Q: Slow network download speeds (Mac Pro, 2012)

Your description mentions so many different things, and does not make clear exactly what goes with what. Please take a deep breath, and start over.

Explain as if you were telling the problem to a small child. If you have done experiments, specify the exact setup and the exact results that went with it. We cannot see your Mac, and your descriptions are making too many assumptions. what results go with what setups? is this Wi-Fi? Ethernet, BOTH? neither?

I've got a 1 Gbit/s link speed with wired,

how do you know, for sure, that your Ethernet actually connected at 1000Base-T speeds. Did you use Network Utility to verify the connection speed, and whether you are getting any substantial number of errors? Are you using jumbo frame? are you using Full duplex with flow control?

Even if your Ethernet is 1000Base-T, that will not speed up your internet connection. ¿what connection speed to the Internet speed are you paying for?

Also, did you read all the footnotes that go with that power line Router? what country are you using this in, and what is your power? 1 Phase 220 Volt 50 hz, 60Hz, 2 phase (US) 110 volts 60Hz? something else?

1. The theoretical maximum channel data transfer rate is derived from HomePlug AV specifications. Actual data transfer rate will vary from network environment including: distance, network traffic, noise on electrical wires, building material and construction, quality of electrical installation and other adverse conditions.

WIFI:

 

   Wifi is 300 Mbit/s, with 50 Mbps.

I do not understand what you are talking about. what are these numbers?

General:

 

   My router is an ASUS RT-AC87U

does your power line Bridge/Router come off this Router?

what speeds do you get when you move your mac next to the router (or the Router next to the mac) and use a regular 8-conductor Ethernet cable?

If the Internet connection speed you are paying for is in fact 50 Megbits/sec. and your home network originates with that ASUS Router, and you can actually GET a 50 Megabits/sec Speed test over Wi-Fi with your phone, It really sounds like the PowerLink or its Ethernet cabling is limiting you to 30 Megabits/sec.

You must be certain that every Ethernet cable you are using has all 8 conductors present, or part of the connection will be limited to 100Base-T speeds rather than Gigabit speeds.

You should also specify Jumbo (9000 byte) frames. You may get full duplex and flow Control automatically, but if not, you should specify Manual speed, and add those additional parameters. That will get you the fastest connection possible.

There are three different speeds here.

1. The theoretical maximum speed of the network connection (1Gbps or 300Mbps)
2. The actual speed limit of your Internet connection
3. The actual speed your device is capable of

Your Mac Pro when using a wired Ethernet connection has a theoretical 1Gbps speed, however this not only depends on all other devices and connections involved also having a 1Gbps speed but also does not take into account that no network connection is 100% efficient so even in absolute perfect conditions you would never get a 1Gbps speed - even under perfect conditions it is most likely to be no more than 90%.

Remember there are other limitations such as the speed of your hard disk or SSD drive, the speed of your computer, etc. etc.

The WiFi 300Mbps speed is again in this case the maximum theoretical speed of your WiFi network, again you never in reality get 100% efficiency, in fact with WiFi it is far less likely to be able to get close to the maximum because WiFi is a shared network unlike an Ethernet switch, so other WiFi devices running at the same time will steel some of the speed. In this case your Mac is apparently only able to achieve 50Mbps over WiFi, whereas your iPhone 6 is able to achieve 188.20Mbps.

I believe the reason why the iPhone 6 gets such a higher speed is that the WiFi interface in the iPhone 6 is much more modern than the original WiFi interface in your Mac Pro 2012 model. For example the iPhone 6 supports the latest 802.3ac standard over 5GHz frequencies whereas your original WiFi interface in a Mac Pro 2012 only supports 802.3n over 5GHz. (I have not bothered referring to 2.4GHz because 5GHz is the fastest.) In case it is not obvious 802.3ac is much faster than 802.3n.

Therefore -

1. The speed is limited by the speed of your Internet connection, having a faster internal network does not help speed up the other end
2. The WiFi speed is limited by the speed of the WiFi network interface, your Mac Pro has an older slower one

Now as it happens it is possible to replace the WiFi interface in your Mac Pro 2012 model with one equivalent to the one in your much more modern iPhone 6. See - http://www.osxwifi.com/apple-broadcom-bcm94360cd-802-11-a-b-g-n-ac-bluetooth-4-0 -with-adapter-for-macpro-2009-and-macpro-2010

I have fitted the equivalent of ones of these to my Mac Pro 2010 model which is effectively identical to a 2012 model.

Even once you have done this there is likely to be some difference in speed between the Mac Pro and the iPhone 6 but hopefully a much smaller difference.

sujinyan wrote:

 

Just confirming that upgrading the wifi/bluetooth card did the trick:

Thanks once again!

Good to hear.

I only wish such speeds were available here in London, England. Unfortunately we are stuck with British Telecom who think up to 80Mbps is superfast broadband. Earth to BT - superfast is a minimum of 100Mbps. Adding salt to the wound I cannot even get their so called superfast broadband and I am therefore stuck with ordinary ADSL at 15Mbps.

They even rubbed my nose in it by sending me spam advertising their new 4K resolution Internet TV streaming sports channel. Except in order to get it you must be on their so called superfast broadband service which of course I cannot get. Grrrr!