download speeds issues?

I've searched the net but cant find an answer anywhere. Until a month ago i was 100% windows. but decided to switch to mac and get a macbook pro. I bought an 15", 2.33, 2gb ram, 120 gb HDD. I'm totally pleased that i have switched but i have only 1 problem. When it comes to downloading and surfing the net i have real issues with speed. When a compared my mac and old xp laptop the xp laptop loaded web pages slightly faster. now i know that safari hogs some memory so i put the slight lag down to this. Ran a speeds test on each machine and on the mac a got a max of 350 but on the xp machine i got 450. Both machines run off the same router wirelessly. I installed xp on the mac (via bootcamp) and when downloading over usenet in xp and always max out my connection, but when downloading over usenet on the mac (using unison) i never max out. Took my an extra 20 mins to download the same tv show compared to xp/BOOTCAMP. So whats the problem? cus the mac looks and runs great, but with these issues on download speeds i'm considering going back to windows cus thats what i mainly do. I'd rather download 1gb in 40 - 50 mins than wait 1 hour and half on the mac. any ideas???

cheers

Strange because I get just the opposite result. But I do have/use a PowerBook not a MBP.

Well, I used to have huge problems with wireless. I created a WEP key and used WPA2 and I'am blazing fast now. I pretty much just did what is on this site:

http://www.michael-noll.com/2006/07/24/intel-imac-wireless-connection-slowdown-with-wpatkip/

and that worked for me. Don't know if it will help? If not, this is a great place and I'm sure someone will!

dadsgravy said:

Well, I used to have huge problems with wireless. I created a WEP key and used WPA2 and I'am blazing fast now. I pretty much just did what is on this site:

http://www.michael-noll.com/2006/07/24/intel-imac-wireless-connection-slowdown-with-wpatkip/

and that worked for me. Don't know if it will help? If not, this is a great place and I'm sure someone will!

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was going to recommend. Switch to WPA2 if your router supports it (if not, try downloading a new firmware version as recent updates should yield WPA2/AES support). You'll find much better transfer rates. The most recent security updates for the Airport on the Mac seem to degrade the connection speed.

thanks for the quick replys. i'll try that site and see what happens. as for WPA2 if my router doesnt support it whats the best router to go for? I was thinking of the apple base station because i like the idea of connecting my external hdd to it. I'll let you know what my results are.

cheers

ferritt said:

thanks for the quick replys. i'll try that site and see what happens. as for WPA2 if my router doesnt support it whats the best router to go for? I was thinking of the apple base station because i like the idea of connecting my external hdd to it. I'll let you know what my results are.

cheers

Click to expand...

Usually any router that supports WPA can at the very least be upgraded to WPA2. The Airport Extreme is a good router, but I have heard of plenty of problems connecting storage devices to it.

right just updated my firmware (dlink DI-614+). I now have extra options in my router options. I still dont have WPA2 but i do have WPA and WPA-PSK. I've just set my wireless up as normal with 128bit WEP as i normally do. Shall I choose WPA or WPA-PSK or do i need to have WPA2?

cheers

Do Not use WEP.. it is not the slightest bit secure, anyone who wants to can get past WEP.. WPA-PSK really isn't a great deal better unless you have a really good (long) passphrase.

so is there any way i can disable wep but configure my router to only allow my MBP and my xp laptop?

On this page of your settings interface you should be able to filter out connections based on IP addresses but more importantly MAC addresses.

Here is another explaination from dlink. Gook luck!

walmartconnect said:

On this page of your settings interface you should be able to filter out connections based on IP addresses but more importantly MAC addresses.

Here is another explaination from dlink. Gook luck!

Click to expand...

cheers for that. so i'll just allow my 2 comps and disable wep that should do until i get a newer router with WPA2

Hope that works for you! As far as Wep key goes, I could careless for the security of it, it was the only thing I could do to get my wireless running fast. I would say to mess around with the provided options and see if they work! Hope something does and good luck!

ferritt said:

cheers for that. so i'll just allow my 2 comps and disable wep that should do until i get a newer router with WPA2

Click to expand...

One MAJOR caveat. If you only use WPA filtering, none of your wireless traffic is encrypted. This means that any data that transfers back and forth over the airwaves is susceptible to even the lowliest of hackers. With MAC-spoofing, not only can an enterprising 13-year-old hop on your network if one of the machines go offline, but they can also see your passwords, and any other sensitive data you might transmit.

I would STRONGLY suggest you consider getting a router capable of WPA2 or run your router with WPA/PSK and take the speed hit until you can.