Airport Extreme 5th Gen: 2.4GHz VERY Slow

I've scanned the area in my building and there are about 54 networks within range on 2.4GHz from corner to corner, about 10 right next to the AP Extreme.

That.....is the problem. Severe overcrowding.

You never know, another brand might work better if the store will allow you return the product if it doesn't.

I imagine that other folks are having issues as well. It's just not possible to know.

If you have tried "automatic" and "manual" channels, that is about all that you can do. The most crowded channels are 1, 11 and 6 in that order. I doubt that it will help.....but you might try channel 8 or 3 if you have not done so already.

If another store will allow you to return the router if it does not improve things, it could not hurt to try another brand. Take your pick......Cisco, Netgear. Things might improve.....or they might be worse.

You cannot know until you try it out at your location. No one has a crystal ball good enough to ever predict wireless performance in advance of an installation.

As far as price is concerned, the Apple is a $50 router with $140 of styling and advertising added on....my opinion. We have two AirPorts here.....because my wife likes the styling.

overlapping channels can cause even more problems and poor quality than the non-overlapping.

Not sure what you mean. If you are on channel 1....channel 2, 3, 4 and 5 all overlap 1 to varying degrees. If you are on channel 11.....7, 8. 9 and 10 all overlap 11, same for channel 6 with channels overlapping from either side of 6.

While channel 1 does not overlap 6, or 6 overlap 11....you cannot escape the fact that no matter what channel you choose, there will be a number of other channels overlapping the channel that you select.

A friend, who lives in an apartment complex with about 20 networks close by, swears by channel 8, saying it works significantly better for him than 1, 6, or 11.

Apple routers do a good job, that is why we use them here, in addition to the styling that my wife likes. The products are simple to set up and administer, plus I've had good luck through the years with reliability as well.

I'm not saying that another product would be better for you. You won't know until you try.

Take your pick on the Transmit Power argument, as you can make a case for low or high power when wireless interference is an issue. All you can do is try a different setting to see if it might help.

Good luck. If you find the "magic" setting, please post back to let us know.

The problem is definitely the huge amount of wireless around you..

In Mountain Lion there is good diagnostics for what the signals are like.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5606

I have been doing a bit of wireless testing lately and it is helpful to see.

The key issue is not that other people are using the same channel as how much power they are using.. and how much your power level is above theirs. So you will see lots of people with wireless on channel 1, 6, 11 as Bob has stated.. but look at the power level.

Here is another utility netspot I use on Snow Leopard computer. Free version is quite good for doing wireless survey. Notice the channels but particularly the power everything shows from your computer wireless point of view.. ie this is the power at your receiver.

On 2.4ghz the three units I am testing are running neck and neck.. that means channel separation is vital to getting decent throughput. Or you need to get more signal.

The problem is signal power is db.. ie log scale.. a change of 3db requires double the power. So to get 6db signal requires double and double again.. ie x4 and to get 9db signal improvement requires 8x the original power output. 3db is possible.. 6db is a stretch.. and 9db is possible only with amplifiers. You need to increase output power from the router effectively 10times. ie from 50mw to 500-1000mw. to get significant differences.

This requires better level equipment than generally home stuff.. although the Asus RT-N66U and AC66U are known to be very good in this area.

The idea of cutting your signal btw.. is only when everyone does.. as soon as one person increases signal everyone else has to.. consider it an arms race in the wifi area. If everyone agreed to reduce power output to 25% of current levels you may well find everyone is better.. but such treaties are beyond human ability to enforce.. see Syria.. for example.

But you can use a cheaper unit than that.. just as an AP.. the beam forming idea in the latest AC AEBS has been used for a while and I run a dlink DIR645 you can buy readily for less than $40 often .. even new.. it is a useless router but it makes a great AP.. plug it into the Gen 5 AE and use it as second AP for 2.4ghz.

The other method is to block signal getting into your area.. this is known as Faraday cage.. the problem is it blocks all RF transmission in and out..

Basically you enclose your area in a metal cage.. it doesn't have to be solid steel plates.. mesh is fine. Even flyscreen as long as it is metal.. foil etc.

See Enemy of the State movie.. which had a genuine Faraday cage in it. As a prop in the film it had an unexpected effect.. the actors wireless microphones stopped working.. the tranmission could not be picked up outside the cage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Talk:Faraday_cage

I understand the theory here.....just trying to offer some suggestions when the theory does not work.

If you run a scan of the 50+ networks near you, my guess is that 70-80% of them are using channel 1, 6, or 11.

Maybe you try to go where the other guys aren't. This is working well for my friend who uses Channel 8 in a very crowded environment, even though the theory says he should be using 1, 6 or 11....(none of which work well for him.)

No guarantees.....there never are. Channel 8 or 9 might be worse than 1,6 or 11 for you. But, if you don't try....you won't know.

I was having the same problem as the original poster and decided to search apple support and found this thread. It was your reply that solved it. You answered the OP 9/18/13 and its 9/23/15. Two years have passed and your reply still holds golden. THANKS!

IF you have any cable equipment that uses RF mode for the remote control, disable that also. It kills speeds for the whole house. I was getting between 10-15 after unplugging my cable box my xfinity x1 my 2.4 ghz speeds shot up to between 50-90.