Excruciatingly Slow Wifi with Excellent Signal - Fix?

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morrowind Author

Level 1

0 points

Excruciatingly Slow Wifi with Excellent Signal - Fix?

I'm running 10.7.5 (2011 macbook pro)

I did a regular software update earlier today. The result? My wifi went from blazing fast to a crawl.

My speeds on speedtest are:

DL: 0.76 mbps

Up: 1.45 mbps

Checked my wifi preferences - my wifi is set to priority, top of the list.

Rebooted, turned wifi off / back on. Bluetooth is off.

Cannot figure this out.

Any help? This is a pain =/ Thanks.

Added info:

Slow in all browsers (safari, chrome).

Firewall is off.

Security/Antivirus is off.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Server

Posted on Mar 21, 2013 7:20 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 21, 2013 7:58 PM in response to morrowind

Change your router channel number. Most times this works & is all you have to do.

System Preferences>Network

Click the Assist Me button.

In the next window that pops up, click the Diagnostic button & do the necessary.

See KB Articles: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1401 AirPort troubleshooting guide

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712 Using network locations in Mac OS X

Manually provided DNS server addresses are higher priority than DHCP's

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1714 Solutions for connecting to the Internet, setting up a small network, and troubleshooting

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Also, run the Airport Utility app which is located inside the Utilities folder.

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If using a Linksys router, contact LinkSys Customer Support and/or post in their forums.

If using Apple's Airport, please re-post over in one of the AirPort Forums.

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Security/Antivirus is off.

Make sure your Firewall is on.

Uninstall the Antivirus software. You don't need it as there are no viruses for OS X.

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Answer 2

luz m.

Level 1

15 points

Mar 21, 2013 8:04 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

had this very same issue tonight after downloading apple/safari updates. thank you baby boomer!

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Answer 3

morrowind Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 21, 2013 11:00 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

I went through most of the documentation earlier and ran a diagnostic. It was "green lights" all the way.

The only link that really applies to my situation, because I am getting a strong signal and have no issues connecting, is this one: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628?viewlocale=en_US - but the section on "slow wifi" doesn't apply to my router (and I'm not using airport).

As stated, nothing on my modem or router changed. It was simply following an update.

After I posted, I headed over to my campus to hop on their wifi - where everyone gets a strong signal and most use mac - and it's the same thing. I can connect, the signal is strong, but the load times are painfully slow.

Anything else I can try?

P.S. I don't have antivirus. I just said it was "off" because the indicator showed that it was "off"/not there.

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Answer 4

Mar 22, 2013 10:37 AM in response to morrowind

If changing the router channel didn't solve your slowness, there is something else going on. Is the wifi slow on all browsers or just one? If the latter, post in the browsers forum area. Could be a browser issue rather than wifi.

Also, you may want to post your problem over in the Mac OS X v10.7 Lion forums in case it's an OS problem instead of software or hardware.

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Answer 5

morrowind Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2013 10:29 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

Thanks, but before I move forums, do you know if the following is software/hardware?

Slow up/down is on all browsers and itunes downloads.

I changed the DNS to OpenDNS servers - no change.

Then, I tried Google's 8.8.8.8/4.4 and it did make a slight difference: went from around 1 DL to 3 DL mbps.

I also ran 'first aid' utilities on the disk and everything came up clean.

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Answer 6

Mar 23, 2013 10:28 AM in response to morrowind

It could be either. It's hard to tell. I've never used Lion. The Lion users will be able to work w/you on that end.

If none of the solutions that are recommended to you work, more than likely it's a hardware problem. You will need to take a trip to your local Apple Store or an AASP for FREE diagnostic testing.

Have you double checked w/your ISP to make sure the problem is not on their end? Have you changed router channels? Have you gone into your network settings and deleted all necessary networks? Selected the "Remember networks this computer has joined" setting?

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Answer 7

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Mar 23, 2013 12:01 PM in response to morrowind

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/7-tips-to-increase-wi-fi-performance.html

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