retina display MBP has extremely slow wifi... why?

I have the exact same problem. I bought a new 13 Inch retina, but i rather use my old 2007 white MB as it streams video's faster than the new one. Does somebody have a solution to this?

If it's a serious problem, I would try to get it forwarded to an engineer at Apple. That's what they ended up doing with me. So first, either go to an Apple store, and if they're not able to fix it, then have them contact someone that really "knows" what's going on at Cupertino... ie. an engineer. They were able to fix the issue for me. Hope this helps!

Turns out Apple gimped it for 2.4Ghz (b/g standards). Trouble is (especially with Sky in the UK) your router does not allow a N (5Ghz) only setting. If your other wireless devices are connected before your retina MBP and they have selected b/g then your Mac's speed is seriously hindered. This makes no sense to me and I'm so annoyed. Don't know whether to just send it back as Sky don't allow custom routers.

You can setup any router to be just an access point with Ethernet Switch. Some newer routers actually have a built in feature to turn them into Access Points.

You should be able to disable the WiFi section on your ISP Modem/Router combo box and use your own access point.

Or just set s different SSID name to your own access point and disconnect from the ISPs SSID.

I'm having the same problem.

I just moved to a new house and now have very slow WiFi on my 2012 MBPr 15". My old 2009 MB 13" works just fine. Changing WiFi channels doesn't help. It's not the "Bluetooth-Bug", since I don't use any Bluetooth devices.

I'm from Germany and the new house uses a Telekom W 723V Tyb B router.

Tomorrow I'll contact Apple Care but from what I've read so far it is a very uncommon problem and hasn't been resolved yet. So I'll probably just replace the router with a different one ... 😠

I bought my MBP retina at the end of December and have fought with several issues including problems using Adobe CS software (apparently a Java Runtime issue), and this Internet slow down problem. This is the first time in many many years that I'm starting to look at other brands of computers. How a brand new computer can load up the Internet like it's on dial-up, I'll never know.

For me, I'm using an Apple Time Capsule for my router, and have tried turning bluetooth off (to no avail). My husband's MBP, which is about a year older than mine, works fine. I can actually use the wireless on my iPhone faster than my MBP. Like someone else posted here, if I turn the wireless off then on again, it will sometimes work for 10-15 minutes, then I'm back to problems again - email images won't load, websites won't load, videos will rebuffer after less than 20 seconds of watch time. It's very frustrating.

If someone could explain how to switch to 5ghz I could try that, but don't know how to access it.

The 5Ghz setting is on your router. if your router supports Dual N band. Not sure the Time Capsule does.

If it does you have to set it up on the router and give a Different SSID name (WiFi Network name) from what is used on the 2.4Ghz band. Then you just open the Wifi icon and connect to that other SSID name and you will be getting it at 5Ghz.

I had similar problems and an Apple engineer, (that works at the Apple Campus) ended up calling me after taking it to the Apple store (where they weren't able to solve the issue). And the Apple engineer wasn't able to fix the problem either. They just ended up giving me a new MBPr and I haven't had a problem since. And I'm using a Airport Extreme router. If I were you I would make sure you let them know about the problem and don't accept anything less than either having them fix it or giving you a new computer. My MBPr works great now and I havent't had any issues since. But definitely don't give up. You shouldn't have to deal with this kind of issue, especially spending over $2k on a computer. Apple customer service is pretty good and I didn't have a problem with them trying to fix it. You just need to be persistent with them.

I read this article https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4157568?start=0&tstart=0 which explained the situation with the Apple Time Capsule. I realized with some searching, I couldn't access the Time Capsule from the Mac Preferences, but had to access through Airport Utilities. (It's probably a "duh" to some of you, but it wasn't to me.) From there, I did find the settings mentioned in the discussion above (Wireless > Wireless options button), but didn't feel I wanted to mess with that after reading the aforementioned article because I actually am upstairs and the modem is downstairs in my husband's office (though it doesn't seem to matter even if I'm right beside it). The discussion suggested I might be better off with the lower signal which is more powerful farther away. (Maybe I need a booster?) (We used to have an Apple thing that plugged into an outlet... wonder what I did with that...)

I'm also wondering how much interference is received as we live in a tight neighborhood. I can see at least 3 other networks when I choose mine. Someone in another forum had suggested changing the channel to "6" (I don't know why 6 from any other), so I'm trying that. I'm also wondering about changing the radio mode. It's currently in 802.11a/n - 802.11b/g/n (automatic). I'm wondering about switching to 802.11a/n - 802.11g/n.

I can see 5-7 WiFi signals other then my 3 (Yes 3 I have 2 routers setup and one is doing 2.4 & 5 Ghz) and I have no problems connecting to any of mine from any device, Mac PC or Andriod.

You have a Hardware problem that you should take care of ASAP by going to an Apple store and having it fixed or the unit replaced.

Thanks shootist007, the nearest Apple store to me is 2.5 hours away. So not going there anytime soon. Changing the channel to 6 seems to have helped intermittently... of course, I am skeptical. I'll see how it does over the next 24-48 hours. Now if I could just fix the runtime problem I might have worked through all the glitches.

You can always mail it to them. They'll even send you a box to ship it in & they'll pay for the shipping.

I've been on channel 6 now for several days and the Internet is working much better... fingers crossed.

It's now been just over a month and I'm back to the same-old, same-old with my wifi. I can actually get pages to load faster on my Nook, then on my $3000+ Retina MacBook. (Not good Apple.) My husband's Macbook, which is about year older than my Retina, works fine, so it's not the router or the connection. It's the machine. It is so reminicent of dial-up days. I sit and wait, and wait, except I'm not as patient as I was back then because I know I shouldn't have to wait. Argggg!

Today we had a new development in our Internet problems. After a week of slow-downs and intermitent outages, our Internet went out all together. Turns out, the problem was with our very expensive TB Time Capsule. It has decided to stop sharing info. (The router quit.) We replaced the router with a Netgear and our Internet is running at unbelievably fast speeds. (I'm all giddy!) Through this process, thanks to a genie app on the Netgear, I also learned that two of my neighbors were also on channel 6. So much for hoping that we were on a quieter channel. This has also be resolved with the new router. Note that we will not be replacing the Time Capsule with another. We will go back to a standard backup drive with more reliablity and durability.