Wireless Download Speeds Sluggish

Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
75
Reaction score
1
Points
8
During the past few days, I've noticed that the download speeds of all web pages on my wireless network have decreased on both my '07 MacBookPro & '09 iMac. Both machines are located within 7 ft. from a Airport Express.

My ISP ran a check on my broadband modem & claims that it is functioning properly. Download speeds of 8 Mbs upstream are what they should be.

By bypassing the Airport Express & plugging the ethernet cable from the modem directly to my iMac, web pages load much more quickly. To me, this suggests that there is an issue with my wireless network.

I have not installed any new devices in my house that might interfere with the Airport Express (e.g. cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.). Also, I live in a low-density neighborhood where I can detect only one other wireless network with no appreciable signal.

To resolve the issue, I have checked the "use interference robustness" in Airport Expres Utility. No difference whatsoever. I have manually set up the Airport Express on several different channels. Again, no difference whatsoever.

So ... maybe the culprit is not interference, but a problem with the Airport Express itself. (This is a "g" unit purchased 4 years ago). Is this possible? Can the Airport Express actually begin to function more slowly, yet still be operational?

Thank you for any guidance that you can suggest.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Check to see if there are any firmware updates you may have missed, and if not switch the AE off, unplug for ten minutes, and reboot to see if there is any improvement. There is nop great difference in real world speeds between g and n formats.

Also what does Apple System Profiler have to say about Airport?
 

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
There is nop great difference in real world speeds between g and n formats.

Would have to respectfully disagree here. I get about 12 Mbps better performance with the new 'n' router - but the statement could be true - depending on the data rate provided by the ISP. For instance - if you only have 10 Mbps service - then you may not see better performance - although there are some range enhancements provided by the 'n' spec.

To the OP's original questions:

Can the Airport Express actually begin to function more slowly, yet still be operational?
Tough to guess. Electronic chipsets don't typically tend to degrade gracefully - at least not in a manner that would cause "slower" operation as you've described. When they go - they go - but in this case - I could think of scenarios where it might be possible.

To better quantify your wired vs wireless performance use this site Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test and report back the differences. Additionally - are you seeing any improvements in throughput if you're in the same room with the Airport Express?
 

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
Just to illustrate my point regarding improvement. The early peaks you see are where I plugged directly into the 'g' router to validate that I was getting the full performance I was paying for. The installation of the 'n' router now allows me to achieve those speeds consistently from my couch downstairs. :)

bydefault2011-03-24at90433PM.png
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
Wireless N vs. G routers? - Yahoo! Answers

The real advantage of 802.11n is the additional range of the router. My speed using a Netcomm 802.11g router is 8.56MB/s and on a Linsksys 802.11n 8.70MB/s.

Unfortunately - that link you posted has incorrect answers - not to mention out of date.

But - if you take a look at my answer and graph you'll see it supports what I was saying - as well as what you see. What's your wired speed? I'm going to guess 12-15 Mbps? If so - you're right - you wont' see improvement. If you have 30 Mbps from your ISP, or even higher, - then yes - you'll definitely see improvement.

It might also be interesting to note (just as an aside) that the new MBP's are the only (that I know of, although I haven't done a comprehensive survey, yet) laptops out right now that can handle 3x3 MIMO n streams - which can get you up to a theoretical 450 Mbps PHY rate.
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
75
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Thanks, guys, for the responses. Following your suggestions, here is where I'm at.

First, let me clarify what I meant by slower download speeds. I am referring to the time it will take a web page to load. With a direct ethernet connection from the modem to my Mac, load time is 1 -2 seconds. On the wireless network, load time is 15 - 20 seconds. With that said, here the the results of following your suggestions.

I rebooted the AE after about 25 minutes. No effect on speed at all.

I currently have AE firmware version 6.3 which (according to Apple's download site) is the latest.

Running the speed test, results were as follows:
Download speed: 7.94 Mbps Upload speed: 1.00 Mbps (for both Mac wirelessly).
Download speed: 7.93 Mbps Uploead speed: 0.74 Mbps (for both Macs via ethernet connection to modem).
I am paying for 8Mbps from my ISP.

Does any of the above trigger any further ideas? Thanks again.
 

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
Thanks, guys, for the responses. Following your suggestions, here is where I'm at.

First, let me clarify what I meant by slower download speeds. I am referring to the time it will take a web page to load. With a direct ethernet connection from the modem to my Mac, load time is 1 -2 seconds. On the wireless network, load time is 15 - 20 seconds. With that said, here the the results of following your suggestions.

Running the speed test, results were as follows:
Download speed: 7.94 Mbps Upload speed: 1.00 Mbps (for both Mac wirelessly).
Download speed: 7.93 Mbps Uploead speed: 0.74 Mbps (for both Macs via ethernet connection to modem).
I am paying for 8Mbps from my ISP.

Does any of the above trigger any further ideas? Thanks again.

Do you know what your upload speeds are supposed to be from your ISP? It's not uncommon to have asymmetric speeds - but ~1Mbps upload seems kind of slow.

Otherwise - the good news is - nothing seems to be wrong with your Airport express. You're getting the kind of performance you should be. (assuming your upload is inline with what you're paying for)

Which browser are you using? It might be a worthwhile experiment to try another browser to see if anything improves.

I'd recommend you try a little system maintenance - Use Onyx, check and repair Disk permissions, but even more appropriately - let Onyx clear out your caches and see if that improves your browser performance.
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
13,172
Reaction score
348
Points
83
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro | LED Cinema Display | iPhone 4 | iPad 2
Wireless N vs. G routers? - Yahoo! Answers

The real advantage of 802.11n is the additional range of the router. My speed using a Netcomm 802.11g router is 8.56MB/s and on a Linsksys 802.11n 8.70MB/s.

Actually that's not true. N is noticeably faster than G internal network connections between machines. I have personal experience to back that up. N and G are irrelevant when comparing for the purposes of internet connection speed since most net connections are slower than the real-world speed of either protocol. But to say N and G are capable of the same real-world speed is just not true.

N routers make a huge difference, especially if you do any kind of media streaming within your network.

As far as range, N does not extend range over G, and in real-world scenarios is often less than G since the 5.8ghz band is more susceptible to physical objects blocking the signal than 2.4ghz.
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
75
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Which browser are you using? It might be a worthwhile experiment to try another browser to see if anything improves.

I'd recommend you try a little system maintenance - Use Onyx, check and repair Disk permissions, but even more appropriately - let Onyx clear out your caches and see if that improves your browser performance.

I generally use Firefox, but I have the same issue with Safari.

Ran Disk Permissions several times & did a complete cleaning/maintenance with Onyx. No difference with web page download speeds.

Since all 3 of my Macs on my wireless network exhibit the same problem, I keep coming back to the thought that the culprit seems like its in the wireless network. But not sure where to turn to from here short of getting a new router (which really seems like a crap shoot). :\
 

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
Since all 3 of my Macs on my wireless network exhibit the same problem, I keep coming back to the thought that the culprit seems like its in the wireless network. But not sure where to turn to from here short of getting a new router (which really seems like a crap shoot). :\

Hmmm- that's interesting - I have to admit - I missed the critical point about all 3 of your Macs demonstrating the same symptom. Just as a sanity check - have you tried any of your other macs on a different wireless network?

Just to rule out your ISP - try plugging directly back into the router (wired connection) as you did for the wired speedtest - and see if you still see the problem.
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
75
Reaction score
1
Points
8
No, I have not tried any of the Macs on any other network. But the fact that all 3 Macs seem to exhibit slower web page download speeds seems to extricate the machines themselves from being the problem source.

When I bypass the AE & plug the ethernet cable directly into the Mac from the modem, web page download speeds are with in 2 seconds.
 

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
Well. I'm stumped. Hopefully someone else can help. I can't make sense of your normal throughput results with SpeedTest via the AE, yet still maintaining the poor browser performance you report - which goes away when you bypass the AE - yet your speed results are the same.

I can see how you would conclude that it must be the AE. Makes me wonder if you ran more iterations of the speed test (wirelessly) if we'd see fluctuations in the results. That would be my next test - I'd run about 10 speed tests in a row and see if they were consistent. If so - then I remain stumped. If not - then I can think of some possible causal factors (interference being high on the list).
 
OP
K
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
75
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Well. I'm stumped. Hopefully someone else can help. Makes me wonder if you ran more iterations of the speed test (wirelessly) if we'd see fluctuations in the results. That would be my next test - I'd run about 10 speed tests in a row and see if they were consistent. If so - then I remain stumped. If not - then I can think of some possible causal factors (interference being high on the list).

It's worth a try. If all else fails, maybe I can find inspiration in a good bottle of wine. :)
 

BrianLachoreVPI


Retired Staff
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
3,733
Reaction score
124
Points
63
Location
Maryland
Your Mac's Specs
March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
It's worth a try. If all else fails, maybe I can find inspiration in a good bottle of wine. :)

Absolutely! If nothing else, the issue won't bother you nearly as much. :D
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
All signs definitely point to a weakened AP, but often that's the result of some kind of interference. It's amazing how many devices emit RF, and since the 2.4GHz band is incredibly crowded, it's not at all that uncommon to see a sudden, drastic decline in performance when a new one comes on board.

If you can't replace the AP (and I agree with the sentiment of others that claim an appreciable increase in performance with new 'n' routers), then I would experiment with different placement of the device. I know that your wireless devices are close to the AP - but there may be some environmental factor in the proximity of your AP that you're just not aware of.

For example, I visited a friend's home who was having issues with his wireless router that cropped up seemingly out of nowhere. The first step in troubleshooting any problem is to ask "what changed?". Sure enough, he had gotten a new refrigerator. This was on the other side of a wall from his AP and so he hadn't really considered that it may play a factor in the functionality of the AP.

We moved the AP to the opposite end of the room and the trouble miraculously disappeared. You wouldn't think a refrigerator would disrupt a wireless device, but apparently this one could.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top