Low performance on Airport Extreme

Radio Channel Selection: Manual (5Ghz= Channel 40 /// 2.4GHz= Channel 4)

Unless prohibited, change the 5 GHz Radio Channel to the upper range (149 -161). In the US, the lower channels use a lower transmitter power; 95% less than the upper channels.

Radio Mode: 802.11a/n - 802.11b/g

Change this to: 802.11n only (5 GHz) - 802.11n only (2.4 GHz).

Multicast Rate: Medium

Multicast Rate: High

Transmit Power: 50% (I don't know why but 100% gives me lower connection speed)

Transmit Power: 100% (I would try this again, especially with the other settings I provided._

Wide channels and interference robustness are both UNchecked.

Use wide channels (enabled); Use interference robustness (disabled)

Also go to the Internet > Internet Connection tab

Ethernet WAN Port: 1000 Mbps / Full Duplex

The following table was taken directly from a SmallNetBuilder article which shows that the routing performance of the 1st generation AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn). Actually, there wasn't much improvement through the 3rd generation model as well. The real improvements started to appear with the 4th & 5th generation units. Regardless, as you can see from the table, the AEBSn is capable of a WAN-to-LAN throughput of around 125-130 Mbps considerably more that what your ISP is providing ... and not a reason to upgrade to the lastest model. Unfortunately, not all modems work well with the AirPorts or vice versa and this just may be the case here.

IgorOzz

You should definitely have your multicast rate set to LOW!

What exactly does the multicast rate do and what affect do the different settings have on your wireless network?

Essentially, the multicast rate is the minimum speed that a wireless device must be able to communicate at in order to connect to the router. It’s a Quality of Service (QoS) setting that only allows devices to connect to it based on this criteria. So, the lower the multicast rate, the further away, or more accurately, the weaker the wireless signal, are allowed to connect. Higher multicast rates mean that only close, strong signals are allowed. Multicast is asking what’s the minimum quality that is needed to allow a device and your AirPort Extreme to maintain a connection.

Therefore, turning up your multicast rate will decrease the range of your wireless network.

http://www.terryblanchard.com/2010/11/09/why-is-my-wifi-so-****-slow/

IamWatson;

What version of Airport Utility are you guys using? I can't find anywhere to change any of these settings shown in the previous postings. I'm using AU 6.0. When I go to AU wireless options, the only options I get access to are Radio Mode, Radio Channel, and a check box to create a hidden network. I can't find anything that allows me to change the multicast rate or transmit power. Am I looking in the wrong place altogether?

Jim

What version of Airport Utility are you guys using

Something like the full function AirPort Utility 5.6 for Mac OS X Lion, which was available on the same day as AirPort Utility 6.0. Apparently, a number of users have missed this.

You can keep both 5.6 and 6.0 on your Mac and use the one that you want. Unfortunately, you cannot easily delete 6.0 since it is now part of the Lion operating system.

Thanks Bob...good stuff to know

this might be an old post but still very much applicable.

Followed your settings to tweak my (1) Airport Extreme and (2) Express network. Doubled my throughput. I tried every setting to see what made a difference. The one thing that made the most impact was setiting both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz to N only.