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Level 1

1 points

Macbook Air Extremely Slow Wireless

Hello All,

Got my brand new MB-Air and from the get-go noticed extremely slow wireless performance. I did a bit of digging and here is what I found.

The MB-Air works OK with cheap (consumer) wireless APs, however when used in conjunction with the commercial APs most of which use the Atheros chipset the performance is horrible. I found that when connecting to APs that use Atheros' commercial chipset, the MB-Air connects with 802.11 G specs instead of N even when the signal metrics are excellent such as -39 RSSI.

Moreover, even With the 802.11 G connection at 54Mbps the performance is both sluggish and latent. Small file transfers have a 50/50 shot at working and large file transfers seem to die reliably. Albeit this could be an issue with Apple's implementation of SMB / Samba which is rather poor.

I have tried to turn off Bluetooth to see if my experience is different. We'll see.

I would be interested in feedback from people who are also experiencing the same poor wireless performance to learn the chipset of the AP they are having issues with.

By-the-way -- I will take a fix, if someone has come up with one. However my guess is that this is an engineering issue that Apple has to fix.

BP

Macbook Air Late 2010, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Nov 6, 2010 4:14 AM

106 replies

Jun 29, 2011 5:33 PM in response to Bpasdar

Having the same problem here, tried contactingsupport but first thing they wanted was payment for support even though my MacBookair is only 5 months old! It's almost as if they new of the problem and justwere trying to get ride of me.

Tried all the solutions both on apple formsand through googling but still getting the same problem no matter what i try.Please let me know if anyone has a fix! Apple support i wish were more helpful!

What i have noticed is once re-enteringpassword and continually clicking on the join button even though there is theinvalid password message it eventually connects.

jasleen

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2011 11:27 PM in response to Bpasdar

same problem. wifi was pretty fast until one of the airport updates (a week or so ago) through software update. its dead slow now and no signs of improvement even after plugging in a charger

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,221 points

Jul 13, 2011 4:11 AM in response to robdale

Note that since they both use the same frequencies, Bluetooth and the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band will always collide.

Your best bet is to instead connect to your router using the 5 GHz 802.11n band if at all possible.

Jul 21, 2011 7:55 PM in response to Bpasdar

I just wanted to add a +1 to both this problem and its solution. Pulled out my new MBA today and was horrified at the slow WiFi speed, but when I changed the channel from auto to fixed, my WiFi speed improved dramatically. Short term fix for while I am at home, but I hope this doesn't happen to every WiFi spot I jump on.

Jul 29, 2011 8:04 AM in response to Bpasdar

I noticed this exact same issues as the original poster on my Macbook Air (11inch Late 2010 model)

When I connect to my home's wireless network that uses a Dlink DIR-655 router, I don't have any issues maxing out my connection doing a speed test or transferring a large file locally for example. If I connect to a wifi hotspot in my favorite coffee shop (they use Cisco gear) there are no issues either.

But when I connect to my work's roaming wifi (we use Mikrotik routers with Atheros cards) I get frequent time outs and lots of dropped packets. During large file transfers, I'll hit the maximum bandwidth available for a few seconds, then the connection drops to zero and slowly builds back up to the maximum, only to drop back to zero. Loading websites in Safari is a test in patience because 50% of the time the loading times out.

I've got a great signal to noise ratio, I'm physically close to one of the units and I'm getting the max Tx/Rx rate, but the problem presists. We use WPA2-PSK with AES-256 encryption but I've tried disabling it and it did not help. We are also using the 2GHz-B/G band, 20Mhz channel width, 2412 Mhz frequency but changing the channel width or frequency does not help. There are no overlapping wireless networks in the area.

I suspect the wireless card on the Air has some kind of hardware/software incompatiability with Atheros cards.

Aug 11, 2011 7:27 AM in response to Bpasdar

I just got the new Macbook Air and am also experiencing painfully slow WiFi connectivity. turning off bluetooth does not help my situation. My iPhone, PC and other WiFi devices are not having any trouble. I'm connecting to a D-Link 655. I guess I'll give Apple a call. Pretty disappointing!

KGAN

Level 1

0 points

Aug 27, 2011 1:33 PM in response to Rob Cunningham

+1 to this thread

i am facing the same issue. i have a new mba w every possible upgrade... the wireless speed is literally an order of magnitude slower than my macbook pro on the same network.

manthis

Level 1

0 points

Aug 27, 2011 1:45 PM in response to Bpasdar

I'm encountering the exact same issue with wifi. It became extremly slow after an update I did last week or the week before. I'm using my mid 2011 MBA with a D-Link DIR-655 with WPA2 and AES-256 encryption. My MBA is slower than all the other computers I have connected to this router.

Sep 2, 2011 9:58 AM in response to Bpasdar

Hi,

i solved the problem this way,

first reset PRAM (google for "reset PRAM lion" if you don't know how = restart and immediately push these buttons simultanously [option] [cmd] [P] [R] )

then

in network prefs, uncheck "ask for confirmation when connecting to other networks"

(or something of that kind, i don't use the english version)

this solved my problem

hope it will help you as well

give peace a chance

;-)

manthis

Level 1

0 points

Sep 3, 2011 1:34 PM in response to dirkfromvlissegem

You mean you solved speed issue by resetting PRAM?

I'm asking that because after reading these two links I don't see how resetting PRAM could improve Wifi speed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1242

If you have a look at the second Apple's topic dealing with PRAM's content you'll see that there is no mention of Wifi, and it is clearly said:

If you experience a network issue, resetting PRAM will not help.

This Wifi speed issue on my mid-2011 Macbook Air is clearly a big issue since I can't watch video on Youtube or listen to music on Grooveshark (for instance) without being interrupted every few seconds.

Sep 3, 2011 2:45 PM in response to dirkfromvlissegem

This is about as useful as telling a Windows user to defrag their hard drives to solve a hardware issue.

Resetting the PRAM will do nothing to solve, what I believe, are fundamental hardware/software negotation issues with the wireless card and certain APs.

Sep 4, 2011 12:17 AM in response to fouxdafafa

Hi,

okay, I appreciate all your comments about resetting PRAM will not help. But what I described as a solution to my slow internet solved my problem, so have a try if you're dealing with the same issue and let me know whether this was helpful for you.

Save the planet.

manthis

Level 1

0 points

Sep 4, 2011 3:18 AM in response to dirkfromvlissegem

Okay, okay let's say you're right. Is there anyone else who tried dirkfromlissege's trick and got WIfi speed improved?

manthis

Level 1

0 points

Sep 6, 2011 10:11 AM in response to manthis

Okay I finally reset the PRAM because I wanted to be sure and guess what? That's not the solution. Wifi is still very slow. So do not reset your PRAM guys, it won't change anything...

WG Xanq

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2011 7:21 PM in response to Bpasdar

Had the same problem earlier tonight. Never had the Bluetooth turned on to begin with. What worked for me was turning off wireless then turning it back on. If only I'd tried that first!

Macbook Air Extremely Slow Wireless