1 old 1 new, Mac Mini's - different Internet speed.

I have just bought a brand new 2010 Mac mini. (2.4ghz Core 2 Duo with 4gb of ram). This is not my first Mac mini.
My other mac mini is a 1.66ghz Core duo with 2gb of ram.
I am running both next to each other. My old Mac mini always had a wifi signal strength problem. It always showed no signal. It could see networks in other peoples houses but not the one in mine! I solved this by buying an EDiMax wifi dongle and putting it on the end of a USB extension. Hey presto… after some time wondering how the software worked I managed to get it to connect and with fantastic signal strength (100% quality and 75+% strength with 25% noise).

However… my new mac is connected to the network and showing full strength signal, which is far as I'm concerned should work.

The problem is the difference in service from my ISP between the 2 macs. It's O2.


My old mac gets over 8mb. My new mac gets 1mb and a bit more sometimes.

I simply cannot accept that the Wifi antenna in the new Mac Mini is so bad that it shows full strength yet is throttling the signal in some way.

Any ideas…?
Cheers, Rich.

So both Mac Mini's are using WifI? Is that 802.11a, b, g, n?

Regards

it will be b, g or n.

Couldn't say exactly which one. Any clues as to what I look for to tell this? I've had a look in all the network settings and even logged into the router but nothing tells me blatantly what standard is being used.

The router is 'n' compliant but couldn't say if it is set at that...

Cheers.

The latest Mac Mini supports N and if you have a N complaint router, it will use that automatically. The older Mac Mini's might not have N, but perhaps only G and that might account for the slower speed.

Also, depending on the wireless chip in the Mac Mini it might lead to difference, perhaps the newer Mini's chip is way better..

Regards

There should not be that kind of difference at all even if one was Wireless B. I have done tests on older systems with Wireless B and got my full 3Mbit DSL speeds on it and the same results as my newer systems with G.