PC Internet 30X faster then Mac???

[ermadd]

Took my MacBook to a neighbors house. Testing the network there with my Starbucks still in hand my results...
MBP 15.6 Mbps Download
iPhone 8 Mbps Download

I think its safe to say its a router problem. I really don't know what setting is broke within it or if its a hardware problem. The firmware upgrade didn't help.

I think I'll just go with my solution for everything recently and just get an apple product to replace my broke hardware =)

If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post, I'll keep the router incase a solution makes itself known.

I just like to say you are doing some very good fault finding and wish a few more people to the forum could take a leaf out of your book Well done. Sorry cant help on this though as im not a Router/Wireless Guru

Thank you sir!

 

[iggibar]

I've always had problems with Linksys compatibility issues. Sometimes my MBP would bring down the whole network at home. This happened with both Linksys and AT&T Motorola modem/routers. I switched to a Cisco modem and then to an ARRIS modem after moving, which were both coupled to a Netgear N600 router, and they both have been awesome. You should definitely give Netgear a try if you have the ability.

 

[dtravis7]

I'm at starbucks... I wonder if they Throttle.... 1.4 Mbps as tested from here. I think I'll try someplace else too.

If you are getting 1.4Mbps at SB you are doing great. I took my iPad and a friend his Macbook to a SB and we were lucky to get 768k like Entry level AT&T DSL!

Do you have any other places in your area with Free WiFi? SB according to my tests and everyone else I have talked to is very slow and not really going to show you if your machine is going fast.

 

[chscag]

If you are getting 1.4Mbps at SB you are doing great. I took my iPad and a friend his Macbook to a SB and we were lucky to get 768k like Entry level AT&T DSL!

Most places that offer free WiFi throttle the bandwidth down to DSL speeds. Starbucks, Panera, Wal-Mart, Target, and others are all pretty much the same. That's why I love the 4G on my iPad, it's fast, real fast. Only problem is it eats the battery on this iPad 3 a lot faster than WiFi.

 

[ermadd]

Well... I think I took the right course of action by replacing another piece of Hardware with an Apple product. I wanted my productivity back!

Current Results... (Airport Extreme)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Macbook Pro wireless to Airport Extreme 25-35 Mbps down
iPad wireless to Airport Extreme 15 Mbps down (does iPad throttle for Battery life?)
iPhone wireless to Airport Extreme 12 Mbps down
Sony Vaio wireless to Airport Extreme 25-35 Mbps down
and finally the most important test... Apple TV on Netflix (high definition video! haha)

Past Results.... (Linksys E1200)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PC Hooked Directly into Modem 60 Mbps
PC Wireless into Router 30 Mbps
iPhone wireless into Router 1 Mbps
iPad wireless into Router 1Mbps
Apple TV wireless into Router (Low resolution video)
Mac Wireless into Router 1 Mbps


Linksys at its best was dropping my bandwidth by 50%
Aiport Extreme currently drops my bandwidth by 30-40%

I'm currently satisfied... If you have a smaller drop with wireless please share!

 

[msivers]

Well... I think I took the right course of action by replacing another piece of Hardware with an Apple product. I wanted my productivity back!

Current Results... (Airport Extreme)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Macbook Pro wireless to Airport Extreme 25-35 Mbps down
iPad wireless to Airport Extreme 15 Mbps down (does iPad throttle for Battery life?)
iPhone wireless to Airport Extreme 12 Mbps down
Sony Vaio wireless to Airport Extreme 25-35 Mbps down
and finally the most important test... Apple TV on Netflix (high definition video! haha)

Past Results.... (Linksys E1200)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PC Hooked Directly into Modem 60 Mbps
PC Wireless into Router 30 Mbps
iPhone wireless into Router 1 Mbps
iPad wireless into Router 1Mbps
Apple TV wireless into Router (Low resolution video)
Mac Wireless into Router 1 Mbps


Linksys at its best was dropping my bandwidth by 50%
Aiport Extreme currently drops my bandwidth by 30-40%

I'm currently satisfied... If you have a smaller drop with wireless please share!

It's interesting to hear that The Airport Extreme was so much better...

I have had similar experience with my MacBook Pro w/ Retina. I have a SumVision router (UK) and experience very slow wifi speeds and regularly drops out of internet connectivity even though the WiFi signal is still full and connected at 144mbits... All other devices (iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, XBOX, my wife's iPad, iPhone and her older white MacBook (Snow Leopard), have great connectivity and we can watch a number of video feeds on different devices with no lag (router reports 10MB downstream and 1.3MB upstream internet connection). It is only my MacBook Pro w/ Retina that has problems.

Having done lots of searches for clues I have heard reports of the new MacBook Pros (inc. Retina) having issues with the Bluetooth interfering with Wifi signal, also Intel have published white papers on USB 3 equipped laptops causing problems with onboard wifi chipsets (USB 30* Radio Frequency Interference on 24 GHz Devices). I have not had a chance to test my machine at my home yet but will test my wifi performance with the bluetooth turned off and also will try playing with the router channel selection. I will also test if having my USB3 hard drive linked up effects wifi performance.

I'll post any observations... If none of this resolves the issue then I guess it would be worthwhile purchasing Apple's Airport Extreme!

 

[msivers]

Following up from my previous post... I was getting 1.2 - 1.4 Mbits download speeds (speedtest.net) on a broadband line reported at over 10 Mbits downstream on the router. By playing around with the wireless settings on the router I was able to get download speeds of 9.98 Mbits which is what I would expect. I had to play around quite a bit before I got there with varying results achieved by disabling/enabling different options and selecting different channels.

In the end this is the configuration that working for me on the router's WLAN settings...

Network Mode: Mixed (B/G/N)
AP Isolation: Disable
MBSSID AP Isolation: Disable
Channel: 6
Operating Mode: Green Field
Channel BandWidth: 20MHz
Guard Interval: Auto
MCS: Auto
Reverse Direction Grant: Disable
Extension Channel: 2
Aggregation MSDU (A-MSDU): Enable

I think in future, as our household use predominately Apple devices and computers, it's going to be worthwhile buying Apple's Airport products for wireless as they appear to be, not surprisingly, well configured to work with Macs and iDevices - i'm sure in typical Apple style, it just works!

Hope this info helps.
Regards...

 

[ermadd]

One major difference between the router I was using (Linksys E1200) and the Airport Extreme is the multiple channels its using for communication.

I noticed CNET posts reviews that they've found other multi channel routers that had better transfer rates. They suggest their might be others that have a better value for their price.

I wish I could get my router to give me 90% of my bandwidth! Who else gets that??

 

[Ramimac1]

did you by chance set up the laptop on the 5GHZ band?

 

[lbm3b]

Any other fixes?

I'm having this same issue, and it's frustrating. All the solves have been "buy an Apple Airport".....my Macbook should be compatible with my Wifi. I don't want to be required to buy another product to get my computer to have internet access.
I currently have 0.30 MBps according to speedtest.net. That's ridiculous. It's a 25 MB connection.

 

[chappers]

Have you tried connecting to the router via Ethernet. Does that give you a faster connection?

Also the quality of the line into your router may be at fault. Colleague of mine her in the UK was getting really poor connection speed. Complained to BT who supply the phone line, and eventually got an engineer out. Found it was a poor line to the house. switched line, quality went up by 10X.