Download speed of 0.76mbps

[aksek]

OK, after trying for weeks to troubleshoot this myself, I've given up and joined this forum in hopes of getting some help from the experts.

I have my router set up in my living room and when I run speedtest there wirelessly I will get 20-25mbps. In the bedroom down the hallway, I get anywhere from 0.6-3mbps. In both instances the airport says the connection is excellent. I then ran speedtest from the bedroom on a PC and got 18-20mbps.

Does anyone have any clue why I get such lousy speed in my bedroom on my mac? Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is getting unbearable. Thank you.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Maybe this software utility will help:
APGrapher (free)
AP Grapher - Mac OS X AirPort Stumbler and Wireless Graphing Software

APGrapher can tell you about signal strength with different placement and orientation of your Mac and your router. Often it really makes a difference how things are oriented.

Are you in an older house? Is it possible that there are steel plates in the walls? Is there a large florescent lamp near your computer? Anything else that might be causing interference due to it having a large transformer?

If necessary, you could always use one of these to boost the reception of the signal (I've had great success with these):

Bear Extender n3
$45
BearExtender n3 - Long Range Mac USB Wifi Adapter - Home

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

OK, after trying for weeks to troubleshoot this myself, I've given up and joined this forum in hopes of getting some help from the experts.

I have my router set up in my living room and when I run speedtest there wirelessly I will get 20-25mbps. In the bedroom down the hallway, I get anywhere from 0.6-3mbps. In both instances the airport says the connection is excellent. I then ran speedtest from the bedroom on a PC and got 18-20mbps.

Does anyone have any clue why I get such lousy speed in my bedroom on my mac? Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is getting unbearable. Thank you.

It's quite likely interference causing fading and/or reduced SNR. If you're showing a strong RSSI reading - then I'd have to guess it's noise. Download iStumbler - and take a look at the respective noise levels in the different locations. There's no shortage of devices that operate in or near the 2.4 GHz bands. Do you have a 2.4 GHz phone in your bedroom?

 

[aksek]

Thanks for the replies so far.

There is no landline phone in the whole house. I am just confused as to why the PC gets roughly 20mbps in the same spot that the macbook get roughly 1-2mbps. Is anyone able to explain this?

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

Which Mac book do you have? Year?

 

[aksek]

Late 2008 13 inch, first run of the aluminum body.

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

Well - I was hoping someone here might know if your particular year/model had any known performance issues in this area. I slightly misread your original post - for some reason I read it as 3 data points for the same device - the MBP in 3 different locations - not the MBP in 2 and the Win PC in the same as the second MBP location.

Anyway - last few questions. Is this a new phenomenon - or has it always been like this since you've had the MBP? What it sounds like it's boiling down to is a poor performing wireless chipset on that MBP. Google reveals no shortage of complaining threads from 2008 - not that that's necessarily concrete proof.

 

[chscag]

It could be as Brian has stated, a poor performing wireless card, or it may be the antenna within the MacBook itself. The antenna wires which attach from the wireless card go up thru the hinge area to the back of the display.

Has the display ever been replaced on the MacBook or have you dropped the machine at any time?

 

[aksek]

It hasn't always been slow and it's not slow anywhere else. I've used it at school and at my parents and have had no problems.

 

[dtravis7]

So, in the front room with the same Mac, you get full speed, but you take that Mac down the hall to the bedroom and get 3Mbps or less but a PC in that same room gets the full speed.

I wonder if the Wireless speed is dropping way down on the Mac for some reason down the hall?

Open Applications/Utliities and click on Network Utility. Click on the Info tab and select Airport. Check the speed of the connect in the front room and later in the bedroom. Does the speed of the connect back off in the bedroom?

Shot in the dark but seen it happen.

Try it and let us know.

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

It hasn't always been slow and it's not slow anywhere else. I've used it at school and at my parents and have had no problems.

Ok - so your router seems fine - you get full data rates on both laptops when in close proximity to the router - only reduced performance in the bedroom, however the Win PC maintains performance in the bedroom (and without the help of a pill ;D).

If you're saying that your MBP gets full data rates at the same distance on another router - then the primary remaining variable is environmental - which takes me back to my original post - fading and noise. Not all RF front ends are created equal - not by any stretch. It could be that the Win PC chipset can handle a lower SNR than can the MBP chipset. All signs seem to point to a lesser performing chipset on that particular MBP - assuming the data points you've provided are accurate.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Check out these articles for how to change your Wi-Fi channel number to increase range and reliability:

How to get a good range on your wireless network

How To Change Your Wi-Fi Channel Number | How To Do Things

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

Check out these articles for how to change your Wi-Fi channel number to increase range and reliability:

How to get a good range on your wireless network

How To Change Your Wi-Fi Channel Number | How To Do Things

If changing the channel does in fact improve performance - that reinforces the lesser performing chipset (with lower SNR) theory. iStumbler, as suggested earlier, would have helped with the diagnosis here as well.

I guess I got stuck on the original question

Does anyone have any clue why I get such lousy speed in my bedroom on my mac

and trying to isolate and answer that first. :Blushing:

 

[aksek]

Problem solved! So all I did was change the WPA2 setting to WPA and everything is perfectly fine. Can anyone explain why this is?

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

Problem solved! So all I did was change the WPA2 setting to WPA and everything is perfectly fine. Can anyone explain why this is?

That's very interesting. No - I cannot explain it. If you switch it back to WPA2 does it resume poor performance?

 

[dtravis7]

That really makes no sense to me. What Router do you own? Brand and Model?

Glad it's working but still never seen that before.

 

[aksek]

The router is a Netgear WNR834B v2.0

I will try reverting it back to WPA2 later tonight to see what happens.

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

It simply makes no sense. WPA2 is the same on a Mac as it is on a Windows Machine - something must be missing from the data provided to us for analysis - but if you've got it working that's good.

 

[aksek]

Ok, I understand that it makes no sense, but I configured it back to WPA-2 and maxed out at 1.59mbps in 4 runs. After switching back to WPA, I hit 20.16. Both values were from the exact same location and were within 5 minutes of eachother.

 

[dtravis7]

Not doubting you BTW, just strange. Maybe the WPA2 in the Netgear does not like the chipset in the iMac. Glad it works at least. WPA is fine.

I have actually had WPA2 issues with some routers and some computers. Some would not even connect so I went to WPA and it connected.