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Q: Slow web page loading and connection speeds with Airport Extreme

About 5 days ago I noticed a significant slow down in loading web pages. In some cases, I see a blank white screen for up to a minute before the page loads. In others, the page never loads at all. And sometimes they do load very quickly as expected. This happens with my iMac that is connected to an Airport Extreme router via ethernet, as well as my Macbook Air connected via Wifi.

 

I have a high speed Comcast/Xfinity cable internet connection: Blast 250Mbps.

 

I tried connecting my iMac directly to the cable model (Arris Surfboard SB6183), and there is no problem. Download speed was 300Mbps and upload 30Mbps.

 

I then hooked up my Airport Extreme router again, and connected the iMac to the router via Ethernet. Download speed dropped to 100Mbps!

 

So it seems the issue may be with the Airport Express. It's not a wireless problem, because as you can see the download speed dropped from 300Mbps when connected directly to the model to 100Mbps when connected to the Airport Extreme.

 

How do I troubleshoot/fix this?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Apr 1, 2016 7:24 AM

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Q: Slow web page loading and connection speeds with Airport Extreme

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  • by Tesserax,Helpful

    Tesserax Tesserax Apr 3, 2016 9:44 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    Level 9 (54,684 points)
    Wireless
    Apr 3, 2016 9:44 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s

    Given this, it sounds like 802.11ac capable WAPs may indeed provide better speeds.

    The following table represents potential data rates for 802.11ac. Note: Both the number of streams and the channel widths the device is capable of determine this potential. The 802.11ac Extreme uses 3 streams @ 80 MHz-wide channels.

     

    802.11ac Data Rates by Channel Width

     

    Channel Width

     

     

     

    Number of Spatial Streams

    20 MHz

    40 MHz

    80 MHz

    160 MHz

    1

    86 Mbps

    200 Mbps

    433 Mbps

    866 Mbps

    2

    173 Mbps

    400 Mbps

    866 Mbps

    1.73 Gbps

    3

    288.9 Mbps

    600 Mbps

    1.3 Gbps

    2.34 Gbps

    4

    346.7 Mbps

    800 Mbps

    1.73 Gbps

    3.46 Gbps

     

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Apr 3, 2016 9:51 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    Level 9 (54,684 points)
    Wireless
    Apr 3, 2016 9:51 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    • Congested Comcast network slowing down speeds during times of heavier use (it's Sunday morning where I am, which is NOT a heavy-use time)

    Although this is more prevalent with DSL, cable still can be bandwidth limited when it has to serve numerous households ... so night times and Sunday mornings typically have lower usage.

    • Decreased Wifi speeds the further the clients get from the main router, perhaps in part because (see next bullet)...

    Yes, this is correct. The Wi-Fi signal will weaken the further away from the WAP.

    • The WAPs in living room/kitchen are 802.11n and not capable of download speeds that are as fast?

    Two things here, as well:

    1. The fact that these WAPs are not 802.11ac does play into why the local wireless speeds are lower.
    2. More importantly, your local wired or wireless speeds has NOTHING to do with your Internet upload or download speeds. Those are controlled by your ISP and the current state of the Internet. When measuring speed most folks use a web-based utility, like Speedtest.net. This is a measurement between the device hosting the Speedtest.net app and the Speedtest-sponsored server on the Internet. So it is a combination of speed measurements of each step in that path. Your goal should be to increase the potential bandwidth of your LOCAL network. In turn, this will help increase the speed measurement using tools like this. To increase the Internet speed, you would need to work with your ISP. Again, the three biggest bottlenecks for Internet traffic in your local network is: 1) The WAN/LAN interface of your router, 2) The wired and wireless local networks, and 3) The network client itself.
  • by s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s,

    s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s Apr 3, 2016 10:09 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 3, 2016 10:09 AM in response to Tesserax

    Great. Regarding #2, I'm trying the new router (which should improve WAN/LAN), upgrading access points for Wifi devices, and iMac is already plugged in via ethernet, and 3) all of my devices are 802.11ac, so can't do much about this one.

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Apr 3, 2016 10:17 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    Level 9 (54,684 points)
    Wireless
    Apr 3, 2016 10:17 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s

    I'll be curious to know the results. Please post back when you get a chance after setting up the new router.

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