Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have one of the new Macbook Pro 15" Retina models and have been having issues with Wifi Speeds. Apple has replaced the computer but have the same issue with the new one. When doing a side-by-side comparison with older Macbook Pros and PC's I'm seeing around a 10 megabytes per second difference. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue?
MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 5.1.1
How close are both computers to the wireless router? Are they both signed on as N or G? What are the MTU settings under Hardware in the Advanced Network settings? Is there a QoS quota set in your router for one and not the other (this would favor one computer).
Both are on a N network. I even extended my network by adding an Airport Express to my Time Capsule in a 500 sq ft apartment to extend my network. So 90% of the time computers are virtually right next to the router. The difference I also see is as you move the new MBP Retina further away from the router the signal speed degrades further. On older MBP or PC the signal strength essentially remains static. No QoS quota set to my knowledge and the MTU is set at Standard (1500) Configure: Automatically
If 2 MBP retinas did the same thing it may be something to do with the antenna and radio configuration (hardware). This may partly be of necessity to support the data stream for the retina screen.
But you may try changing the frequency and channel, because what you are seeing is the effect of attenuation. The N standard can broadcast in either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz (if I recall correctly) the 5 GHz has less interference by cordless phones and such, but is also more easily absorbed by objects. You can also change the channel of the signal broadcast on the router.
So an update on what I've found. After testing two different MBP Retna's basically hourly for 4 weeks I found a few interesting things, but ultimately resolved my issue. The first thing I found consistently between both MBP Retina's both on my network and in the Apple store on their network was the first thunderbolt port closes to the screen is slower than if you try to use the LAN cable adapter on the second port. I saw about 10 GBps between the two ports. The second thing i found was these new MBP Retina's aren't really compatible with older Apple networking technology. I have a single band Airport Express and a single band Time Capsule. Using either router they only worked on the 2.4 5Ghz setting and even with that the speeds constantly fluxuated. Most times I got between 2 - 10 GBps. After hours of troubleshooting it was recommended to update either my Time Capsule or Airport Express to one of the newer dual bands, which I did. After purchasing and setting up a new dual band Airport Express and spliting the networks to have one band constantly on the 2.4 5Ghz setting and the other set to automatic both with differing network id's this solved my problem. I now consistently see download speeds of around 35GBps and upload around 6GBps. So connecting the dots and drawing logical conclusion, these new MBP Retinas are really only compatible with newer dual band Time Capsules or Airports. Even though my single band was also set to 2.4 5Ghz, the same as the dedicated network used now on my dual band Airport Express, this MBP Retina had issues maintaining WiFi speeds.
I have an issue where when I am in the next room, my macbook pro retina display internet connectivity is horrible. I facetime on my MBP retina and the video is extremely choppy and freezes, the internet hangs and stops working and requires constant refreshes compared to a 2010 macbook pro and an ipad 2 which are both on the 5ghz channel of my 2011 airport extreme that are working fine. I have yet to replace the computer with apple but I am starting to believe there is something wrong. That is how bad the connection is. Is anyone else experiencing this issue. I would like to think its my router but i have a dual band router with both a 2.4 and 5ghz and my other devices work fine. The speeds are unbearable and I have to use it directly next to my airport extreme.
I have the same problem as you all above. I have an appointment at the Genius bar to return my rMBP today.
I have seen this at home,on both an older Netgear 802.11bg wifi router, and now a brand-new ASUS 802.11ac router. Alternatively, a 2007 Santa Rosa MBP, 2006 Intel Mini, iPhone4, and iPad2 all do just fine on both boxes.
On the Asus, which is dual-band, the rMBP does fine when it is on a 5 GHz channel, but as soon as it frequency hops to any channel on 2.4 GHz, things go to h*ll in a handbasket. The most I can do is stream low-bitrate audio - I can't do any file transfers, an playing even a standard-definition iTunes video makes the connection drop.
I love the rest of the machine, and I NEED the rest of the machine! This worries me greatly that it appears to be a systematic problem - I don't know if a replacment is going to be any better..... 8^(
What helped me is splitting the dual band on the router and setting up different networks with different names for each band. One band I set at 5hz and thats the network I use to connect to my MBP Retina. The other band I left as the default which I use for all my other devices. Only my MBP Retina connects to the 5Ghz band/network. I would give that a whirl and see if that helps.
Well I definitely agree something is probably wrong with the new MBP Retina's. I did extensive testing with Apple senior techs for about four weeks on two different MBP Retina's. We saw the same results on both computers but then also saw a huge difference when running the same tests on older Macbook Pro's or PC's. After all the testing it was determined the computers aren't really faulty, albeit a bit finiky, but it's the router technology that's causing the problem. I didn't want to believe it at first but after running more tests with newer routers and splitting the bands the results couldn't be ignored. So I would try splitting the bands and leaving one set to only the 5Ghz band and only use that band to connect to your MBP Retina. Although I did eventually exchange my MBPR for another one, since doing this my issue has been resolved. I've been going steady now for about two weeks without any issue.
I have the same problem. its driving me mad!! any succes so far? Has anyone found a solution??
😮
Did you install mountain lion. If so did it work before on lion?
Yes, i install mountain lion yesterday and i have the same problem ia have with the previous version. 😕
Thats a bummer. I just got my my mac a couple of days ago and instantly installed it with mounation lion when I first got it so i can't say anything about lion. But I had wifi issues (along with other) with upgrading to mounation lion from the previous version. So I ended up doing a clean install of mountain lion. (http://mashable.com/2012/07/26/mountain-lion-clean-install/#777751-Download-Moun tain-Lion-From-the-Mac-App-Store). If you are tech savy then I would recommend doing this and seeing what happens. It resolved all of my issues i had had. If not I would go to the apple store and see if they could help you. Hope this helps
I have a new macbook pro with retina display and have the same problem. Basically, my wifi works in my kitchen, but not in my living room. And both rooms are about 25 feet from my wireless router. And guess what? My 2006 MacBook connects to WIFI just fine in both rooms. Something is definetely wrong with my retina model.
I called Apple Care and they said that it has to do with the channel that my netgear wireless router is on (which is total BS because my other computer works fine), and then they said it has to do with some sort of physical wall breaking my connection (which is also total BS because my other computer works fine). I'm 99% sure there is something wrong with the connectivity of the wifi in the macbook, or perhaps a glitch in Mountain Lion as I have installed that on the new computer but not the old one.
Let's see how this thing gets fixed.
I had a wifi problem on my Macbook pro with retina. When I would wake it up from sleep the wifi would cut in/out for a few seconds then work. And when it was sleeping it would drop wifi (downloads would pause).
This is what I did today and so far it's fixed the problem:
1)reset smc
2)reset pram
....have one band constantly on the 2.4 5Ghz setting and the other set to automatic both with differing network id's this solved my problem....
how do i set different IDs for the 2 different bands? does it mean that it will show up as two different networks?
can i do that on a Netgear N600 ?
Macbook Pro Retina issues with Wifi Speeds
