slow internet speeds

I recently switched from DSL to cable broadband. I was to get 40 mps download on my desktop(s), but only get 17.6 mps, enet into modem(RJ45). Tying the modem to MacBook Pro yields 56 Mps. Xfinity and their tech don't know why, and neither do I. Could a desktop lose 50%, even hard wired? Is something resident in some program chopping my speed? [ desktop in a Mini, OS 10.6.8, 2gig ram and HD. MacBook Pro is same...Techie was using Win XP laptop & got same result as my Pro]. HELP! Advice? Opinion?

Check your internet speed with:

- Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Sometimes your internet speed is due to the ISP. Also be aware that cable model service in most areas is a shared service (unlike a dedicated DSL line). Which means that if everyone in your neighborhood is on the internet as well...this can slow things down.

Now I'm not talking BIG slowdowns...but your internet may be slower at some points than others (if you check your internet speed a lot). Also...cable modem service is generally faster than DSL...but again...cable modem speeds can fluctuate depending on local demand.

- Nick

Thanks for reply.
I do use SpeedTest.net. I do also recognize that the number of users will affect my speed, but, this cut is more than 50%, and occured over a 1 hr. time period, with many, many tries. In my message, I noted the averages, which is why I think it may be a program?

jimgvmi said:

I recently switched from DSL to cable broadband. I was to get 40 mps download on my desktop(s), but only get 17.6 mps, enet into modem(RJ45). Tying the modem to MacBook Pro yields 56 Mps. Xfinity and their tech don't know why, and neither do I. Could a desktop lose 50%, even hard wired? Is something resident in some program chopping my speed? [ desktop in a Mini, OS 10.6.8, 2gig ram and HD. MacBook Pro is same...Techie was using Win XP laptop & got same result as my Pro]. HELP! Advice? Opinion?

Click to expand...

I second Nick's suggestion to use an independent site for testing your DL/UL speeds (the link given is the one that I've used for while).

You need to clarify your paragraph above at least for me - from my understanding, you were first on DSL and was getting 40 Mbps (i.e. Megabits per second), then you switched to Xfinity broadband cable and on the same desktop was obtaining 17.6 Mbps w/ a direct ethernet connection (DT is the Mini mentioned later) - correct? BUT, you are saying that on your MBPro, the DL speed is 56 Mbps, assuming that you are also cabled? There is no Wi-Fi discussion for these rates - correct?

Thus, your question is why are you getting the much higher speed on your laptop vs. your Mini DT, both ethernet cabled - right? Well, recheck the speeds w/ the previous link given and let us know - I'm also confused; for myself, I have T-W cable which gives me about 20 Mbps w/ their modem cabled to my Apple router and then cabled to my iMac - get about the same speed on my Wi-Fi MBPro, thus the limitation for me is the speed coming into the modem - Dave

jimgvmi said:

Thanks for reply.
I do use SpeedTest.net. I do also recognize that the number of users will affect my speed, but, this cut is more than 50%, and occured over a 1 hr. time period, with many, many tries. In my message, I noted the averages, which is why I think it may be a program?

Click to expand...

If I remember correctly…you changed from DSL to cable modem rather recently. I think that because of this change…give it a little time so you can get an idea of what's normal & not normal. Also…review what cable modem subscription service you have (different tiers)…to see if the numbers you're getting correspond to the service your supposed to get.

Finally (in case you didn't know)…cable modem service is asymmetrical. Download speed is about 10x faster than upload speed. As compared to DSL which is much more symmetrical.

For what it's worth. I just tested my cable modem speed. I got 10.59 Mbps download, and 1.09 Mbps upload. MUCH SLOWER than your numbers…and things (for me) from a speed standpoint seem fine (but maybe your paying for a faster service).

- Nick

Dave:
I used speedtest.net. You are somewhat correct: Mini, with DSL, got 10 mips; with cable, gets 17.5 (40 mips was promised) Laptop, wired, get 50+ mips (don't know what was w/DSL). By-passing wi-fi. I am paying for 40 mips as part of the Xfinity "bundle". I don't really care about upload, but for what it's worth, it's 11.4 mips.

jimgvmi said:

Dave:
I used speedtest.net. You are somewhat correct: Mini, with DSL, got 10 mips; with cable, gets 17.5 (40 mips was promised) Laptop, wired, get 50+ mips (don't know what was w/DSL). By-passing wi-fi. I am paying for 40 mips as part of the Xfinity "bundle". I don't really care about upload, but for what it's worth, it's 11.4 mips.

Click to expand...

Hi again Jimg... - please let us get the terminology down correctly, i.e. 'mips' makes no sense to me (and likely others), thus please report your speeds as 'Mbps', which is Megabits per second, that is what the Speedtest Net is providing - NOW, if you are using some other standard, then explain.

Second, please tell us that you are reporting results relative only to being cabled to your Mini and your laptop, i.e. we are not dealing w/ wireless speeds?

Finally, let's just stick to your new cable connection - THUS, from your quote above, you are getting 17.5 on your Mini wired & 50+ on your wired laptop (NOW, I did not use your units because they should be given as Mbps as already explained) - when an ISP tells you their 'theoretic' speeds, each is invariably lower when used, so I'm not sure why your laptop is reporting such a RAPID DL speed.

And lastly, and UL speed of 11.4 (again I'm assuming you mean Mbps but you need to clarify) seems unrealistic to me; from my experience, UL speeds are often about 1/10th the DL speeds - mine are about 2 Mbps - all of this remains quite confusing to me - sorry. Dave

Dave-Sorry for nomenclature. To clarify: Mac Mini getting 6.60 download Mbps, hardwired into modem (I am paying for 40 Mbps) using SpeedTest.net, as of 5:32 PM my time (Denver) Upload is 10.54 Mbps. The only apps open are Outlook & Google Chrome.
With the laptop Hardwired, the numbers are 55+ and 11+, as of Monday, Clearer, now?

jimgvmi said:

Dave-Sorry for nomenclature. To clarify: Mac Mini getting 6.60 download Mbps, hardwired into modem (I am paying for 40 Mbps) using SpeedTest.net, as of 5:32 PM my time (Denver) Upload is 10.54 Mbps. The only apps open are Outlook & Google Chrome.
With the laptop Hardwired, the numbers are 55+ and 11+, as of Monday, Clearer, now?

Click to expand...

Hi again Jimg... - well, I remain completely baffled w/ your numbers - sorry?

Just did a speed test (pic attached) on my wired iMac - these numbers are typical for me from Time-Warner - I'm paying for a 'speedier' bandwidth but that is what comes into my house; also UL speeds are invariably much less than DL speed - 1/10 has been pretty typical for me.

SO, your UL speeds should be closer to say 4 Mbps (since you are paying for 40 Mbps - ISPs will quote their DL speeds which are faster), unless your plan indeed includes a faster UL rate - don't know? Your DL speed on the cabled laptop also is unbelievably high (more than what your are being charged for?); and then your Mini is only at 6.6 Mbps.

I guess the bottom line is I'm assuming that you have no complaints w/ the laptop - correct? Thus, the issue is the slow DL speed on the Mini - I cannot remember if you have powered recycled your devices (i.e. pull the power and boot up again), changed the ethernet cables, or used other ethernet ports on your modem - all worth a try if not already done. Of course, your Mini may have a problem or the older OS installed - can you upgrade the OS? Can you put the Mini on someone else's modem or router? You may just have to look at a network hardware issue w/ your Mini - not sure that I can add much more. Good luck - Dave

P.S. do you have a router? If not, please consider buying one - just much safer.

.

jimgvmi said:

Mac Mini getting 6.60 download Mbps, hardwired into modem (I am paying for 40 Mbps) using SpeedTest.net, as of 5:32 PM my time (Denver) Upload is 10.54 Mbps.

With the laptop Hardwired, the numbers are 55+ and 11+, as of Monday, Clearer, now?

Click to expand...

Not sure why you're having such a speed difference between the hard-wired Mac-Mini and hard-wired laptop (assuming that the speed test was done at approx. the same time).

Maybe there's some sort of network setting difference between the two computers (are the network settings identical?). I don't think that it's computer hardware related.

- Nick

I guess I don't know how to use this forum, as I did an answer and lot it?

Nick & Dave:
The speed test was done on Monday with both units within minutes of each other 17 mbps up, and 4 down on the mini, and 56/11 on the laptop. When I retested the mini yesterday/ I got 6 down/10+ up, but I have not retested the laptop. Both units are 2.0 ghz,,2 meg of ram, and run on Sow Leopard (OS 10.6.8) I tried Mountain Lion, but since it wouldn't run
some earlier programs (no "Rosetta"), I came back to Snow Leopard, I do not use a router, since the Xfinity cable modem has 4 e-net ports. Should I be using a router?

Thank you both for you help.
Jim

@jimgvmi

It's not unusual for cable speeds to vary nor is it unusual for your MacBook Pro up and down speeds to be higher than what you're paying for. I'm paying for 50/25 on Verizon FIOS but usually get much higher speeds. However, with regard to your Mini, there's definitely something wrong with either your Network settings or hardware. When connected via ethernet like you are, there should be no interference or encryption to slow things down.

Nick & Dave,
In a few minutes, I'm going to disconnect & unplug the modem & my Mini. I am going to visit a friend with DSL and test my Mini & the laptop once again. I will post result when I'm back....
Jim

jimgvmi said:

Nick & Dave,
In a few minutes, I'm going to disconnect & unplug the modem & my Mini. I am going to visit a friend with DSL and test my Mini & the laptop once again. I will post result when I'm back....
Jim

Click to expand...

Sounds like an interesting test. This should help "tease-out" whether the problem/difference is with the cable service or somewhere else.

Looking forward to the results.

- Nick

Nick & Dave
Well, it was an interesting test. My friend's DSL is thru Century Link, and he apparently is getting very slow speeds (we tried a couple of sites for his Imac, and only got 1.2p Mbps download and .65 upload for his setup: Imac wired to port on modem.
My Mini: 1.29 DL & .71 UP. My laptop:.72DL & 1.68 UL, wired to same modem; Wireless on laptop: 1.29 DL & .71 UL.
So, other than his upcoming call to the Phone Co. re: his apparent slow speed. I think my test was somewhat inconclusive.
Don't know what to try, now. Maybe send Apple a copy of "About this computer" and see if there is a signal hog somewhere, or migrate apps one at a time to my laptop.*testing speed after each one. until I find the slow down (very time consuming!).
Any suggestions?

jimgvmi said:

Nick & Dave
Well, it was an interesting test. My friend's DSL is thru Century Link, and he apparently is getting very slow speeds (we tried a couple of sites for his Imac, and only got 1.2p Mbps download and .65 upload for his setup: Imac wired to port on modem.
My Mini: 1.29 DL & .71 UP. My laptop:.72DL & 1.68 UL, wired to same modem; Wireless on laptop: 1.29 DL & .71 UL.................

Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Hi Jim - well, I thing that one think proven is that your friend is getting lousy service and as planned needs to contact his present ISP or change to a new one -

But, I agree that w/ the very slow speeds above obtained on your computers that you did not get much useful information for your own questions.

Not sure that I have many other suggestions except to possibly upgrade to a newer OS and/or take your Mini to an Apple store for diagnostics; of course, there is the Apple Hardware Test that you could run - I've used the one running on Mavericks w/ my new iMac - easy to do. Hopefully some of our hardware gurus may 'chime in' to help - good luck! Dave - thanks for the info!

Nick & Dave;
I finally got SPEED! (55 Mpbs DL) It was a software problem (I have no idea which) I just started deleting programs I had not been using for some time and SpeedTest after each. I was almost ready to give up a reformat, when I saw the e-net was not plugged in. Connected, ran the test and got 55Mpbs. Unfortunately MS Office for Mac 2011 would not load outlook. Had to re-installl, then all the updates, and all is fine except, I have to get my old email from back-up, which I don't know how to do. Any help on this problem will be greatly appreciated.
jimgvmi