Time capsule speeds

So I have the last model of time capsule that was sold. It has the most up to date firmware. My IP recently increased my speeds from 100 mbps to 400mbps. They also gave me a new router to cover that speed. When I ran speed tests at 5gh I get almost 500 mbps and on 2.4 ghz it varied sometimes 50ish other times 70ish and twice in the 100s( these tests were done on my iPhone and my MacBook). I have a guest account set up that is also 2.4ghz. I ran a test on that and got speeds that came close to the 5ghz speeds! Topping out at around 480 mbps. My question is WiFi would my regular 2.4 network be so much slower than the guest 2.4 network? I started switching my main devices over to try to appreciate the better speed but I am confused as to why this would be and why the two 2.4ghz networks would not be the same.

Posted on Nov 14, 2019 8:39 PM

Top-ranking reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,262 points

Posted on Nov 14, 2019 9:59 PM

It is impossible for anything on a Mac or iphone to get 480Mbps on 2.4ghz. It is simply using the same name for both bands.

Allow me to demonstrate.

I have a time capsule a full 30cm from the computer.

It has different names on main wireless so I can select either 2.4ghz or 5ghz. But on guest you can only input a single name.

With the computer connected to the guest account you should be able to see the link speed.

Hold down the option key and click the wireless fan.

That will show you a lot more info.. link speed and the actual band you are using.

If you now check the airport utility you can hover your mouse over the connection and it will show you the speed.

As you can clearly see it is using 5ghz channel 36 with a large difference in speed between the Mac and the computer.

Apple restricted the speed of 2.4ghz in the airport routers so the best possible link speed in a device.. is 217Mbps.

And that will give you aprox 100mbps on a good day.. and not much more.

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Time capsule speeds

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