Airport Drives Me CRAZY! New 802.11n Network Slower Than Old 802.11g/b
Anyway, here's my current situation: I've been successfully (I think) running a 6 year old AP Extreme Base Station [AE] (in my home office addition) and 2 Airport Expresses [AX] (one AX roughly 15 feet from the base station--through sheetrock, and the second AX roughly 30 feet from the first AX--through sheetrock and some wooden stairs. (so roughly 45 feet from AE to 2nd AX). It wasn't the speediest thing going but it did the trick with older Macs.
I recently bought a MacBook Pro which supports 802.11n. I most often use this laptop at the point in the house furthest away from the AE (Base Station) The AE (Base Station) is in my home office connected to my MacPro desktop (see #1 below). In addition, the family iMac is also in that room furthest from the AE. Using the new MacBook Pro with the old 802.11/g/b network turned out to be painfully slow. I was experiencing the same slow network connection my family has complained about for years with their older Macs and 802.11g/b.
I decided it was time to upgrade the whole network, if only to speed up my MacBook Pro connection. Bought new 802.11n Airport Extreme (MC340LL/A) and 2 new 802.11n Airport Expresses (MB321LL/A). Setup did not go smoothly. Again, my normally competent Mac persona was reduced to a babbling three-year-old. Had three different Apple techs on the phone trying to help me through it. Got different, contradictory instructions from the last two. Finally got all three units working, only to find that not only does my MacBook Pro seem even more sluggish than when connected to the old 802.11g/b network, but my wife tells me web pages are taking at least twice as long to load as with the old network.
As concisely as I can lay this out:
*1. Airport Extreme (Base Station)*
Connected via Ethernet from its WAN port to my Comcast cable modem. One Ethernet (LAN) port on that AE is then connected via Ethernet to my Netgear 8-port Ethernet switch. Ethernet from switch to Ethernet port 1 on my MacPro. (MacPro does NOT have an Airport card because I forgot to order one. Also I confirmed that this setup was functional by connecting to the AE wirelessly with my MacBook Pro showing the name I'd given the new network prior to adding the two AX's to the mix).
Some Airport Extreme settings of note (all accessed via "Manual Setup" button):
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Airport Tab > Summary
Version 7.5.1
Wireless Mode: Create a wireless network
Channel: 149 (Automatic), 1 (Automatic)
Wireless Clients: 3
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Airport Tab > Base Station:
Allow Setup over WAN: Unchecked
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Airport Tab > Wireless:
Allow this network to be extended: Checked
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Airport Tab > Guest Network:
Nothing checked
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Airport Tab > Access Control:
MAC Address Access Control: Not Enabled
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Internet Tab > Internet Connection:
Connect Using: Ethernet
Ethernet WAN Port: Automatic (Default)
Connection Sharing: Share a public IP address [Think this one is probably wrong]
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Internet Tab > TCP/IP:
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
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Internet Tab > DHCP:
Shows Beginning & Ending Address
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Internet Tab > NAT:
Enable default host at: Unchecked and blank field
Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol: Checked
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Internet Tab > Advanced
Didn't touch anything here, so all at defaults
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*2. Airport Express #1: Living Room Express (Closest to AE (Base Station)*
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Airport Tab > Summary
Version 7.4.2
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Connect using: Wireless Network
Channel: 1 (Automatic)
Wireless Clients: 1
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Airport Tab > Base Station:
Allow Setup over the Internet using Bonjour: Unchecked
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Airport Tab > Wireless:
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Allow wireless clients: checked
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Airport Tab > Access Control:
MAC Address Access Control: Not Enabled
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Internet Tab > Internet Connection:
Connect using: Greyed-out, not selectable
Connection sharing: Greyed-out, not selectable
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Internet Tab > TCP/IP:
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
Shows IP Address
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Internet Tab > Advanced
Didn't touch anything here, so all at defaults
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*3. Airport Express #2: Dining Room Express (Furthest from AE (Base Station)*
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Airport Tab > Summary
Version 7.4.2
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Connect using: Wireless Network
Channel: 1 (Automatic)
Wireless Clients: 2
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Airport Tab > Base Station:
Allow Setup over the Internet using Bonjour: Unchecked
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Airport Tab > Wireless:
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Allow wireless clients: checked
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Airport Tab > Access Control:
MAC Address Access Control: Not Enabled
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Internet Tab > Internet Connection:
Connect using: Greyed-out, not selectable
Connection sharing: Greyed-out, not selectable
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Internet Tab > TCP/IP:
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
Shows IP Address
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Internet Tab > Advanced
Didn't touch anything here, so all at defaults
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SETUP/GOALS:
With Airport Extreme (Base Station) as the starting point, have the two Airport Express units with the strongest, fastest signal possible, provide Internet access (and file sharing, iTunes speakers capability) to three Macs (one older iMac, one older PowerBook and my new MacBookPro). Again, I believe my new MacBook Pro is the only one with 802.11n support, so I don't expect the other Macs to take advantage of the speed boost offered by the three new 802.11n devices.
+Any and all help with this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!+
2.66 Quad-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 8 GB RAM