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retina display MBP has extremely slow wifi... why?

Here's the scenario for my wifi issues with my mbp retina display. I have a regular 20Mb/s down Time Warner connection that I've been using for 2 years. My roommates' computers as well as my older 2010 MBP never had slow connectivity issues. The things I'm experiencing on my MBP now are:

- extremely slow speeds where even Google.com fails to load at times, streaming videos buffer every 15 seconds, I can't play diablo 3 anymore because it keeps giving me a time-out message (lol), my instant messenger times out so I have to reconnect.

I tried to diagnose my issue but going to any speedtest shows that my connection has a download speed of 20Mb/s which makes sense and probably has nothing to do with the slow/dc issue.

As of now, the only temporary remedy is to disconnect my wifi and reconnect (every 10-15 minutes), and I'm pretty sure no one would be content with this fix.

Is there any other diagnosis tool that I can use here to see what's going on? Anyone else have this issue?

(I've updated my software to the latest updates).

Thanks.

(... wow even as I submit this post, my connection timed out. Luckily this forum saves my last version of the post so whew)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 2, 2012 9:16 PM

32 replies

Jul 9, 2013 3:05 PM in response to swl7

For anyone that is still having the slooww WIFI access on rMBPs, my wife just bought a new one. Same crap. I've been in systems for 15 years and have looked high and low.

Here is what I found that finally did resolve the problem.

rename /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration folder to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration.backup

shutdown the machine

while off, hold Shift-Control-Option-Power for 8 seconds then release

Log on

Sep 11, 2013 12:09 AM in response to swl7

Hi,

I did not try the last suggestion from YankeeBoBo, but this worked in my case (with an external monitor)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4268396?start=15&tstart=0

Ohh My!

I have been frustrated by the slow WiFi since february this year when I got my Retina, and now after seing this thread... have simply changed the Thunderbolt port in which I plug my external monitor in - and my WiFi is back to what it should be.

Of the two ports on the left, if I plug the monitor into the port closer to the power (left) then I have slow WiFi... if I unplug, and plug it into the one next to the USB (right) then I have normal WiFi.

Really pathetic, but this solved the slow WiFi for me.

Some Technical details if this may be of use to apple/others...

- I have a apple thunderbolt --> DVI adaptor (not a fake one)

- I use it to plug in a Samsung SyncMaster B2430

- I usually always have an external usb hub plugged in (extension is long, so the items I have plugged into the hub are far away, so no interference from those devices.

- I changed my router (bought new one), changed ports, changed all settings that were advised on other sites, and nothign worked... as each time my external monitor was plugged in and it was slow, and I did not realize then that when it was fast... that the external monitor was not plugged in :S

Cheers!

Brad

retina display MBP has extremely slow wifi... why?