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mikesjo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
104
0
Vancouver, B.C.
I have a pc laptop w/ wireless B sitting beside my ibook with wireless G. The PC loads pages faster and surfs faster compared to the ibook on safari. PC is using firefox.

Is there a way to make them equal at least? Some tweak settings?

Thanks.
 

.:*Robot Boy*:.

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2005
373
0
New Zealand
From what I understand, this is because of the way in which Safari renders pages rather than the speed of the Internet connection. If you want your iBook's Internet to 'feel' faster, maybe you could try a different browser.
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Yeah, Safari likes to download the page before displaying it although there are hacks that can change that (like SafariSpeed).

Also, many sites are optimised for Internet Explorer 6.0 (and PCs) first and foremost which can be the reason that sometimes PCs seem faster than Macs at displaying pages. I realise you're using Firefox, but the same theory carries through because there are so many more Firefox (on the PC) users than Safari users. :(
 

bgd

macrumors regular
Aug 30, 2005
237
11
SG
mikesjo said:
So firefox on the mac won't be any faster than safari?

Try firefox on the mac. I have firefox on a windows laptop and a mini and I don't see any difference in speed.
 

semaja2

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2005
576
18
Adelaide
its the way the browsers work eg. internet explorer waits for the whole page to download before it renders where as firefox and opera will render as it downloads, now this idea of half rendering and stuff would annoy a normal user where as a power user loves this becuase we begin to read stuff while it downloads


PS find a online speed test and compare them
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
I'm on dial up and I reckon Camino renders pages faster than Safari, it also doesn't quit loading pictures and fill the rest of the image with grey like Safari does on iLounge.com. Everytime I go there with Safari it will take ages to load images and the suddenly stop and I'll find that all the pictures are only half-loaded and the rest of it is grey.
 

mduser63

macrumors 68040
Nov 9, 2004
3,042
31
Salt Lake City, UT
I also find Camino to be faster than Safari, but I like Safari's interface and features better, so I use it. I found that typing my DNS servers into the Network settings in System Preferences drastically sped up browsing in Safari for me. Enough so that I don't really notice a difference between it and Camino anymore. According to what I read somewhere, if the computer is using your router for DNS service, there can be long delays in resolving URLs.
 

Eidorian

macrumors Penryn
Mar 23, 2005
29,190
386
Indianapolis
mduser63 said:
I also find Camino to be faster than Safari, but I like Safari's interface and features better, so I use it. I found that typing my DNS servers into the Network settings in System Preferences drastically sped up browsing in Safari for me. Enough so that I don't really notice a difference between it and Camino anymore. According to what I read somewhere, if the computer is using your router for DNS service, there can be long delays in resolving URLs.
I'll have to try this. I use Safari Speed. It helps a bit. FireFox is slow to load. Camino is faster and it has FireFox's page rendering benefits. I just love RSS feeds in Safai though.
 

ITASOR

macrumors 601
Mar 20, 2005
4,398
3
mad jew said:
Yeah, Safari likes to download the page before displaying it although there are hacks that can change that (like SafariSpeed).

Holy crap, I just installed that and Safari feels way faster!!!
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
Safari is slow.
Powerbook Wireless is less reliable than most.
Depending on your router, if you have both a Wireless B and a Wireless G machine on the same router, your router may change to the lowest common mode so the G machine may be running B speeds.
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
mikesjo said:
So firefox on the mac won't be any faster than safari?


I've never worked out if they'd be the same speed. At a guess, I'd say the Windows version is still slightly faster but I don't have anything hard to back that up with. CanadaRAM, that is not an excuse to start talking about my hard bits.


ITASOR said:
Holy crap, I just installed that and Safari feels way faster!!!


I've always thought it was a placebo effect but I haven't tried it with 2.0 yet. I probably won't bother because I use tabs so that loading pages are always hidden from me.


CanadaRAM said:
Safari is slow.


Well, it depends what's being done. There are some pretty good browser comparison test sites out in the Wildernet™ but these things are always getting updated so many of them are a bit behind the times. I find the general consensus seems to be that all the mainstream browsers on OSX are pretty much equal for day-to-day usage with some excelling in different areas.

The great part is that they're free, so you can try them all. :)
 
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