This is off topic, but so many people on this list use Macs, I though it
worth posting. Evidently, there’s a problem in WebKit that can slow
Internet
access to a crawl. Particularly if you are doing DNS lookups, as does
Safari. The fix:
In System Preferences, go to the Airport or Built-In Ethernet pane, and
the
TCP/IP tab. For DNS Server, enter 4.2.2.2
Then, in Terminal do:
lookupd -flushcache
I’m not even sure why this works, but it provided me immediate speed
improvements. Hope it helps someone else.
This change overrides any DNS settings your ISP/Administrator may
configure for you. It may not work for everyone - especially those
behind real firewalls (not that NAT everything things). The
“flushcache” option tells your local DNS cache to forget everything it
knows. It’s not really a fix for WebKit (or anything else).
Sorry, I really should have put the usual caveats about blowing away
caches
and changing DNS or proxy settings, etc. I confess I bounce from toy ISP
to
other toy ISP (read: the cable companies) and don’t always have good
entries
in my cache. This change would be utterly inappropriate in any managed
setting, as you mention.
