Airport Express - Very Slow Connection

My situation was that I moved from one building to another in the same apartment complex but less than 100 yard away - same floor alost same aprtment number.

When I connected my airport extreme to cable modem it seems everything was waaaaayyy tooooo slowwww.

Before I called the cable provider I recylced all power and plugges my macbook into cable modem directly and I was flying around on the internet.

I connected wireless via Airport Extreme - slow again

I connected directily via ethernet in Airport Exteme - FAST

I then changed the channel on the airport extreme from automatic to Channell 7 - boom - Fast and Furious again !

I hope this helps someone here.

I gave this recommendation to a friend. He changed the 2.4ghz channel from 11 to 9, and the download/upload speeds increased dramatically.

tempest135 wrote:

I gave this recommendation to a friend. He changed the 2.4ghz channel from 11 to 9, and the download/upload speeds increased dramatically.

It's important to note that there is nothing magic about channels 7 or 9 here. It's that the previously used channels, whatever they were, had a higher noise level, probably due to a neighbor using that same or nearby channel or something else in the house such as a wireless phone. The important thing is to try changing channels to something relatively unused. There are several apps that will scan the airwaves and tell you what channels your neighbors are using.

Agreed on the channels. However, changing the config sometimes makes these things better for a little while.

I finally fixed my Airport issues! The reason it kept going out was because we have about 25 connections on each one, and I don't think it was meant for that. So to solve my problem, I went out and bought four Asus N16 wireless units and flashed the Shibby Tomato firmware on it. ROCK SOLID. Could probably handle a hundred wireless connections each unit.

Agreed, in my new building there are over 20 viewable access point and all very strong with 4-5 bars compared to 10 in my old building.

I actually posted I moved to channel 7 when I actually moved to another just in case one you guys/gals are one of my neighbors.😉

Brain200 - 25 connections !?!? I assume this is not your home ...lol

Hi All,

This is a serious issue with Airport.

Seems a simple ask really and indeed at the 'genius' bar staff would say that all you need is an express.

Simply DOES NOT WORK.

My wired speed and extreme speed is c 4GB my express (when it can hold the connection) is 500Kbs.

I have attempted to do all that is suggested in this forum, I live in a rural location so interference is not a problem, but I have checked for other wireless networks and forced my airport on to channel 1. I have turned of Air Play (i have a sonos network) I can not find where to force it onto 'High' as suggested nor can i seem to press 'option' on selecting Airport wireless to force it to n.

The Airport express simply has no options, all is grayed out once I have selected 'extend wireless network'

The Airport extreme:-

It is DHCP for the Internet,

Wireless options are 5Ghz ticked, Radio mode -Auto , 2.4 Ghz set to 1, 5 Ghz -auto. Network is grayed out router is Off (Bridge mode).

My local Apple 'genius' came up with the great solution of buyng the new airport express to solve the issue another £80!! thanks Apple. I assume you will give me a full refund on the old one?..

This whole set up is under 6 months old and is simply not fit for purpose.

I have also been told that this could be due to my iPad2 and Iphones (we have a 4 and a 3s) as they only have 2.4Ghz and will bring my whole network down to this. Althuogh why this should result in only the express having such a slow connection i am yet to get an answer to.- Let me guess the solution will be to buy the newest ones???!

For information my express is approximately 13m (36ft) from my extreme on the same floor of the house.

Has anyone found a solution that works other than buying a new router?...

I finally found a solution for my problem with super slow connection via the Airport Express as a network extender. The main network is provided via my Time Capsule.

I changed the settings in Airport Tool, under Option -> Wireless -> Wireless settings. Activate 5Ghz network and set the name to something else.

The Airport Express will then only extend the 2,4GHz network - this bumped my speed up 10x when connecting from the Airport Express.

Regds,

Martin

mab75 wrote:

I changed the settings in Airport Tool, under Option -> Wireless -> Wireless settings. Activate 5Ghz network and set the name to something else.

I assume you made these changes to the TC? Is your Airport Express a dual band?

The Airport Express will then only extend the 2,4GHz network - this bumped my speed up 10x when connecting from the Airport Express.

The reason I ask is that I had the opposite results when I upgraded my AEBS/AExpBS from single-band to dual-band. I assume this is due to the amount of noise on the 2.4GHz band in my location.

How do you manually change the channel/find an open channel?

My problem is even weirder: I have an express and a time capsule. (sie point: Both are set in bridge mode as I use a Speedport from Deutsche Telekom as the modem. The Speedport screws up the tables in both the aiports and also a mac itself. So I disabled the WLAN function on the Speedport. Worse still, the model number of the Speedport as well as the fimrware and if it is DSL or IP all make it behave differently. Deutche Telekom hasn't realised yet that MS isn't the only company in the worls and blithely ignores the mac world. So you get no help from them. This is an asid but if anyone need shelp on using Apples with Deutsche Telekom as a provider in Germany, post me a query.)

Back to this thread: I have a Mac and may wife a PC with W7. I have VDSL50 which is 50 MB/s download and 8 MB/S upload. Although the latency is a bit high at approx 33 ms, and the speed tends to go up and down a bit minute by minute I get close to my conztracted speed out the wire.

On my MAC I get about half thedownload and upload speeds from both the TC and the Express

On the PC I get about half thedownload and upload speeds from both the TC

On the PC I get a few hundred kbytes download but the normal upload on the Express

So the PC downloads more slowly from the one airport than the other, and this problem doesn't exist on the MAC! I have checked all the tables and can't find anything different. Really stumped and, although this is a PC problem, I'd appreciate help (although I really don't need any MAC-bigot statements!

Meanwhile here is my suggestion when debugging network issues like this:

1. Start at the ethernet connection. Plug in your PC to the ethernet at your modem. Run a test like my-speedtest , Make sure you also get a ping result to show the latency. If your down/upload speeds are as per contract then you know that your provider is not the problem.

2. Now connect wirelessly to your first wlan router. Perform the same speed test. Do the same with the second. Compare the speeds. What does it tell you?

3. Resetting the wlans and starting from the beginning is a good idea. Write down all the settings you want to make. Be sure to understand why. Shots in the dark like the IPV6 change above can solve a small issue but create a bigger one.

4. Check the settings in your Mac or other receiving device. Reset those to default or delete entries liek proxies which might cause a problem.

Stumblers says that I have TWO networks under the same name! Huh?

As with most of these posts, Airport Express is extremely slow, and I'm ready to cut my losses and replace it. I can't believe that I have to do that.

I have a suspicion that my new Cisco modem may also have a wireless sender in it. My provider said that it had already been turned off, though.

Is having two networks under the same name my problem?

Can I shut one off?

My setup is the same as everyone posting here... and the same complaints. I finally had had enough, so I returned my AE to Best Buy (luckily I had purchased a warranty). The latest version of the Airport Express works flawlessly.

To change th echannel you go to Utilities folder and open Airport. Then you select the wlan router you want to change and press edit. Then select the wireless tab and choose wireless options. Now change the Radio Channel. On the Extreme I have 2 channels: 2.4GHZ and 5 GHZ. There are different channels for each. Default is automatic. I am experimenting with setting it manually. Can anyone advise?

I downloaded iStumbler to analyse all the visible networks. Here is the screenshot (with mac addresses blanked)

The interesting thing was that there is overlap both in the channels and the frequency. I imagine that could cause problems. fillory and Hogwarts Express are my 2 routers. Fillory is the extreme and has 2 channels. I had overlap in the channels with my neighbours and have now set the express and the 2.4ghz channel manually so there is no overlap. I guess my neighbours will have it set to automatic. I will monitor if it makes a difference. I will then talk with my neighbours and see if we can set up manual, non competing channels and frequencies. Possibly that will help. Anyone know the answer?

My Airport network (1 extreme, 1 express) is extremely unstable, my iPad and iPhone are being unconnected every 2 minutes or so.

My iMac is connected over ethernet and wifi, my speeds:

Ethernet: 59Mbps down; 5,5Mbps up.

Wifi: 9Mbps down; 5,5Mbps up. (distance between Airport Extreme and iMac is one wall and 5 meters.)

Ridiculous right?!

Especially the problem my devices are trown of the wifi network every couple minutes is REALLY frustrating. Didn't have the problem until like half a year ago.

jojost1 wrote:

My Airport network (1 extreme, 1 express) is extremely unstable, my iPad and iPhone are being unconnected every 2 minutes or so.

Start a new thread. This one is 2-1/2 years old and doesn't properly address stability or current software.