2012 11" MacBook Air Slow on 5Ghz Airport Extreme Wifi Network

Take it in for service or replacement. This is a hardware problem, and we cannot fix hardware.

Did you get this problem fixed?

I seem to be having a similar issue with my 13" Macbook Air. A 2011 Macbook Air in the same household has no problem. We are running on 2.4 GHz, though. I'm debating getting a new router.

Hello I just got a new 13" MacBook air 2012 and I have apple extreme dual router, the speed is beyond slow! Really disappointing , I have 2 other mac laptops, 2 iPads and never had a problem, the MacBook air is loaded bto, I think it will go back if it's not a software issue

I accept that there are MANY threads in MANY forums about wifi issues for MBAs and I am rather late in coming to this particular one but am having the same EXCEEDINGLY slow response problem on my late 2011 MBA utilising the latest Lion software.

This may sound really weird but when I hold my laptop in a 'portrait' position - i.e. on its side - then my speeds shoot up.

Using Thinkbroadband.com to test my speed, I can consistently go from very slow download speed (often as low as 100kbps! when the MBA is in its normal position) to in excess of 15Mbps (when the MBA is on its side). The table below shows 6 consecutive tests alternating between portrait and landscape modes.

I have tried all of the other proposed solutions on every forum and none have worked so far. But this seems to have done the tick - albeit it is totally impractical. I read about issues with the aerial in the screen half of the laptop so this may fall into this category.

Any thoughts or can someone else try this 'solution' and see if using the MBA on its side has similar results with their own machine?

Cheers

Same problem here: 5 Ghz Band extremely slow on a 2012 MacBook Air.

Quick update. I decided to buy an AirPort Extreme and it doesn't don ANYTHING to solve the problem.

I've checked wireless channel interference (the nearest house is too far away to see another network, anyway) and have changed to different sides of the spectrum to be sure.

I've deleted Netwwork configurations entirely (by deleting the prefs file) and through Network preferences. Tried swapping out locations, changing the order of Bluetooth, making sure Bluetooth is off, disabling Photostream, and reinstalling (although not a CLEAN reinstall).

I am becoming more and more convinced this is a software problem after both the simple and extended hardware diagnostics tests told me everything was fine and the fact that OTHER DEVICES on the network are slowed down every time this computer connects.

I'm tempted to try upgrading to 10.8.1 and I'm hesitant to take it in to the store because I'm still running the GM and have had them get stickly about that stuff in the past.

Obviously, a reinstall is probably the next thing in order but I'll need to backup before I do that. Would love to hear if anyone has further suggestions.

Here's what I did to fix the issue with MacBook Air 2012 and AirPort Extreme:

1. Reinstalled OS X (optional, not sure now it was really necessary)

2. Reset SMC and NVRAM

3. Reset AirPort Extreme with latest firmware available (7.6.1 as of now)

4. Name your network starting with some symbol like $ or # or whatever (don't ask why - tech details). Should lookd like $Airport_Network_Name or #John_Appleseed_Wifi or whatever.

5. Set the correct country (or the closest to you) in AirPort utility settings for AirPort Extreme (was Russia in my case since I'am in Ukraine)

6. MacBook didn't see the 5 GHz network at all even if I entered the name, security and password manually. I had to choose lowest of the available channels for the 5 GHz network (36 in my case)

7. Scanned surrounding WiFi networks via WiFi Scanner utility from Mac App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/ru/app/wifi-scanner/id411680127?mt=12) to see which channels neighbours are using and chose a free one for 2,4 GHz network. For example, surrounding networks use channels 3, 7 and 8. I chose 2 or 5 or 9 etc...(did not create separate 2,4 and 5 GHz networks!)

As a result MacBook Air 2012, MacBook Airs 2011, MacBook Pro 2011 and iPhone 4S are now all compatible and work the right way with AirPort Extreme, automatically connecting to 5 GHz (Mac) and 2,4 GHz (iPhone) without any issues.

Hope this helps.