Powerbook 1400 Browsing Speed

[J English Smith]

I am also finally the proud owner of a Lucent WaveLAN silver card and successfully got one of my 1400s online yesterday.

Any tips from other 1400 web users re optimizing speed, best browser to use for load times, text-only websites that are useful? (I found the BBC website - wish there was something U.S. based that was as good as that...)

I probably won't track down one of the faster processors...cost benefit seems somewhat low...

 

[ClassicHasClass]

My browser preference is obvious but WannaBe works very well on the 1400 as a text browser.

Really, though, my 1400 got much more useful when I put a G3 and RAM Doubler on it. It's still poky compared to, say, my blueberryBook because of the slower bus and video (even though the 1400's G3 is 33MHz faster!), but it's useable with patience. I test every release of Classilla on it.

 

[J English Smith]

Classic - Do you have a link for downloading the WannaBe browser? I'd like to give that a try if it would keep other content from trying to load...

I wanted to try it with the 1400 - it was just $20 for a Lucent card - but it is slow. If money were no object, I'd try one of the Crescendo cards, but my brain tells me that the smarter play would be to get a used Pismo with a wireless card. That may be my next acquisition, and then I may divest myself of some of my 1400s, painful as that will be...

The other thing I could do is load both of my 1400 24mb RAM cards into one machine to try it with the 64mb top end on RAM. Would the jump from 40 to 64 hard RAM make much difference, do you think? I do have RAM Doubler installed and use. I currently have one of those in two different machines...

 

[J English Smith]

Classic - I found the download site for WannaBe, so I got that ok. Thanks! Will give it a try.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Classic - Do you have a link for downloading the WannaBe browser? I'd like to give that a try if it would keep other content from trying to load...
I wanted to try it with the 1400 - it was just $20 for a Lucent card - but it is slow. If money were no object, I'd try one of the Crescendo cards, but my brain tells me that the smarter play would be to get a used Pismo with a wireless card. That may be my next acquisition, and then I may divest myself of some of my 1400s, painful as that will be...

The other thing I could do is load both of my 1400 24mb RAM cards into one machine to try it with the 64mb top end on RAM. Would the jump from 40 to 64 hard RAM make much difference, do you think? I do have RAM Doubler installed and use. I currently have one of those in two different machines...

The RAM increase will certainly make a big difference to RAM Doubler, as it has to rely less on compression (which is really rough on a slow 603-type CPU). The only problem is that 1400 RAM stacking voodoo is still a black art; stacking works best if the cards are exactly identical RAM, as there appear to be slight differences in timing between manufacturers that the memory controller can be abnormally sensitive to. The only way to know is to try (and then stress it a bit with Gauge Pro).

 

[J English Smith]

WannaBe is great to use with the Orinoco card - much faster than IE or Netscape in the 1400. I've enjoyed using it! Soon, I hope to try double-stacking my RAM cards to get one of the units topped out, and can see if that makes any difference in load times.

 

[freudling]

Browsing on the 1400 when connecting with an Ethernet card via the PC Card slot is always going to be slow, because it is a 16 bit card cage. I know there is an internal ethernet option and I believe that is the fastest way, but not wireless.

The PowerBook Wallstreet is much faster in this regard, since its PC Card cage is 32 bit. My 2400c is 32 bit as well, since I modified it as such. I do not know of any hacks to get the 1400's PC card cage to 32 bit.

 

[Bunsen]

There aren't any. Cardbus requires a PCI-based motherboard, and the 1400 is Nubus based.

 

[CJ_Miller]

I love my PB1400. IMO it is only practical for browsing text-based stuff. It's like my old Performa 6200cd on the web - it was barely acceptable in the late 90s when the net was more hypertext based, but nowadays with the prevalence of scripts, plugins, flash, and dozens of pictures on a given page - it is now impractical. Better off using a true text-only browser. Even my much faster Pismo and G4 upgraded B&W are pretty painful for browsing these days.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Browsing on the 1400 when connecting with an Ethernet card via the PC Card slot is always going to be slow, because it is a 16 bit card cage. I know there is an internal ethernet option and I believe that is the fastest way, but not wireless.
The PowerBook Wallstreet is much faster in this regard, since its PC Card cage is 32 bit. My 2400c is 32 bit as well, since I modified it as such. I do not know of any hacks to get the 1400's PC card cage to 32 bit.

Well, PC Card can go up to 8 MB/s, which is much faster than 802.11b, so the card slot isn't the limiting factor if you are only using 802.11b.

Yes, 100 Megabit Ethernet will be limited (as 8 MB/s comes to 64 Mb/s,) but unless your internet connection is faster than 64 Mb/s, you won't notice. (Heck, on the 1400, the speed of the computer itself is likely the speed limiting factor there.