.db

and clear your History)

Adding Open DNS codes to your Network Preferences, should give good results in terms of speed-up* as well as added security, (including anti-phishing and redirects) (Full information about Open DNS is here:
http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions and here: http://www.opendns.com/technology/opendns-vs-google-public-dns/ )

and further independent information can be read here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57338784-263/free-dnscrypt-tool-enhances-ma c-web-security/?tag=mncol;txt

and here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1146064/troubleshootdns.html?t=234

* as confirmed by: http://lifehacker.com/5835775/google-dns-and-opendns-users-are-getting-a-web-spe ed-boost

and Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3408?viewlocale=en_US

but results may vary depending on where you are located.

If you are using a single computer: Open System Preferences/Network. Double click on your connection type, or select it in the drop-down menu, and in the box marked 'DNS Servers' add the following two numbers:

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

(You can also enter them if you click on Advanced and then DNS)

Sometimes reversing the order of the DNS numbers can be beneficial in cases where there is a long delay before web pages start to load, and then suddenly load at normal speed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2296

bankofamerica & americanexpress came up within 5 to 10 seconds for me.

try speedof.me to gage how fast your internet is.

try firefox to see if the problem is with your browser

getfirefox.com

R