mindcue

mudmanc4: Sorry your updated didn't go smoothly. I did a lot of research into the programs I most frequently use, and made sure they were compatible... It *is* a kick in the ass missing something. I wanted to follow up on my original slow internet issue in case it might help someone... With initial tests all going well, I figured it was a "done deal" and the update fixed things. However, I started getting similar (and worse) problems under Mountain Lion as I did with Snow Leopard. WTF... Back to the drawing board. I did some more troubleshooting tests I probably should have done previously. Stuff like disconnecting ANY other network device and machine. Even if they've been happily connected for years without obvious problems. What I determined was that a single computer running my SageTV 7TB DVR setup on an old machine and WinXP consistently caused the EXTREME slowdowns to internet connectivity while it was working via the network. Disconnect the machine or stop the activity and internet speeds were fine. More research pointed not at the SageTV or Windows XP software, but device configuration settings of the network interface on that XP machine. It was set for "Flow Control". Disabling this option gave me back the fast internet on a so-far consistent basis regardless of whether that machine is in use or not. When people say "flow control can slow your whole network down", they seriously mean it. I don't know if it's an interaction with a switch, router or whatever, but I believe I've finally found the true cause and will not explore further unless I suffer similar problems in the future. Note: this also explains the laptop are iphone tests to this site working fast/fine, since those were connected wirelessly, skipping the machine in question. I had a few odd slowdowns when connecting the laptop in a wired configuration, but mostly it was fine as well--of course I didn't test that way for extensive periods. Also, it could be related to some internal settings on the hackitosh network interface that may be in conflict, I dunno. Not an expert in these things. Anyway, hope this helps someone else out if they have similar problems. Thanks again for your input. -Tim

Cool watching your updates Sorry I can't help any since AMD and the installers you are using are completely different beasts from what I've used. Yeah, you'll want to get to at least 10.6.8, and better Lion or ML.

It seems the AMD builds aren't done at the site I have basically followed to do my setup, http://www.tonymacx86.com. I have no idea how other hack sites handle things. Probably similarly. The main things you'll probably run into are video driver issues, and also audio. Plus the AMD cpu of course. Do you have a macbook, or other Mac system available? It dramatically eases the process if you do since some of the legwork can be done there. In fact, if I remember correctly you might need to get a Snow Leopard install working at some point prior to upgrading the system to Mountain Lion if you don't have another Mac with SL available. In the end, when you have a nice stable system you'll be really happy! I was surprised that ML just feels zippier overall, and so far I can deal with some of the changes from SL without pulling out my hair. It's great to be able to run some newer software like the latest release of Kaleidoscope, etc... Hope it goes well!

Hey Mudmanc4, Heck, I'd still be on 10.6.8 if this Internet speed thing didn't come up--as well as more and more software requiring newer versions. I don't know enough about 10.8.3 yet to say how I feel. I did need to go and change some default settings, and reinstall some programs, but I did an update over SnowLeopard. Of course, I did that on a bootable clone of the original drive. I don't think I'll ever update without doing that first. Even on my Macbook Pro I cloned the internal to an external usb drive and tested that I could boot from it before continuing. Would be a great opportunity to upgrade your 500 to a 1TB at the same time . Carbon Copy Cloner is one of the better programs for the job--the older free version is fine, or the newer one has a 30 day trial I think. CA3LE seems fine with Lion, so there's probably no real reason to spend time/$ messing with an update to ML if you are already on Lion. Coming from 10.6.8, it made more sense to me to hop on Mountain Lion to be fully up to date again, so I waited til that 10.8.3 release last week an pulled the trigger. If you start looking into the hackintosh thing, let me know if I can try and help--I'm a newbie, but it's fresh in my mind right this moment and I've done a *lot* of experimentation and reading in the past 2 days trying to get it up and running stable again. Take it easy!

I know it's been a while, so here's the followup: After trying pretty much everything... New drivers, cloned drive and drastic experiments, etc... NOTHING helped to fix this problem under Snow Leopard. I did see that my Macbook Pro that usually had good test results would do the same thing briefly--So it would show fast, then slow if I *immediately* retested, but even then it sped up a little bit partway through the test. So, I bit the bullet and upgraded the MacBook Pro to Mountain lion, and that went relatively smoothly. The problem seemed to be fully gone (not that it was very prevalent nor noticeable on that machine). After a day and a half of sorting the update from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion 10.8.3 (released just last week) on the Hackintosh, I finally have the system running pretty well. Drum roll... YES! It appears that the problem is a thing of the past. I now get consistently faster downloads 40Mbps to 60Mbps via tests here. I can browse, and test, and test multiple times in a row and all works fine. I do notice things begin zippier in regular browsing as well. So, the bottom line is that if you are on Snow Leopard and are having issues with download speeds, your best option may be to upgrade to Lion/Mountain Loin. I really did do about everything I could think of to make this work in SL, or I wouldn't have done the update. Hope this helps someone not waste all the time on trying to get it working. THANKS TO ALL WHO SHOWED AN INTEREST AND HAD IDEAS TO SHARE! I doubt I would have done the ML install without hearing that Lion solved it elsewhere. -Tim PS. Re: wireshark... I haven't gotten it running on ML yet since there wasn't a need. Apple support site points to xQuartz for X11 installation. I did that, and didn't get any more messages when starting Wireshark, but it also didn't do anything but sit there in the lower app bar.

Wow! First off, thanks for everyone's input. It's very much appreciated! Right now I'm cloning my main boot drive, and then will feel more comfortable experimenting with drivers and such. Been meaning to do this recently anyhow. Right now there's a "Supplemental Update" and a "Security Update" pending from Apple which I've been too tired to deal with installing--my one dislike of the whole Hackintosh scene is dealing with updates and making sure they don't break anything! So, that's one place that *might* fix something somehow. I will also then test another network driver per your suggestions. I already updated to the latest Lnx2Mac Realtek RTL81xx Driver with no effect. CA3LE: Desktop Hackintosh is Wired only. Laptop was tested both Wired and Wireless which both work fine. At one point during testing, I thought I had a similar issue on the Laptop briefly, but it didn't reoccur so it may have been a fluke. Seeing your comment about yours being on official Apple product is interesting, and I wonder if someplace between my fluke and yours coming out of the blue is the answer. What was the last 10.6.x release you were on (maybe a timeframe). Wondering if your trouble started at one of the later releases and maybe you didn't do the final supplemental releases like myself? The last 10.6.8 Supplemental Update came out after Lion I believe, but I could be mistaken. I dislike anything having to do with Flash, and I appreciate your efforts to provide/support real-world tests. Thanks! It's somewhat comforting that you experienced seemingly identical problem under SnowLeopard Hackintosh setup. Wish others have posted someplace with a fix. I haven't been able to find anything similar in my searches. Curious what board you use/used? I'm on a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R. Started this post without seeing your last entry somehow. Definitely seems to be a clue that you had the problem on real mac, per above. Have you updated to Mountain Lion? Thinking if I'm going to update, it would be there--I know I need to do something soon since a lot of interesting new software is Lion+ only. Of course it sounds like the existing 10.8.2 release is pretty buggy, and it could be wise to wait for 10.8.3 to be released and shaken out by TonyMacx86 or others. The problem exists even on "Safe Mode" boot which seems to eliminate a lot of things like Little Snitch (I do have), 1Password, and most any other apps/drivers that are add-ons. The one difference in SafeMode is that it seems to correct itself a little quicker, especially when nothing else is loaded but the browser. TriRan: I will experiment with other drivers once I've got a safe booting clone Thanks Mudmanc4: Tried WireShark this evening, but it won't run currently due to some sort of driver mismatch. The supplemental update might take care of this. Seems this is an old and ongoing issue: http://ask.wireshark.org/questions/4528/wireshark-does-not-run-on-osx-1064 (even though I'm on 10.6.8, and this thread started at the 10.6.4 version)... After about an hour, I decided to save my time/energy for the other tess and updates before going back to this. Thanks for the tip though! Looks like an interesting and useful program. If anyone has any other thoughts for things to try, I'd love to hear them. Right now the plan is to do do the supplemental update and experiment with different drivers. Drivers sound less likely after hearing Ca3le's note about being on real Mac. Didn't think it too relevant, but on second consideration it might be... In dusting off an XP machine or two, they have consistently slow testmy.net speeds. I just chalked it up to them being old/slow machines.. Any browser download tests come in fairly consistently in the 5 to 9.5mbps range depending on the machine. The flash tests all show reasonable speeds, and I've not done any FTP tests--which thinking about it, could be useful I suppose. Because these tests are all consistent, and the newer OS X machines have much better testmy.net results I figured I'd stick to them. Thanks again for your feedback and help. I really do appreciate it! -Tim

I've been trying to figure out what is causing test results to basically act like they are being throttled, when none is being done at the ISP. Background: I have 2 Mac OS X machines. One is a MacBook Pro, and one is a Hackintosh Desktop. Both are Snow Leopard. On the MacBook Pro, I get pretty consistent test results within what I'd expect from my 50/5 service via Charter Business. The "Business" portion is important because they do not limit in amount/speed at all. On the Desktop machine, which is my main machine, I can get good results one time (eg 58/5), but then upon retest directly following the first, the download is clearly and consistently capped, with 7.5Mbps being the most common result. Upload stays ok. If I wait a short time (couple of minutes), and DON'T browse the web, I will USUALLY get the fast time again. Sometimes it gets stuck, and I never get a fast result again. If I browse the web (any browser), I always have to wait before a re-test shows a fast speed. Download tests from various hosting companies using 100MB files directly from the browser exhibit identical results. This seems to point to certain ports or protocols having some form of "Quality of Service" settings enforced somehow. Download tests via FTP exhibit very similar results. One interesting note with them is that I can have 4 to 8 connections open in FTP all downloading simultaneously at a total that is in line with expectations--even though downloading a single file is limited as in the browser port 80 testing. Flash based speed tests from various sources all show fast/expected results and never exhibit this pattern or problem I've ruled out the router (ASUS RT-N66U) as the source of the problem by using an older, but reliable Linksys one in its place. I've ruled out cabling by using the exact cables to connect to the laptop to perform tests. If it were the ISP limiting speed, it would be do the same thing on my MacBook. I've done a bunch of tests removing certain programs, and killing processes. None seems to have any effect. I've booted in "safe" mode which should rule out most 3rd party tools, and the problem exists there as well. So it would seem to be something that isn't removed by safe-mode or a setting someplace I've been unable to find. Any Mac (Snow Leopard) or Hackintosh experts out there seen anything like this? Any ideas of what to try next? Thanks! -Tim