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Level 1

6 points

Apple patches 2013 MacBook Air Wi-Fi issue, but 802.11ac speeds still low

Today I just received my new Macbook air 13 inch, with 802.11ac wifi together with the new airport time capsule with wifi 802.11ac.

The speed is however disappointing, although I installed the new patch. Here is the perfromance at 1 m distancefrom the airport in 5GHz and "ac" mode:

Wifi menu: Never more than 174MBit/s

Network Utility says 289MBit/s

Then the emiric test (1 m distance):

1) Transfering 500MByte files: peak speed was 16.4 MBit/s

1) Time machine Backup of 80GByte: 4 hours!!!! I boght this hardware in the believe, that it would be less than 1 hour according to my math with the promised 45MByte/s.

The acivity center confirmes that the peak speed is arond 15-16 MByte/sec which then also explains my empirical results measured by a watch.

This is highly highly disappointing, as speed was the only reason for upgrading to this 802.11ac investment (Macbook air + station). Really really bad!

What is the problem dear Apple? Where is the 1300 MBit/sec connection? Or the 800 at least. 500 at least. But 174 !!!???

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), +Airport Time capsule 2013

Posted on Jul 20, 2013 3:12 PM

Best reply

PlotinusVeritas

Level 6

14,872 points

Posted on Jul 20, 2013 3:20 PM

One notable issue not addressed by the July 18 Macbook Air update is a problem with file transfer speeds over 802.11ac networks. As we (and others) reported, the new MacBook Airs aren't as fast as they should be when transferring files over 802.11ac using the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols under OS X. Using a network bandwidth testing tool like iPerf, a different file sharing protocol like FTP, or transferring files in Windows rather than OS X yields transfer speeds that are about as fast as expected, which leads us to believe that the issue is fixable in software. However, according to our testing, today's update doesn't resolve the problem just yet.

Its a SIMPLE software fix

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21 replies

Sep 19, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Roki75

Roki75

Installed the new update 10.8.5. Indeed the speep is better now. I perfromed empiric testing with a 1.45GByte MOV file:

Before the update ..... 76 seconds

After update ...............52 seconds

I confirm as well, Ive been off of my macbook Air until 2 days ago and forgot to test the 802ac wifi speeds had increased with 10.8.5 😁

Transferring files over 802.11ac using the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols under OS X had now changed with 10.8.5 where limits were in place before.

Fast just got boosted into 'overdrive' now due to the 10.8.5 update when using the Airport Extreme on 802ac wifi.

Way to go Apple.

Sep 25, 2013 3:05 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

I'm wondering about the MacBook Air I have which is a 2013 model. I'm using the n standard and I don't think i'm getting the performance i should. I have 150 megs per sec download speed. The best I seem to get out of my network is between 30 and 40 megs per sec transfer speed. Would this be normal or should I be getting more. I don't know what to expect from the n standard but it seems like it should be able to handle a faster transfer rate than this but I might be wrong.

Sep 25, 2013 3:34 PM in response to Kerry Dawson

Maybe some networking experts could help you diagnose same.

So many variables come into play,...your wifi gain, your I.P.,...your router,......etc etc.

I had known that 10.8.5 would remove the block limitations of MAX SPEED with the macbook Air 2013 and I got 15 to 20% faster download on an 905MB PDF portfolio file download that I had checked BEFORE 10.8.5,......

then rechecked after 10.8.5,......downloaded off one of my FTP clients from a remote server in Arizona and another one of the same huge PDF file in Romania.

of course I was getting same data pulled off the new Airport Extreme with 802ac with 40 foot L.O.S. connection

as for networking, ....of course its just so "simple" to pin things down (insert joke, see below).

Network wifi issues arent my forte' 😊

Sep 29, 2013 9:17 PM in response to Roki75

NEAR TRIPLE SPEED IMPROVEMENT ON 802ac wifi after 10.8.5 UPDATE with Macbook Air

I was wrong (in a good way) in my earlier test of the new improved wifi 802ac speeds on the macbook Air since 10.8.5 fixed max speeds. I made a crude test, and noticed much faster speeds,....but its faster than I thought.

**** Anyone out there waiting to get Apples Airport Extreme with 802ac wifi to go with their Air..,.....I'd conclude now is certainly the time,... speeds are blazing now.