Rysz

Q: Download speed one third upload speed?

Paying for 100 Mbps Up and Down. Upload speed is close to that, but download speed is less than 30% of that. Getting same results regardless if I'm connected via Wi-Fi (AirPort Extreme ac tower), or Mac mini (Late 2012) is connected directly via Ethernet cable. Same results on Mac, iPhone and iPad, too.

 

Here's the kicker. When a friend connected his mid-priced Dell PC via Ethernet, he got 95 Mbps both Up and Down. Same connection, same cable.

 

Is there something about Apple hardware, or Apple default network settings, that would explain this? Anything that can be done?

IMG_1958.jpg

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 16 GB

Posted on Aug 23, 2016 2:48 PM

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Q: Download speed one third upload speed?

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  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Aug 24, 2016 11:07 PM in response to Rysz
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    Aug 24, 2016 11:07 PM in response to Rysz

    I really want to see the main ISP gateway and DNS values.

     

    What you posted is the LAN side of the airport.. there is nothing in that to help me.

     

    So I want you to bypass the airport or open the Internet tab of the airport in the utility so I can see the gateway and DNS plus main subnet you are being passed.

     

    I would like you to change DNS to google values and I would also like you to test with nothing else connected.

     

    ie just the one computer is running and nothing else. But I want to see if they are passing you multiple IP addresses as the Ooma can be a wretched little thing.. taking over control of the network.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 25, 2016 8:35 AM in response to LaPastenague
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    Aug 25, 2016 8:35 AM in response to LaPastenague

    Would any of this affect the original point that a PC connected to the same wall jack gets 95 Mbps up and down, but my Mac is getting 90 up, but only 30 down?

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 25, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Rysz
    Level 9 (54,035 points)
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    Aug 25, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Rysz

    It could well may. The Internet speed tests that you use are relying on have to move a series of data packets from your Mac's web browser to Ookla's or the FAA's test servers.

     

    Getting the data packets to the server requires using a number of IP protocol suites. One in particular is DNS. It's very likely that the DNS servers that your Mac is using is NOT the same as the one configured on that PC.

     

    By default, the DNS server IP addresses are automatically assigned to your network devices by your ISP. That is normal as, also by default, most network clients are DHCP clients. DHCP is the IP protocol that does all the automatic IP address assignments.

     

    You can override these DNS server assignments, which in a number of cases will help with Internet "speed."

     

    Your AirPort Extreme is also a DHCP client and gets these assignments. In this case from your ISP. We are just tying to understand what these assignments are. The Internet tab of the AirPort Utility will provide these.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 25, 2016 10:13 AM in response to Tesserax
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    Aug 25, 2016 10:13 AM in response to Tesserax

    Appreciate the explanation. Much of this terminology is not part of my personal knowledge base  

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 25, 2016 12:03 PM in response to Tesserax
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    Aug 25, 2016 12:03 PM in response to Tesserax

    Screenshot of the "Internet tab" in AirPort utility as per current setup shown on the diagram.

    I'll disconnect other devices as per LaPastenague instructions and follow up later today or early tomorrow.

    AP Utility- Internet.png

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 26, 2016 1:39 PM in response to Rysz
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    Aug 26, 2016 1:39 PM in response to Rysz

    UPDATE

    I did what you both asked me to do (to the best of my ability, anyway).

     

    Collected a bunch of screenshots. The full collection is at Dropbox https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90179659/RH_Network_tests.zip

    Highlights...

     

    Disconnected everything, so my setup was this:

    1.0 RH Network2 copy.jpg

    AirPort Utility - Network data:

    2.0 AP Utility- Internet.png

    Test results varied greatly, but were generally much better than what I had before.

    SpeedTest Mac app:

    4.0 SpeedTest- app.png

    SpeedTest web browser-based results:

    4.1 SpeedTest- web browser.png

     

    I won't even attempt to interpret any of this, or guess what permanent changes I should make. Obviously, I need to get Wi-Fi and VOiP back on board.

     

    Thanks for looking at this,

    Rich

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 26, 2016 1:33 PM in response to LaPastenague
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    Aug 26, 2016 1:33 PM in response to LaPastenague

    See the "update" to my original Q I just posted below.

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Aug 26, 2016 2:05 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 9 (52,300 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 2:05 PM in response to Rysz

    Rysz wrote:

     

    See the "update" to my original Q I just posted below.

    ??

     

    You don't seem to have posted it.

     

    I downloaded all the pics and went through them. Other than changing IPv6 to Link-Local only I don't really see anything wrong.

    To get a valid comparison I think you need to have another computer available for testing.

     

    I need to go back and read through the answers and see if there is anything I have not taken into account yet.

  • by Tesserax,Solvedanswer

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 26, 2016 3:30 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 9 (54,035 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 3:30 PM in response to Rysz

    The third image that you provided from the Speed Test app (looks like the app is provided by BigWhitePlanet) shows a significantly high ping value of 147 ms even with your Mac mini connected by Ethernet. Good would be under 100 ms; fair between 101 & 200, and poor, 200+. Whereas, your Ookla web app show an excellent ping value. For Ookla latency (aka ping deviations) is measured multiple times and the lowest time is reported in the app. I don't know how BigWhitePlanet's app makes these same measurements.

     

    If anything the methods used by the Speed Test vs. the Ookla's web-based app could certainly contribute to the discrepancy in the two ping values ... and also shows how these results cannot always be trusted as a true indicator of the data throughput speeds that your Mac mini is actually getting.

     

    You can get a more accurate measure and a potential means to determine where in the data's path the issue may be by using an app, like PingPlotter. You can use it for free for a limited time, and if you like it, purchase it.

     

    As an example, I ran the Ookla test from my Mac mini (Ethernet connected to the router) to a Ookla-provided server. I was getting ping values of 35 ms. Not really an issue, but I still wanted to know (between the mini and the Ookla test server) where there were any bottlenecks. Below is an image of the PingPlotter test results.

    CapturFiles.png

    First thing to notice, is the results show an average Round Trip Time (RTT) (aka, latency) of 13.5 ms, less than half of the Ookla results. I think it's due to the Ookla app's dependency on Adobe Flash.

     

    More importantly, notice that RTT averages were pretty consistent on all seven router hops between the two devices. What I would look for is any that had high RTT average values. This would indicate the bottlenecks. The first hop is my local network router. It definitely is not an issue in this case.

     

    Just wanted to arm you with information. Hopefully, I'm not overdoing it.

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Aug 26, 2016 4:17 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 9 (52,300 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 4:17 PM in response to Rysz

    I have gone back through the posts..

     

    The only unusual result I can find is the Netgear switch which is a low end unit.. in your IP Scan a Netgear device shows up with an IP 174. 141.128.10 .. thinking about it .. this must be someone else's router, not your switch.

     

    The scanner shows several active IP addresses responding to pings. (I suspect there should be a lot more but the ping responder is turned off). Building internet often looks like this.

     

    I would like you to add a piece of hardware to your system. A cheap router in front of the switch. Borrow if you can or buy second hand for cheap also fine.. something like Netgear WNDR3800 is one of my favourites. New you can get any low end Netgear or TP-Link but it must have gigabit.. eg TP-Link WR1043ND is the cheapest in their range new.

    So at most you need to spend $35-70.

     

    Once you put this in front of the switch.. it can be configured as the main router. Then we can see what happens with the rest of the network.

     

    Since the airport has the same issue as the Mac.. we have to add a piece of hardware to the system to find out where things are going wrong.

     

    I would also note the reliability of the Netgear switch (more than 12months old) is worth checking which the gigabit router will be able to do bypassing the switch.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 26, 2016 6:21 PM in response to Tesserax
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    Aug 26, 2016 6:21 PM in response to Tesserax

    I run the SpeedTest app multiple times. The up/down speeds were fairly consistent, within 5-10% of each other. The ping numbers varied widely. The one that happens to be on the screenshot was the worst one encountered. Most other test runs were between 25 and 45, and were lower when tested with other methods.

     

    Again, it was the difference in up and down speeds that started all this. Web based SpeedTest consistently showed both over 90, but even their app, did not match these results.

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Aug 26, 2016 7:09 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 9 (52,300 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 7:09 PM in response to Rysz

    When you share the bandwidth with a whole building you can easily find times of peak use.. eg evenings when people stream TV are slow.. cf early mornings to mid afternoon when people work and kids are in school.

     

    The fact that you can see other public IP addresses on your WAN shows you that the building has not isolated users from each other even.. so that means people in the building could be potentially sharing bandwidth with each other.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 26, 2016 8:57 PM in response to LaPastenague
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    Aug 26, 2016 8:57 PM in response to LaPastenague

    In the end, under identical conditions, a PC gets download speed that's three times that of a Mac. That's the mystery I was trying to understand.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 27, 2016 9:38 AM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 7 (20,237 points)
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    Aug 27, 2016 9:38 AM in response to LaPastenague

    Thanks so much.

    I'll try getting the router today from a local BestBuy, or will order one tonight.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Aug 27, 2016 12:08 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 7 (20,237 points)
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    Aug 27, 2016 12:08 PM in response to Rysz

    At the risk of totally alienating you...

    Why are we buying a WI-FI router when I already have the AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi tower?

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