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Level 1

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Very Slow internet on new 27.5" iMac with all updates

I'm not sure when this problem started but I'm pretty sure my wireless internet speed was perfect when I got the mac (December 2009) but I started noticing recently that Youtube was slow, as were my usual news sites which were normally pretty fast - suddenly I was waiting like when I had dial up. I thought it might be router but the other housemate says his internet is fine.

So I tested my EEE-PC and then my iMac with speedtest.net and imagine my shock:

£300 EEE-PC:
Download: 8.84Mb/s
Upload: 0.26Mbs/s
Ping: 51

£2,300 iMac:
Download: 2.66Mb/s
Upload: 0.5Mbs/s
Ping: 50

Exactly the same browser (Firefox 3.6), router, time etc. except one is running XP and one OSX 10.6.2. (I also tried Safari - no dice same result)

Now I've been searching on the net for a solution and I can tell you that none of the usual suggestions have worked, I've tried:

1. Starting in Safemode - no good because it does not load Airport.
2. Repairing Disk Permissions (this made a marginal but consistent improvement).
3. Clearing the cache of both browsers - no difference
4. Inserting OpenDNS DNS settings under Network setting - no difference
5. Turning off the firewall - no difference (possibly slower)

I have not tried finding out and filling in my service provider (Sky)'s fixed IP and DNS etc. as I fail to see why I should be fiddling with those settings when the netbook works perfectly fine with everything set to automatic.

So now I am trying to figure out why my otherwise beautiful mac is running internet speeds 3x slower than a cheap high street netbook and whether the problem is simple setting change or a hardware issue. Its killing me!

I'm not confident that an easy solution lies around the corner but perhaps someone can see what I have tried and may have another suggestion.

Some other info you may want to know:
Sky 10Mb/s Line
Sky router
Intel i7 8Gb RAM
Purely wireless - router downstairs (both netbook and mac in same room)

Thanks very much.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.2), I use both iMac and PC at home

Posted on Jan 25, 2010 2:12 PM

36 replies

Aug 30, 2010 12:20 PM in response to K31L

i'm having the very same issues, very frustrating as my 3 yr old macbook pro gets 10MB+ download speeds even though it's sitting next to my new IMac which is getting a measly 3MB speeds...

I'm with SKY which uses a Sagem F@ast 2504 router but by entering the router settings it doesnt have the option of changing security encryption from WPA2 to just WPA.

Anyone any ideas based on this router???

This is really annoying.. 😟

Sep 12, 2010 11:32 AM in response to Mike Cooper4

I also was experiencing this issue after upgrading to Snow Leopard, and switching to wireless G worked. However, after doing this, and verifying the speed was correct, I switched my router back to wireless N, turned my airport off and back on, and checked the speed again. This time my speed was correct. I switched back and forth a couple of times to verify, and the speed was what I expected.

Thus it seems that the airport driver gets stuck in a bad state after upgrading to Snow Leopard, and forcing a change to wireless G corrects this issue. However, after the driver changes from the bad state to some other state, the situation seems to go away. At least for now... 🙂

Sep 15, 2010 8:45 AM in response to Aapie

hi ive been having some trouble with my imac it is the 27 inch and i bought it 05/09/10 and when i set it all up the status bar where the internet status is was saying 4 bars and when i was searching the internet it was very fast then about 8-9 days later i was very slow but the status bar was still reading 4 star internet connection this could be due to the update i performed or it could be something else please help thanks

Sep 15, 2010 9:07 AM in response to Iamsamandawesome

i ended up moving my router to a room that is nearer the desktop in addition to experimenting with the channels of which my wireless signal is sent until i found the best signal/speeds...

Sep 16, 2010 11:06 AM in response to Aapie

I have found my new 27" iMac has average upload speeds of > .50Mbps < DLs are in the > 2.10Mbps < range.

Seems to be a squeeze on the wire.

I've tried engaging airport for wifi and still speeds are extremely low compare to my MB Pro with wifi DL speeds averaging 11Mbps and ULs at around 5.12Mbps These speeds are just a tad faster with direct ethernet connection.

Both are on the same modem network channel.

This is UNACCEPTABLE!!!

brayash

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2010 11:25 AM in response to Aapie

I also recently upgraded from my G5 powermac to a new 27" imac and from the beginning have had problems with slow internet.

Having called applecare they asked me to change my DNS settings, which did make it better, but only so far as youtube and iplayer were now useable.

I've done speed tests and they're fine, and once a youtube/iplayer video starts streaming speed is rarely an issue - even in HD. However, pages can take an age to load, and though once streaming commences videos are fine, they also take a very long time to start at all.

I've tried matching my DNS manually to my router, but that made the problem worse.

Uploads aren't even possible. If I try to add an attachment to an email or upload a video to youtube it just says it's setting the upload up and doesn't move from there. For instance, I gave up trying to attach a 717kb file after around 15 mins of 'loading'. Even navigating these forums, it often took around 15 seconds to move from thread to thread.

Other machines on the network work fine, this includes both apple and microsoft products. My old G5 was also fine. Unfortunately, this is making the experience of a brand new imac somewhat less sweet than I was hoping it would be...

Can anybody please help?

brayash

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2010 11:32 AM in response to brayash

It actually took around 2 mins for that last message to post!!

aelghoul

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2010 6:27 PM in response to Aapie

Thank you guys, you are awesome, same problem here, my Mac is crawling while my Win7 laptop beside it is lighting fast.
Logged in to the router, changed from G mode to Mixed, now both are getting the same speed.
Thanks tons.

noelx714

Level 1

0 points

Oct 5, 2010 9:37 PM in response to Aapie

somebody help me . im not a wiz on computer so im lost on changing my router setting.
i have a 27 inch imac and god its so slow on the internet. i cant stand going on my parents windows browser and they have lighting fast internet and mine is so slow especially when streaming. it makes me sad and apple is really starting to make me upset.

AZjohnny

Level 1

4 points

Oct 20, 2010 4:29 PM in response to Aapie

I'm having sssllloooowww internet on my imac 27 as well. I'm not running wireless. Does anyone have an answer to this? I have my old G5 on the same router and its at least 4x faster than my imac. And I'm also running parallels and win 7 64bit with internet explorer 8 is faster then firefox and safari on the mac side. That does not make any sense to me. And yes I have run permissions and Drive Genius and Onyx and the imac is flat out crappy slow on snow leopard 10.6.4. Seems like it has to be software. I tried renew/release on ip which makes no difference either. Very frustrating Apple. Not a happy customer right now.

excal301

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2010 11:43 AM in response to AZjohnny

I too have this problem.
Picked up my iMac 27" yesterday and get a slow ~2-3MB/s internet connection off a wired Ethernet setup. My Windows 7 PC on the same connection gets 25-26MB/s which is the service plan I pay for.

Not sure what is going on as I am new to Mac 😟

Nov 8, 2010 9:33 AM in response to Aapie

I'm also having the same problem.. My dreadfully slow iMac just sits there trying to open pages, can't play any sort of streaming anything (so what's the big screen for then); while my MacBook loads up everything nice and fast. The iMac keeps losing connection, asking for the password intermittently for networks it should "remember". Sometimes it works okay. Sometimes it won't work at all.

Is it really the aluminum casing that makes the wifi so slow? Shouldn't that have been tested before release? Do I seriously have to point my **** computer right AT the router? What's the point of Wifi then?

It's really driving me crazzzzzy!! It feels like a VIRUS.. which is why, I think we can all agree, that we buy Macs to begin with.

Nov 8, 2010 4:27 PM in response to Aapie

Similar issues to many others here.

I've unpacked and installed my 27.5" iMac this evening. Noticed that YouTube was slow, as was downloading Skype, Chrome etc. Wife complained that the internet for her computer appeared not to be available whilst I was trying to download on the iMac.

Performing tests to the same server at www.speedtest.net reveals the following, all sat at the same desk and all within 2 or 3 minutes of each other:

o - Brand new iMac 27.5 i7 processor 12GB RAM but download rates of 0.56Mb/s (my upload is faster at 0.92Mb/s!)
o - iPhone 4 yields 9.71Mb/s (via Speedtest.net iPhone App)
o - Sony Vaio SZ1/Windows XP returns 8.98Mb/s

Remember, these are all from the same desk in the room directly above where the router is. The router is a Netgear DG834GT and Sky are my ISP. My downstream connection speed is reported as 14,328kbps. It is running in 'g only' mode (tried with b+g too).

In summary, the only device with the issue here is the Mac. Worried that so many others here are having this problem too.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Rgds,
__________
David Mc
London, UK

Nov 9, 2010 4:58 AM in response to Big_Dave_Mc

An update.

I called Apple Customer Care this morning and worked with two guys there to isolate where the problem is.

After resetting many of the iMac/OSX settings and then sharing files between my iMac and another Mac on the same network (over Wi-Fi) we were still witnessing slow throughput (but files shared with other machines were fine).

The support guy then asked me to try using another Mac (a MacBook) to connect directly to the router using an Ethernet cable, and then to configure internet connection sharing (essentially, configuring the MacBook to be a Wireless Access Point). Now, when I associate my iMac to the MacBook wireless network rather than the router's wireless network, I get perfect download speeds.

This breakthrough indicates an incompatibility between the iMac's Wi-Fi adapter and the Sky/Netgear router. Apple said they were unable to help from this point on as they'd proven that the iMac's Wi-Fi adapter wasn't at fault.

Incidentally, I've also installed Windows 7 (x64) via Bootcamp onto the same iMac but achieve the same speeds.

The Wi-Fi adapter shows in Windows as an Atheros AR928X device. I'm going to do some more research to see what else I can find.

Hope this helps!

____________
David Mc
London, UK

Dec 1, 2010 12:17 PM in response to Aapie

FINAL CONFIRMED SOLUTION:

CHANGE YOUR CHANNELS

MY PREFS. ARE:

Channel08
WPA2-PSK
AES

Very Slow internet on new 27.5" iMac with all updates