Just as a bump,
Per some recent threads about folks on Macs having browser performance issues during Friday sharking extravaganzas, I decided I would write a quick tutorial more so about general Mac maintenance / best practices that
might assist some of the previously mentioned folks in having a better sharking experience on Fridays.
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Disclaimer:
1) I am a technologist and an engineer; not an IT professional. I wear an IT related hat some days.. some days I don't. I am writing this in laymans terms. If you are looking for a detailed theoretical dissertation pertaining to RF signal degradation, 802.11 optimization, packet loss, etc, you are in the wrong place. If you feel that you can write something better / more technically sound, by all means please do so! These are suggestions only.
2) There are never guarantees with the internet, bladeforums.com, your ISP, your router, your machine, etc. If you are serious about sharking be prepared to spend some time (on Friday) trolling around the forum refreshing a lot and paying close attention. This all comes down to persistence, patience, and having a game plan. Re-read this entire thread in detail. There is a lot of good advice posted by fellow sharks; we have nice knives because we take this process seriously. I (like many) work Monday through Friday 55-60hrs per week. I work Fridays (as do most). I schedule my Fridays around sharking if I am looking for a specific knife that week. Don't be one of those sore losers who post things like "well, I can't sit around all day waiting for the post, unlike some people
..." I have sharked knives pulled over on the side of freeways, during lunch / coffee breaks, and at the water cooler... Hell, I sharked a knife in a meeting once. Friday is one of my craziest days of the work week. If you want a knife, again, obey they law of the sharks, have a game plan, read this thread, and be persistent. (Rant over, back to the OP
)
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The BASICS (non Mac specific suggestions)
1. Refresh often. Watch the "Well.... its Friday" thread; lately Ken & Andy have been posting specific time ranges that the FBF post will be going up
2. Watch Fotki. When the pics post on Fotki, log out of BladeForums (doesn't matter what OS you are on), and log back in. BF caches quite a few cookies (and other data) that can cause a forum browsing experience to go awry... Just imagine, you somehow managed to beat everyone into the thread and you just clicked submit reply for your dream knife, only to have BF tell you that you are no longer logged in...sharking fail. Logging out then back in right before the shark fest can help mitigate this type of critical sharking failure at the most inopportune moments.
3. Use CTRL/Command "F" (as in find) as soon as the post loads to search the keyword of the knife you are attempting to shark
4. Use page up/down as well as home/end to quickly navigate between the top and bottom of the page (i.e. where the text entry field is to post your reply)
5. Highlight the item you want, CTRL/Command "C" (for copy), "End" (to go to the bottom of the page), CTRL/Command "V" (for paste), submit reply
6. (hopefully) Shark Knife
** All of this assumes that you are on modern day broadband cable or fiber; not dial up, DSL, satellite, etc.**
If you are unsure of your connection's over quality of service, do a quick connection / speed test! While this can be subjective, it can also give you some basic indicators about the overall performance of your broadband.
- Connect directly to your modem / router, and open Applications > Utilities > Terminal (or command prompt in Windows Run > "cmd").
- Type "ping bladeforums.com". Observe the TTL values.
- Allow your machine to ping the forum 10-15 times and then press CTRL+C (mac only; windows will ping 4 x times and calculate for you).
- Average the TTL values observed in terminal... you should be in the ballpark of 40-70ms within the continental US to bladeforums.com. If you are not, you are either geographically far removed from one of your ISP's hubs or you might have an issue with your local area network. Troubleshooting your network will not be discussed here. If you believe your home network is hosed / mis-configured, do some reading online, take a rainy sunday and rebuild / reconfigure it. You might learn a lot, and as always, knowledge is power!
- If, however, you truly suspect there may issue with your line, google your ISP coupled with the word speed test (i.e. Xfinity speed test), and proceed on to your ISP's speed test page to run a quick test. TTL / Latency to your ISP should be <25-30ms (again on modern copper cable or fiber optic broadband in most urban / suburban areas).
- If your latency is greater than this, you might want to contact your cable company to do a line test, send a refresh signal or check your S/N (google it
) as to ensure nothing is impeding your connection further up the line.
General Mac suggestions:
1. DITCH SAFARI...Do the research. I recommend Chrome, although Firefox is equally as fast
2. Plug in: A hardwired ethernet connection will always be faster than wi-fi... period. If a physical connection is not an option, ensure that your mac's wi-fi connection is healthy! You can access OSX's native wi-fi analyzer through these steps:
----> Mavericks - (
http://letstalk-tech.com/access-wifi-scanner-mac-os-x-mavericks/)
----> Pre-Mavericks (
http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/31/wi-fi-scanner-mac-os-x-mountain-lion/)
3. Use private mode: Nothing is cached; this means that every time you refresh the page, you are getting a full refresh not a partial / cached refresh
4. Clear all cookies / cache on Friday morning: this will ensure that any bloat or temporary files that may be present in your browser's cache are removed prior to commencing sharking
5. Run Disk Utility: Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility: While this may have absolutely nothing to do with browsing speed, etc, it does have something to to with overall R/W performance of your HD's volume. A healthy volume = better overall machine performance / responsiveness. Verify & repair as needed. (
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1782)
6. Run OSX maintenance scripts: Applications > Utilities > Terminal > Type: "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly". Note you will need your administrator password to execute this command. While these are supposed to be run by the OS automatically, it never hurts to run them on Friday morning... (
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html)
7. Reset your NVRAM/PRAM: This is a must for any mac user suffering from generally slow performance (
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379) / (
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222)
8. When in doubt, shut 'er down (or restart) prior to commencing your sharking activities
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Honestly, there's a lot of information out there pertaining to the ongoing maintenance and optimization of OSX. I have not even begun to scratch the surface of understanding / maintaining / effectively administering OSX; the above stated advice may help some of you realize a bit more performance, however there is no effective replacement for going out and doing a bit of self-guided research and experimentation. OSX is a resilient and powerful operating system that runs atop some of the best (quality) consumer grade hardware that folks can buy today. Unfortunately, even high-end tech can suffer from performance degradation and slow-downs if not maintained properly (or optimized for sharking
).
Good luck & happy sharking
Ps. some previous banter on a similar topic found here:
(
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Law-Of-the-Sharks-Rules-Tips-and-Tricks/page5)
It's still fun. just not when I don't have an internet connection!
