I admit I'm on an "old" system: Mac OS 10.4.11

Last year I found amazon.com so slow as to be unbearable. Every time I visited the site, I would have to reload the page at least once to get the whole page to appear, usually twice, and often reloading three times. After that, I gave up. Given that I spend a lot of time on Amazon, this ate away at my time. It seems to have gotten worse the past couple years.

So I switched from Safari 4.1.3 to Firefox 3.6.18, which is the last version of Firefox that will work on my system. It was an improvement, but only a little. Rarely will Amazon pages load on the first try. Average twice, three times reload, then I give up. The Wish List really bogs things down, though once you get the page loaded you can change to "compact view."

So I've tried the following browsers:

Safari 4.1.3 with Pith Helmet ad blocking
Firefox 3.6.18 with AdBlock Plus
Opera 10.63
Omniweb 5.11.2

Chrome is not an option. Upgrading my system is not an option.

For the past few years I have noticed my browser(s) choking on sites that did not seem to be so much trouble before, sites like Forbes, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, YouTube, airline sites, National Review, Ranker, and AT&T (my service provider, of course).

I assume the usual culprits:

1) "Old" operating system.
2) "Old" or "wrong" browser.
3) Using a Mac/Mac versions of browsers, which many web sites don't like.
4) Sites that are heavy on Javascript, CSS.
5) Sites that are heavy on ads and animation (but I can usually block these).
6) Sites that get heavy traffic.
7) Sites with poorly written code.

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Of some interest, though I imagine you know this:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1825005/how-one-second-could-cost-amazon-16-billion-sales

http://www.webinsation.com/what-makes-a-website-load-slow/

The first thing to do is check how fast your internet connection is. There are several free alternatives including Speedtest.net (ignore the offers to run an app to clean up your Mac — they can do more harm than good). If your download speed is less than 1 to 1.5 Mbps to a nearby test server you need to have a chat with your ISP or you have something haywire in your network. If your Ping time is more than say 20 or 30 ms try changing your DNS server(s) to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.

Let us know what you find with the speed tests and then we can go on from there.

Speedtest.net results:

Download speed = .63 Mbps
Upload speed = .32 Mbps
Ping = 79 ms

For comparison, my results (while my wife is watching a show on Netflix):

ping: 66ms (it's usually much faster)
download: 47.17 Mbps
upload: 11.78 Mbps

We're on Comcast cable.

Are you on a dialup connection? I get faster download speeds that that on my iPhone with an Edge connection! Minimal DSL speeds are around 1.5 Mbps and Ping speeds are in the 20 to 30 ms range.

You need to have a long heart to heart talk with your Internet Service Provider. Your problem is NOT your Mac.

For what it's worth and for the sake of comparison ...
I have dial-up connection and am running OS X 10.7.5 with Firefox 22 on a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 and just ran speedtest.net with the following results:

download = 0.04 Mbps
upload = 0.10 Mbps
ping = 285 ms

Around here (metro Philly), where most DSL is over ancient Verizon phone lines, many areas are limited to half of that bandwidth. One could talk to one's ISP until blue in the face, but Verizon is simply not going to invest dollar one in improving that outmoded infrastructure.

Verizon DSL in NYC is giving me...

Ping: 36ms
D/L: 6.47 Mbps
U/L: 0.72 Mbps

(I'm not sure whether they still offer a slower DSL, but I think they do.)

I think we've reached the point at which faster Internet speed has become more important than faster computers (Edit: in the consumer market, at least).

I'm on AT&T DSL for $19.95/month.

I guess I didn't realize the plan I was getting. I signed on for 14.95/month at "Downstream up to 768 kps" which was certainly better than my 56k modem. Not long after, I don't remember how long, the rate was raised to 19.95 with no increase in speed. Here are the current offers:

http://www.att.com/shop/internet/internet-service.html#fbid=BIsF_4LuBSd

An evaluation at http://www.dslreports.com/

"Spotlight AT&T Yahoo" should appear at the top of the right column.

That's why I bought this computer six years ago, because I was getting slow internet access. My current iMac is/was a far more powerful computer than I needed for such relatively minor tasks as internet access, itunes, word processing, spreadsheet, database, writing basic html code, some very minimal graphic design. But then my previous computer was also more powerful than what I needed—a blue and white G3 that I got used for $75 from a library sale. And that was OS 9. Really the last ten years, esp. the transition to OS X, has been a great disappointment to me. Apple seems to think I can afford a new computer every two years. Who can afford that? Just to keep up, running on the treadmill, running to stand still…

And if it weren't for the internet, I could almost go back to my 1985 compact Mac. You could do PageMaker on that.

I started out with what you've got/same price, same increase (Verizon), upgraded to 3.0Mbps/Same price, and now have 7.0Mbps @ $34.99/month.

I just looked at Verizon's current offerings, and the best they can do for me is the same service I've got now...for $52.99/month.

It gets worse. I called ATT and they sent someone out here. Great guy. He checked the lines, gave me different cables, fixed some outlets.

I replaced one phone so far. I still hope to find a reliable 2-line cordless phone to replace the old Uniden one that has been buzzing. I've spent so much time researching and have found only crap. Even the Panasonics I'm looking at get bad reviews. If anyone has any ideas about this, please let me know. I guess it's all Chinese crap now.

More to the point, it turns out ATT raised my rates in January 2013 from 19.95/month to 28.00/month…with no change in speed. Argh.

My experience for anyone interested:

Amazon is still slow for me. But I think I saw some slight increase in browsing in general with Firefox 3.6.28 when I unchecked "Accept Third Party Cookies" under the Privacy prefs.

2) You might also try Opera, though I was unable to get AdBlock Plus to install on it.

3) Depending on what kind of content you want, turn Safari into a speed demon by shutting a lot of features down.

a) Use PithHelmet and crank up "Ad Blocking level" and "Cookie Privacy Level"; Block mode -- faster; Animate images -- never. You can always change preferences for individual sites, though for me that is too much trouble. You might see some oddly rendered pages so tinker with it.

b) Select private browsing.

c) Disable javascript.

I tried this only as an experiment. It's almost like using a text-only browser. The Amazon pages didn't render properly but there are probably some sites that would.