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Level 1

40 points

Network connection extremely slow after snow leopard upgrade

I should first state that my son's new Intel Mac Mini (2009 model) is working fine without any issues - it is on the "n" band. My wife's macbook (on Leopard) and my Thinkpad are continuing to work fine - both connecting to the "g" band of my Simultaneous Dual band AEBS.

On my 2008 model mac mini, the installation went thru fine, but the network connection is extremely slow - it is connecting using the "g" band. Even when I launch the Airport utility, it takes a while to locate the AEBS and then when I click on "Manual Setup", it takes a very very long time to read the configuration. This tells me that the airport interface on the mac mini has some driver issue.

I tried all the suggestions given in other threads (listed below), but none of them worked.

1. Created a new network location and rebooted
2. Trashed the com.apple.airport.airportutility.plist and rebooted
3. Rebooted countless number of times - illogical, but that kicks in when I can't find a solution.

It is past midnight here (20miles from Apple headquarter). Going to wait for another 30minutes. After that, I will use SuperDuper to install my Leopard back on my mac mini which I had cloned before starting the installation.

Appreciate any suggestions - I am open to any prayer solution as well! If not, the Snow Leopard family pack is going back to the Apple store on Monday.

Just saw at engadget: "On a 17-inch unibody we were putting through the paces, the WiFi inexplicably has gone out and we have yet to get it working again."

Message was edited by: new2appletv

2xMac Mini 2Ghz(old+new); iPhone 3G 16GB; Apple TV 40GB, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 750GBSeagateFreeagentProFirewire4data; 1TB USB 4Backups; iLife09

Posted on Aug 29, 2009 12:21 AM

27 replies

catbb

Level 1

4 points

Sep 3, 2009 8:59 AM in response to new2appletv

I am using a D-Link DIR-628 router with dual-band. I am only running the wireless N on 5 GHz bandwidth. Only my Mini is using this. Before SL, the trasmit rate was at least 108 and half of the time it gets close to 200. Now it is consistently in the 20's or 30's. I have other problems but this is the main issue so far.

Sep 3, 2009 9:39 AM in response to new2appletv

I have a MBP(3,1) and a 500GB Time capsule. The network is secured and I use 'n' to connected to the wireless. The wifi would give me speads ~1.5 to 2MBps on Leopard. But now, once I upgraded to SL i hardly get a few tens of kBps. When I boot into XP through boot camp I can again get the ~1.5MBps speeds from the same network. Also, the wifi speeds for my iPhone have not been affected. So I am pretty sure its something to do with SL!

And yeah the time machine backups are turned OFF so there is pretty much no traffic on the network.

Message was edited by: WiredControl

new2appletv Author

Level 1

40 points

Sep 3, 2009 10:59 AM in response to WiredControl

I had started another thread and I posted an update on this subject after talking to Apple Tech support - they have taken it to Engineering as the issue has them puzzled as well. See the post here...

http://discussions.apple.com/messageview.jspa?messageID=10118788&stqc=true

Sep 9, 2009 3:07 PM in response to new2appletv

For some unknown reasons the internet is back to speed again! Without any updates or tweeks to the installation.

new2appletv Author

Level 1

40 points

Sep 11, 2009 6:32 PM in response to WiredControl

The same mysterious resolution of the problem happened to me today right in front of Apple engineers who had come home to debug this issue. It was a mix of elation and embarrassment. Read more on this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2141344&tstart=0&start=50

Sep 19, 2009 4:40 PM in response to new2appletv

I have this slow network speed problem SL install. There is another more recent thread on "slow access over Rogers cable internet" with 1000 posts that I think is the same problem.

Currently
Macbook Pro (Dec 2006 purchase) via Ethernet to Comcast modem - 2 MBPS (Windows machine on same network gets 5 Mbps)
Macbook Pro (Dec 2006 purchase) via WiFi to Airport Extreme router- 2 MBPS (Windows machine through router hardwired on same network gets 5 Mbps)

Previously
All at ~ 5 Mbps.

Any solutions?

Sep 19, 2009 4:57 PM in response to new2appletv

This guy may have found the solution:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1447413&tstart=0

Try turning Configure IPv6 to "Off" in "TCP/IP".

Sep 19, 2009 11:06 PM in response to applecore_eater

Regretfully turning off IPv6 did not help me. Turned off IPV6 in TCIP, restarted Macbook Pro. Downloading 2.3 Mbps before, same after. Upload speeds exceed download, measuring ~3 Mbps.

Earlier discussion about some kind of having switched into half-duplex mode would explain magnitude of reduction in speed (from ~5 Mbps to about 2.3 Mbps) but I have no idea where that would be controlled in Mac (no longer being a computer "expert") while maintaining connectivity. Would be consistent with same performance over ethernet cable to modem or via wifi to airport extreme.

Apple should be posting a solution to this forum, not silent.

satcomer

Level 4

1,539 points

Sep 20, 2009 7:58 AM in response to new2appletv

Has anyone tried to make a new System Preferences->Network, custom Location yet to see if that helps?

Sep 20, 2009 11:40 AM in response to satcomer

Thanks for "new network location" suggestion. I had SL 10.6.1 create a new location (same physical as old) without any effect, good or bad. Download speed still 2.3 Mbps; upload speed still~3 Mbps.

Not a solution for me;

The problem is in the software. I have same 2.3Mbps download connectivity over either (a) ethernet direct to cable modem or (b) via WiFI to Apple Airport extreme base station. Separately I show 130 Mbps link speed connection to Apple Airport Extreme router base station.

Oct 4, 2009 7:37 PM in response to tatsquare

I have posted to this forum a series related to slow download speeds (2 Mbps) over Comcast and the same result (a) Ethernet cabled to Comcast modem; (b) Ethernet cabled to Airport Extreme which in turn is connected to same Comcast modem and (c) Wifi connected to same Airport Extreme which showed up consistently after upgrading to SL 10.6.1. [At the same time this was going on, I recorded 5 mpbs transfer speeds to a Windows 2000 machine]. All speeds above measured using www.dslreports.com tools measured over a 50 mile link to their test data return point. This included a visit to the Apple Genius Bar at the local Apple store confirming the transfer speed issue,

I return from a week's vacation (but taking my MBP with me and using it on a 1 Mbps dsl line) to find the problem has mysteriously disappeared. I am now recording 10 Mbps download speeds with same test and configuration.

To my knowledge, nothing has changed. But obviously something has. (The SL version listed is still 10.6.1)

Nov 27, 2009 7:49 AM in response to tatsquare

I had the same problem with my 1.66 dual core Mini and I had tried everything without success. My MacBook was working just fine over WiFi, with the same setting, so I know it wasn't a router problem. So, today, I remembered the old Mac fix - zap the PRAM. I did it and my internet access is flying again! I believe that, somehow, the built-in Airport card was the cause of the problem and zapping the PRAM fixed it, as it fixes many hardware issues.

For those who don't know or forgot how to zap the PRAM, just start the computer while holding the option, command, p and r keys and wait for the computer to chime four times.

Network connection extremely slow after snow leopard upgrade