Podosinovique

Q: Very slow upload speed on 5GHz ac connection

Hello everyone!

 

I have recent Airport Extreme with 802.11ac.

My ISP provides me 100/100 Mbit access on ethernet cable.

 

When connected through Ethernet, speed is ok.

When I go wireless on my MacMini using 5GHz network download speed is 100 Mbit, but upload is 30-35 Mbit max.

 

I tried reconfiguring my wireless settings and resetting Airport Extreme, me and ISP guy checked cables and renewed connectors.

 

I'm not really bothered, but got quite curious on this matters. Any ideas?

 

Thanks! ;-)

 

Message was edited by: Podosinovique, typos.

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), MGEN2

Posted on Mar 16, 2016 9:01 AM

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Q: Very slow upload speed on 5GHz ac connection

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Mar 16, 2016 9:53 AM in response to Podosinovique
    Level 9 (54,427 points)
    Wireless
    Mar 16, 2016 9:53 AM in response to Podosinovique

    With your Mac mini connected to the 802.11ac AirPort Extreme by wireless, option-click on the Wi-Fi menu in the OS X menu bar.

     

    Please provide the following values:

    • Security
    • Channel
    • RSSI
    • Noise
    • Tx Rate
    • PHY Mode
    • MCS Index
  • by Podosinovique,

    Podosinovique Podosinovique Mar 16, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 16, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Tesserax

    Hello!

     

    Here is the info, you asked for:

    Security: WPA2 Personal

    Channel: 40 (5GHz, 80 MHz)

    RSSI: -79 dBm

    Noise: -93 dBm

    Tx Rate: 351 Mbps (But sometimes it gets up to 500-550, not really sure why this happens)

    PHY Mode: 802.11ac

    MCS Index: 4

     

    Thank you!

  • by Tesserax,Helpful

    Tesserax Tesserax Mar 16, 2016 12:26 PM in response to Podosinovique
    Level 9 (54,427 points)
    Wireless
    Mar 16, 2016 12:26 PM in response to Podosinovique

    Thanks for the numbers.

     

    A couple of things stand out:

    • The signal quality, at the mini, is somewhat low. -79 - (-93) = 14. You would want to have that value to be 25+.
    • The MCS Index of 4 (the maximum value would be 9). With an index of 4 the theoretical throughput for a single stream for a 80 MHz channel is: 175-195 Mbps. Although 802.11ac allows for up to 8 simultaneous streams, Apple currently supports 3-4 for their devices ... so 195 x 3 = 585 Mbps would be the maximum with an MCS Index of 4. (Note: Both devices would need to support the same number of streams.) Possibly why you are seeing the 500-550 values at times as I'm not sure which model of the Mac mini you have.)

     

    The bottom line to all of this is that you mini is not getting the best possible bandwidth for your wireless network. This, most likely, is being caused by Wi-Fi interference or placement.

  • by Podosinovique,

    Podosinovique Podosinovique Mar 16, 2016 10:58 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 16, 2016 10:58 AM in response to Tesserax

    Thank you!

     

    I have a reinforced concrete wall on way from AE to my mini. I will try measure speed with iPad Air 2 when I get back home, from different places.

     

    The "Mini" is Macmini7,1 Late 2014, MGEN2RU/A is the same as MGEN2LL/A.

    So, changing channels will not really help, I guess.

     

    Right now I changed position of Mini a bit, the SNR is now 39 and MCS is now 6. Speedof.me gives me same results, Speedtest.net gives a bit better results on upload, but much lower on download.

     

    So, as to my understanding, it is quite useless to "play" with channes and stuff, right? And why download speed is "full scale"?

     

    Thank you very much!

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Mar 16, 2016 12:55 PM in response to Podosinovique
    Level 9 (54,427 points)
    Wireless
    Mar 16, 2016 12:55 PM in response to Podosinovique

    I have a reinforced concrete wall on way from AE to my mini. I will try measure speed with iPad Air 2 when I get back home, from different places.

    Yes, that would be an issue, as far as, affecting signal quality. It's best to use wired connections (where possible) in this situation.

    Right now I changed position of Mini a bit, the SNR is now 39 and MCS is now 6. Speedof.me gives me same results, Speedtest.net gives a bit better results on upload, but much lower on download.

    MCS of 6 is much better, and so is your "new" SNR value. I would suspect that you would also be getting better results with both upload & download speeds. One other thing is to look into using different DNS servers, especially if you are using the ones provided by your ISP.

    So, as to my understanding, it is quite useless to "play" with channes and stuff, right? And why download speed is "full scale"?

    Anything is possible, but changing the connection to Ethernet would provide the best results. Not sure why, on wireless, you are getting poor performance on uploads, other then DNS as I mentioned. One application that can help determine if changing DNS servers will help is namebench.

  • by Podosinovique,

    Podosinovique Podosinovique Mar 16, 2016 1:01 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 16, 2016 1:01 PM in response to Tesserax

    A bit of updates:

    1. Done factory reset.

    2. iPhone 5s : 46/30, not sure on 802.11ac here.

    iPad Air 2: 102/32, just same as Mini.

    I was standing on clear view, 5 meters away.

  • by Podosinovique,

    Podosinovique Podosinovique Mar 16, 2016 1:04 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 16, 2016 1:04 PM in response to Tesserax

    I'll try this DNS thing and post back.

     

    Ethernet is not an option here, unfortunately.

     

    Thank you.

  • by Podosinovique,Solvedanswer

    Podosinovique Podosinovique Mar 17, 2016 8:09 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 17, 2016 8:09 AM in response to Tesserax

    Hello again!

     

    I've done some setting search and, hooray, setting wireless to "Costa Rica" and Channel 36 made everything work super fine.

     

    Anyway, thank for you advices, they are super helpful!