Speed Download and Apple Slows Down Safari

[Jack Rodgers]

The last two updates, 10.2.5 and Safari v2, have slowed down the 
downloads when using Safari. The download speeds I had original 
received were cut in half. After all of the hassles with dropped 
connections and such that Apple fixed, cutting my download speed in 
half didn't seem fair.

So, I tried Speed Download and I am back to the same speed as before.

BUT, WHAT? Now safari loads pages very, very, very slowly.

So, I muse, without the slightest bit of technical knowledge in the 
matter, it would seem that Apple did something to ensure that the new 
tab feature would not come to a complete halt. There is only so much 
bandwidth on dialup and it quickly gets eaten up.

To test this musing, I tried downloading multiple files with Speed 
Download and yes, they all shared the maximum speed of one file. Two 
files get half and three get 1/3, etc. In other words it takes just as 
long to down load multiple files sequentially as it does to download 
them concurrently.

Now download a file and try using the Open in tabs feature in Safari. 
The downloads really slow down and the tabs open very slowly, on 
dialup. Of course a T1 might not notice it at all.

So, if your intent is to just download files and not surf any longer, 
you'll save time with SpeedDownload. But if you want to keep surfing, 
something's gotta give on those dialup lines.

You can get just as fast a connection using any ftp program. Safari, 
however, seems destined to be a slow downloader by design and 
especially so if you want to keep surfing, on a dialup connection.

---

jackrodgers at earthlink.net
http://www.jackrodgers.com