Fast broadband speed, but terribly slow browsing...

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Level 1

10 points

Fast broadband speed, but terribly slow browsing...

I've been using an Airport Extreme for a good while with no problems, it's always given me an excellent signal throughout my home and I've always had solid fast broadband speeds.

Recently I've had trouble with my broadband speed as evidenced by many speed tests. After a couple of weeks of fiddling around with my account, my ISP managed to get my speed up so I get good results on speed tests over the past two days, but in reality even the most basic of browsing is still impossible at times and frustrating at best. Ping tests say my line quality is very poor. My ISP now insist the problem must be at my end.

I'm wondering if my Airport Extreme could've started to break down, even though it's been nothing less than perfect since getting it. It isn't left on 24 hours a day. At the moment I seem to get my best browsing speeds right after turning it on.

Could turning it on/off have contributed to the problems I'm experiencing? That seems silly to me - after all my TV for example wouldn't break because it's been turned on/off many times. Would a dying router cause a rubbish ping test result? Can anyone think of any other reason I might be getting such slow browsing despite having decent broadband speeds? I have no idea if it's really caused by my router or not, but I'm posting here as I'm just stumped and looking for any explanation to get my internet working properly at this stage.

(I should add for the sake of clarity that it's not just my laptop that's experiencing this - it's everything that tries to connect such as other computers, mobile phones and games consoles. So the problem doesn't lie on my Macbook.)

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 28, 2011 9:16 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

148,829 points

May 28, 2011 2:16 PM in response to jw84

It is quite possible that the culprit may be your AirPort router (or any Internet router for that matter). One sure way to test this would be to temporarily reconfigure the AirPort as a bridge. This would disable its NAT & DHCP functions and any computer connected to it would be exposed to the Internet just as though the computer was connected directly to the modem. For proper testing, you will only want a single computer connected and by Ethernet to the AirPort.

If this dramatically improves browsing performance, there are some additional tests that can be performed to narrow down if the router is either misconfigured or faulty.

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Answer 2

jw84 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 29, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for your reply. Before I try this (I don't have an ethernet cable so will have to go out and buy one), I was wondering if you or anyone else might be able to answer something...

Browsing speeds are often fastest after first restarting my router. They will usually drop and drop until disappearing altogether, at which point I have to restart the router again to get browsing back. Sometimes though, when I turn the router back on I can connect to its signal just fine, but the router isn't receiving any internet to send out to me.

Does this sound normal for a router that might be on its last legs, or does it sound like the internet connection is at fault? I would've thought that if the problem was the router, then constantly turning it on and off all day to try to get the internet back would only cause it to break further, not temporarily fix things... and I would have thought I'd have trouble finding and connecting to the router's signal full stop. I can still use it for wireless printing absolutely perfectly. If the router was at fault, shouldn't I have trouble printing too?

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

148,829 points

Jun 6, 2011 10:32 AM in response to jw84

A steady dropoff of bandwidth could indicate that either the modem/router interface it not configured properly, or that there is an issue with either the router or modem.

A quick way to rule out the modem, is to contact your ISP and have them run a link test between their "office" and the modem. In addition, if you have had this modem for some time, I would suggest that your ISP replace it with a current model.

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Answer 4

Jun 6, 2011 2:21 PM in response to jw84

I am having the same problem. Please keep this thread updated so I can see if anything you try helps me out, too.

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Answer 5

Jun 7, 2011 2:37 AM in response to jw84

This happened to me as soon as I got the latest snow leopard... a while back. APPLE NEEDS TO ADDRESS THIS!!! anyway after extensive research (i'm no computer specialist, just a kid with a mac) and if i can figure this out and apple's finest can't then that just makes me worried anyhow, I've found some good news.

Open Airport utility

.

manual setup

.

Internet icon up top

.

TCP/IP

.

DNS Servers

.

I used these 2, and they worked for me

.

208.67.222.222

&

208.67.220.220

On your computer you must go into:

system preferences

.

Network

.

under airport hit ADVANCED...

.

DNS

.

I used these 2

.

208.67.222.222

&

208.67.220.220

.

Apply changes

Now just to be safe try restarting your computer, possibly the airport too.

GOOD LUCK

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Answer 6

jw84 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 7, 2011 6:32 AM in response to jw84

I'd almost forgotten I'd posted this... simple answer to this problem, I tried another router and now my internet works perfectly. It must have just been a weird coincidence that the Aiport Extreme stopped working properly at the same time I had a problem with the broadband speed - so after the speed was actually fixed at the ISP's end, it seemed like I was still having problems. I have to say I'm not particularly impressed with how long the Airport lasted for given the cost (I did get someone to check it for me and it's set up correctly, just as it has been since I got it, it basically just doesn't work anymore).

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Answer 7

Jun 7, 2011 7:46 PM in response to jw84

I'm having a similar problem, and buying a new router is not something I want to do as the Airport Extreme I have is less than a year old. Everything worked fine until I turned it back on today after having it turned off for three weeks. The wireless comes and goes, but more irritatingly the hardwire also comes & goes. I have my cable modem plugged into the AEBS, and then that plugged into my computer. This worked great for nine months, now suddenly the connection speed is terrible. And it is not my ISP or cable modem because when I plug the computer in directly from the cable modem, my speed and performance is as it should be. It's bad business for an Apple product to basically die at nine months AFTER being unplugged for a few weeks. (Ironically, I unplugged it to protect it from electrical surges while I was away.)

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