Sluggish internet connection

[bamacowgirl]

My local Apple store installed a new hard drive a few months ago because Mac was running slow and about to crash. It started slowing down again, so I installed El Capitan. (I was using Yosemite). That was a nightmare. Internet speed test showed less than 1.0 Mbps. I'm paying for 12 Mbps. My ISP sent a tech guy out and he replaced a faulty wire, got me up to speed. As soon as he left, speed went down. I've been on the phone several times with Apple and with my ISP. Every now land then I'll get the top speed, but only for one try. My ISP says it has done all they can do and the problem is in my MacBook Pro. Apple says not so, it's my ISP.

Does anybody have any idea what might be going on here?

 

[honestone]

A couple of things come to mind:

1. What browser are you using? If you are not using it, try Google Chrome. It is fast.

2. Did the ISP individual check out your router while he was there?

3. Have you tried "recycling down and up" both your modem and the router? How to do, and in what order, varies from ISP to ISP.

4. Does your EMail program run slow also, in terms of EMails coming and going?

5. Probably does not make a whole lot of difference, but have you ever performed any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs? Even though you got a new one recently, you still need to do that as often as possible (disk cleanup should happen just about every day).

6. Are you making any backups to an external device?

7. You might want to try some speed tests. Here are some suggestions:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-internet-speed-tests/

https://www.techtricksforum.org/best-internet-speed-test-tools/

8. Do you have the latest version of El Capitan, V10.11.5? IF not, you can get the Combo Updater from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1876?locale=en_US

9. After running some of those speed tests in 7 above, you could download, install, and run namebench (takes some time to run). It can point you to faster servers that are available. You can get it from here:

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/namebench.shtml

 

[honestone]

Update: I actually tried all the tests from that first link in 7 above, and for Download Speeds, it was "50-50" in terms of speed. Half of the sites indicated a download speed at or above 34 Mbps, and the other half showed around 23 to 24 Mbps. Upload speed was pretty consistent, around 5.5 to 6 Mbps. I'm going to run namebench soon to see if it suggests another server.

 

[bamacowgirl]

A couple of things come to mind:

1. What browser are you using? If you are not using it, try Google Chrome. It is fast.

2. Did the ISP individual check out your router while he was there?

3. Have you tried "recycling down and up" both your modem and the router? How to do, and in what order, varies from ISP to ISP.

4. Does your EMail program run slow also, in terms of EMails coming and going?

5. Probably does not make a whole lot of difference, but have you ever performed any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs? Even though you got a new one recently, you still need to do that as often as possible (disk cleanup should happen just about every day).

6. Are you making any backups to an external device?

7. You might want to try some speed tests. Here are some suggestions:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-internet-speed-tests/

https://www.techtricksforum.org/best-internet-speed-test-tools/

8. Do you have the latest version of El Capitan, V10.11.5? IF not, you can get the Combo Updater from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1876?locale=en_US

9. After running some of those speed tests in 7 above, you could download, install, and run namebench (takes some time to run). It can point you to faster servers that are available. You can get it from here:

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/namebench.shtml

In answer to your questions:
1. Safari 2. yes 3. yes 4. yes

A couple of things come to mind:

1. What browser are you using? If you are not using it, try Google Chrome. It is fast.

2. Did the ISP individual check out your router while he was there?

3. Have you tried "recycling down and up" both your modem and the router? How to do, and in what order, varies from ISP to ISP.

4. Does your EMail program run slow also, in terms of EMails coming and going?

5. Probably does not make a whole lot of difference, but have you ever performed any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs? Even though you got a new one recently, you still need to do that as often as possible (disk cleanup should happen just about every day).

6. Are you making any backups to an external device?

7. You might want to try some speed tests. Here are some suggestions:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-internet-speed-tests/

https://www.techtricksforum.org/best-internet-speed-test-tools/

8. Do you have the latest version of El Capitan, V10.11.5? IF not, you can get the Combo Updater from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1876?locale=en_US

9. After running some of those speed tests in 7 above, you could download, install, and run namebench (takes some time to run). It can point you to faster servers that are available. You can get it from here:

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/namebench.shtml

1. Safari 2. yes 3. yes 4. yes 5. yes 6. yes 7. I ran many speed tests via speediest.net and I'm consistently getting below 1.0 for download speeds. 8. yes 9. With such a slow internet download speed, it would take forever to download any program.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Defiantly think this points to your ISP, easy test take you mac to a friends and test speeds.

 

[Homer1952]

You don't say if your computer is wireless or hardwired to a cable modem. If wireless, then the speed can be affected by other things connected to the wireless modem. If wireless, you could turn off all other wireless devices & then run speedtest.net.

Another test you can run the speed tests at a trusted location to see if it is the ISP/installation or not.

-Bob