Verizon FiOS is VERY slow over wireless? Why would this be?

You need to complain to Verizon.

Do what Sig suggested.
Wireless is slower than wired.
You never get the max advertised speed.

Most likely interference from the neighbor's WiFi base stations, baby monitors, 2.4GHz cordless phones, Microwave ovens. All of the above can cause you WiFi problems.

Get a utility such as

WiFi Scanner
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/75017924>

AP Grapher
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/40348>

iStumbler
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17572>

KisMAC
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17199>

AirRadar
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/34527>

And find out if your neighbors are using the same WiFi channel you are using.

If possible, move your Verizon ActionTec WiFi base station to Channel 1 or 11, but if there are neighbors camped on those channels then do your best with what is avaible, but understand that each WiFi channel overlaps 2 channels to the left and to channels to the right, which is why channels 1, 6, and 11 do not overlap each other.

There is nothing you can do about 2.4GHz cordless phones, baby monitors or microwave ovens. They are just very noisy across the entire 2.4GHz band.

You could get a WiFi base station which supports 802.11n 5GHz frequences. These do much better in noisy situations.

If both your wife and you are experiencing the same WiFi behavior, then it is something each of you have in common.

5Mbits/sec is more in line with an 802.11b router (11mbits/sec max, but most WiFi gives an effective speed of about half the max speed). I would assume the Verizon box is 802.11g. But you could check to see if maybe it is only operating as a 'b' WiFi (unlikely, but you have tried most of the likely things).

As a experiment. WIth your Mac connected via ethernet, enable System Preferences -> Sharing -> Internet Sharing over Airport. This will make your Mac a WiFi base station. Now, have your WiFi connect to your Mac. Is the speed better using your Mac as a WiFi base station vs the Verizon WiFi base station?

That would be cheap way to narrow down the common element to the Verizon WiFi base station.

Do not forget to disable Internet Sharing after the experiment is over.

If you can get better performance over Internet Sharing, then you need to go over the Verizion WiFi base station with a fine tooth comb.

If the performance is the same slow speed over Internet Sharing, then it either either overall interference that affects both Macs, or somehow you have configured both Macs with the same slowness factor (I have not clue what that might be, and I'm less likely to even thing it is possible, unless you both have some common 3rd party software installed that most Mac users do not use).

If you have a 15Mbps connection, and are only seeing 1.8Mbps when connected via wire there's a problem (and it isn't necessarily with your computer). First, understand that 15Mbps is a cap and you won't always get that rate. Second, you realized speed is going to be the lesser of your the max you can receive data, and the max the remote site can send it. You could have a 1 Tbps connection, but you'd never get that speed because nobody could send you data that fast.

How are you measuring the speed? Are you using something like http://speedtest.net? Is there a chance that you are confusing megaBITS per second with megaBYTES per second? Your FiOS service is 15Mbps (megabits per second), which is 1.875 MBps (megabytes per second).

200 kilobytes per second is 1.6 Mbps. That's slow, but if you have an 802.11 a/b wireless router or the router to be a/b, then the router tops out at 10Mbps. Each additional computer will slow it down some, and there's some overhead in terms of latency and encryption. However, that still shouldn't drop the speed too much.

The first thing to do is verify that the router is configured to support wireless G or N. Consult the manual. Second, in North America WiFi has 11 channels (different frequencies) on which it can operate in the 2.4GHz range. The performance of your network will diminish drastically if you are using a channel that's already in use by a nearby network. Keep in mind that networks aren't required to broadcast their ID, so you may have nearby networks that are not shown in your list of wireless networks on the computer (there are various tools that you can download that can detect their presence). Ideally, you want to select a channel farthest away from any other in use. If there's only one nearby and they are using channel 1, you should start with channel 11. Try different channels.

iStumbler only allows you to see networks broadcasting their ID, so it excludes private networks. You cannot use it to alter the channel for the network -- that has to be done on the router.

Other things that interfere with WiFi: 2.4GHz cordless phones, power transformers, high-tension lines, nearby radio towers, etc. If any of these things are in proximity to the WiFi access point, you could be physically adjacent to the router and still get a poor connection.

Also, if DNS name resolution is an issue, you may consider configuring the WiFi router to use the OpenDNS servers in preference to Verizon's DNS (which, depending on where you live, might not be so great).

This is a really stupid question. You said you live in NYC. Is it at all possible that you are connecting to a neighbor's open WiFi access point and NOT your new Verizion WiFi base station.

I know it is a stupid question, but I have to ask, as NYC has the potential for lots of neighboring WiFi access points.

NYC also has the potential for lots of 2.4GHz interferences, which might be reason to plan long term on getting an 802.11n 5GHz WiFi base station (I'm thinking of getting a new Airport Extreme dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz base station this evening 🙂 ).

First of all, remember that your free Verizon router is worth every penny you paid for it. They are junk. Just ask any of the people trying to connect their iPad to one.

You can easily solve the problem by buying a decent wireless router. It will cost anything from $30 to as much as you want to spend. You should consider something like an Apple Time Capsule. Of course, Apple products are more expensive, but you get a whole lot of extra goodies that you won't get with a cheap router. The speeds, however, will be the same.

Speaking of speed, you need to pay close attention to those advertised speeds. Anyone trying to sell you some hardware or software product or service is going to quote speeds in megabits per second. Any speed testing software, browser, or web site is going to report speeds in a much more meaningful megabytes per second.

I checked the Verizon FiOS page and, sure enough, they use a lowercase 'b' and that usually means bits. From what you describe, it sounds like you have the "Fast" package. To get your actual speed in megabytes per second, divide all those numbers by 8. Combine that with your reported 2MBs download speed, and it all adds up.

Your super slow wireless speeds are probably just due to the junk Verizon router. Your new router will plug into one of the Ethernet ports and you will get much better speeds.

The speed you get over wired is the speed you're getting through the Verizon line. The speed you get over wireless is unlikely to ever match the wired speed, even if you lived out in the country with no neighbors. Since FIOS is much faster than standard DSL/cable, that's just a higher bar that's harder for wireless to match. In the city, it's a disaster...you have 60 transmitters plus unknown additional phones, microwaves, game adapters, Bluetooth headsets (also 2.4 GHz) and other unlicensed devices all trying to shout over each other in an environment with many reflecting surfaces...very radio-unfriendly.

Now I'm not saying you should be satisfied with your wireless speed. It does sound like it should be faster and you should keep trying. But I doubt it will ever match the speed of wired FIOS.

Mike Amin wrote:
The main problem is that my speed could change every day depending on who decides to hop onto channel 4 that day or get a new phone, etc. I wish there was a function that forced the router to choose the best channel available and move onto it dynamically. Guess the VZW router isn't that smart? Not even sure a feature like that exists, actually.

This is becoming a more common feature. Apple Airport Base Stations have it; you set the channel to "Auto" and it picks the best one. But free routers tend to be simpler.

Assuming both your and your wife's Macs support 802.11n (which if they are under 4 years old, they should), then make sure you get an 802.11n router. Configure it to use the 5GHz frequences and that should move you into a space with fewer neighbors fighting over the available bandwidth.

While I personally like the Apple Airport Extreme base stations, I do understand that they are more expensive (by a lot). I actually purchansed my 4th AEBS last night to replace the much older flying saucer version. These models have 2 transmitters, one for 2.4GHz 802.11g, and one for 5GHz 802.11n. My MacBook, my Wife's MacBook Pro, and my Mother-in-Law's iPad use the 5GHz frequences. Our iPod Touches and my Wife's older iBook use the 2.4GHz frequences.

There are other dual transmitter base stations out there.