Airport Extreme Interference/Speed Problems
Hi All,
I just replaced my (rather slow) DSL connection with a cable internet connection. When setting up the cable internet over ethernet, I was getting 17-18 Mb/s. After I set my airport extreme up with the cable modem (its an older AE, I bought it in 2007) I had it running on the 2.4 Ghz network and was only getting 4-5 Mb/s (from speedtest.net). Concerned about the drop in speed, I switched my AE to the 5 Ghz band and tested the speed again: this time I got 17-19 Mb/s again. My problem is that only my new iMac can use the 5 ghz band, my older MB-Pro and iPhone 4's can't pick it up, so I don't want to be stuck on the 5 Ghz band.
I live an a moderately crowded apartment complex, and I know there are a lot of other wifi networks/cordless phones/etc bouncing around my building. I also had to physically move my AE when I changed it from cable to DSL, but it is only ~20 feet from the computer, so I can't imagine that distance is my problem. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas about why I'm getting such poor performance out of my 2.4 Ghz band? I'm wondering if it was like this all along and I didn't notice it because my DSL was only running about 3-4 MB/s. If it is an issue of interference from other networks, is there anything I can do to tweak the settings? My understanding is that I should have plenty of speed even on the 2.4 Ghz network to accommodate 18 Mb/s internet. Please help, thanks!
I just replaced my (rather slow) DSL connection with a cable internet connection. When setting up the cable internet over ethernet, I was getting 17-18 Mb/s. After I set my airport extreme up with the cable modem (its an older AE, I bought it in 2007) I had it running on the 2.4 Ghz network and was only getting 4-5 Mb/s (from speedtest.net). Concerned about the drop in speed, I switched my AE to the 5 Ghz band and tested the speed again: this time I got 17-19 Mb/s again. My problem is that only my new iMac can use the 5 ghz band, my older MB-Pro and iPhone 4's can't pick it up, so I don't want to be stuck on the 5 Ghz band.
I live an a moderately crowded apartment complex, and I know there are a lot of other wifi networks/cordless phones/etc bouncing around my building. I also had to physically move my AE when I changed it from cable to DSL, but it is only ~20 feet from the computer, so I can't imagine that distance is my problem. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas about why I'm getting such poor performance out of my 2.4 Ghz band? I'm wondering if it was like this all along and I didn't notice it because my DSL was only running about 3-4 MB/s. If it is an issue of interference from other networks, is there anything I can do to tweak the settings? My understanding is that I should have plenty of speed even on the 2.4 Ghz network to accommodate 18 Mb/s internet. Please help, thanks!
iMac 2009, 1st Gen MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Airport Extreme, 2 iPhone 4's
