Time-Capsule Network Speed slows down

My TC does the same thing! Is this a common occurance or do I need to return it?

Same symptoms here. I reboot every week. I have noticed that pings to hosts on the local LAN become erratic. Pings go from 1-2 ms to 200, 400, 4000+. After reboot of Time Capsule, everything returns to normal.

Airport Extreme at work runs for weeks without issue.

Message was edited by: Ryan Petty

I experience the same thing, but has noticed that steaming audio from iTunes to a wlan attached Airport Express actually restores the speed as long as audio is streaming.

Have you noticed anything like this?

Is rebooting TC with the Admin tool enough, or do you have to power-cycle?

I have a Time Capsule as a Remote station on an Airport Express wireless network consisting of three Express's running 802.11n, and an Apple TV. The network was running at 4500 kps or so, as the previous TC was faulty, and has now been replaced under warranty.

Since I added in the new TC and set it to back up two laptops, the entire WiFi network has slowed down to almost unusable speeds, and iChat is no longer possible because of low bandwidth.

The clients are the Apple TV, three iPhones and two MacBooks. Why is the Time Capsule slowing things down. It does not appear to be just when it is backing up.

I was having this same issue and had the TC set up to be 802.11n (b/g compatible) so that my iMac could communicate at the faster speed. But after doing the reset a few times I started to make settings changes to see if I could cure the problem.

What I ended up with was changing the wireless speed to 802.11b/g only. It is now working properly and I haven't experienced any slowdowns.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have just upgraded my Airport Expresses to get 802.11n speed. It would seem a pity to go back to the slower speed.

I feel your pain.

I don't think the problem is 802.11n as much as it is having the support for multi-speeds. I suspect that if everything on the wireless was 802.11n, all would be good.

As of now, everything on my network is at 802.11n. In spite of this, and changing the old Expresses for the new faster models, I am still getting a very slow service on the network. I am going to try taking the Time Capsule out of the set up again, but that leaves me without laptop backup, and with an expensive piece of junk!

I wonder if you used the TC as your Time Machine and remote disk/printer but not as the main connection to your modem or modem/router and use an Express as the router instead would still allow for good performance and have the backup of TM? It is worth a try I would think.

I am using one of the Expresses as the ethernet connection to the router and modem, That is set up as the WDS Main unit and the other two Expresses and the TC are set up as the WDS Remote stations.

Today I am planning to switch off Time Machine on the two laptops to see if this speeds up the network. It is interesting to note that the internet speed on running a speed test is quite reasonable at 3500 kps download, but the performance of the laptops is very slow downloading pages, and iChat does not work because of bandwidth deficiency.

My desktop iMacs are hardwired to the router, and are performing flawlessly.

I'm having the EXACT same problem!

Currently I have a TimeCapsule broadcasting a wireless N (A compatable) network. From that, I have an airport express unit extending my network.

If I power cycle my TimeCapsule (removing the power cord, plugging it back in) and run a speed test, I get perfect internet speeds based on what I should be getting from my modem.

However, after about an hour or so, I'll start to notice the internet getting sluggish. Running a speed test again shows that it has slowed down nearly 50%!

This happens without fail, every time I reboot the TimeCapsule. Fast at the start, then an hour later slow again...

What the heck could be causing this??

Hi and welcome to the forums.

I'm not a wireless expert, but after having wireless networks at home for more than 5 years with Apple stuffI made some observations.

First, there might be issues with other networks in your neighbourhood. Many posts suggest that there should be at least 5 channels between wireless networks, e.g. 1 - 6 - 11. Set it with AirPort Utility.

Second, something called "noise" from other electronic equipment as microwave ovens and machinery.

Thirdly, having different types of equipment's and networks and speeds mixed together might not make the best network. We have the Time Machine set as working in the 5Ghz area with only the "n" protocol, while another device from the Internet Service Provider broadcasts in the slower bandwidth. In this way the slower wireless computers are running on their own net.

Fourthly, reception of the wireless network can be an issue. One older PC has been provided with an extra antenna, and that helped a lot with an nearly 100% increase in speed for that machine.

John Christiansen wrote:

First, there might be issues with other networks in your neighbourhood. Many posts suggest that there should be at least 5 channels between wireless networks, e.g. 1 - 6 - 11. Set it with AirPort Utility.

I'm having the exact same problem and have been wondering if it's related to the other networks in my neighbourhood, or if these are two distinct problems. Every time I check my network status in the menu bar, it's seems it's "Airport: scanning" again -- can't figure out why it keeps doing this, as if it doesn't know it's on my preferred network. Forgive my ignorance: what is "5 channels between wireless networks, e.g. 1 - 6 -11"?

You will see the "scanning" message every time you click on the AirPort icon.

It means your AirPort card is "scanning" for the list of networks to show in the menu - nothing more.

So it's "scanning" because *you asked it to*.

The "five channel" advice is because though there are 11 Wi-Fi channels, they overlap.

To avoid interfering with a different channel, your AirPort network should be "five away" from others in use nearby.

Thus channels 1, 6 and 11 are the only three that can be used without interfering with each other if two of the three are already in use.

(So for example, if only 1 is in use, you should use a channel in the range 6-11, but if 1 and 11 are in use, you should use 6, and so on.)