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Slow wifi connection

My wifi connection on my Macbook Pro (retina, mid 2012 running on os x 10.9.2) is really slow. Any suggestions??

I did a speed test tonight and it came back with 3.8mpbs download rate, which is really crappy considering we pay for 35mbps.


My tablet will download the same file 2x as fast as my macbook will. And the speed test came back at download rate 15.99mbps...

Posted on Apr 6, 2014 7:01 PM

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20 replies

Apr 6, 2014 7:39 PM in response to Lisa1984

RSSI of -49 says you have a good strong signal. So disconnected antennas are not the problem.


You are using the very crowded 2.4GHz band as are probably all of your neighbors, microwave ovens, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices, and some portable phones. If your Router supported higher Channels, you would already have switched to a higher Channel and a Faster speed.


How many other Networks do you see listed there? 18 that is part of the problem.


When using 802.11g, there are only THREE Clear channels in the 2.4 GHz band, as each 54Gbits/sec Channel spills two channels up and two Channels down to cover the entire range in THREE: 1, 6, and 11.


Transmit Rate of 54 Gbits/sec says you are trying very hard to get through, and are being successful enough that your Router has not reduced the data rate -- but you are probably getting collisions, which means things often have to be sent again.

Apr 6, 2014 7:37 PM in response to Lisa1984

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If you really want to use WiFi, the best solution is to add more Channels. You can either Add to or Replace your existing Router with one that is dual-Band. That adds between 8 and 12 more Channels that your neighbors are not using, and they are all at faster speeds as well. Your MacBook Pro is already equipped to use Dual-band and faster speeds.

Apr 6, 2014 8:00 PM in response to Lisa1984

I just added the new Airport Extreme Base Station to my existing Router. I bought it from The Apple Online Store as a refurbished unit, and saved money.


When it powered up, it jumped up to an upper Channel and switched to 300Mbits/sec mode.


There is a good article that tells how to ADD a new Router, connected with an Ethernet cable. You just set the names to the same Network_name and the passwords to the same password, and the two Networks merge into one Network.

Apr 6, 2014 9:18 PM in response to Lisa1984

Please answer as many of the following questions as you can. You may already have answered some of them; in that case, there's no need to repeat the answers.

  • Restart your router and your broadband device, if they're separate. Any change?
  • If possible, connect to your router with an Ethernet cable and turn off Wi-Fi. Any difference?
  • If you can connect to more than one network, are they all the same?
  • Are all network applications affected, or only some? If only some, which ones?
  • Is networking always the same, or is the problem intermittent?
  • Disconnect all other devices from the network. Any change?
  • Boot in safe mode and test. Any difference?
  • Boot into Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities screen, select Get Help Online. A clean copy of Safari will launch. No plugins, such as Flash, will be available. Any difference?
  • Turn off Bluetooth and disconnect any USB 3 devices. Any difference?

Apr 11, 2014 5:45 AM in response to Linc Davis

I tried restarting my router, unplugging usb deviced and turning off the bluetooth none of that helped. I don't have access to another network or an ethernet cable adaptor at the moment so I couldn't test either of those atm. I tried rebooting in safe mode and it didn't help, however safari and the mail program started having a spaz attack so that was confusing. If i start in recovery mode is it going to wipe my computer clean??

Apr 11, 2014 7:39 AM in response to Lisa1984

You should try changing channels. As Grant suggested, there are only 3 channels in the 2.4 GHz range, so if you're on 6, try 1 or 11. The problem with going to the 5 GHz band is that it is much more affected by obstacles and has a much shorter range.


I bought one of these around Christmas (amazingly, it was only $10 with the rebate--if you subscribe to newegg's email, it may come up with a promo code at some point that will reduce the price signicantly.) It is an N router, which means it's much better able to receive and transmit signals that are multi-path, that is bounced all over the place, as they are on the 2.4 GHz band. I have it pretty far a way from the Mac with wireless and I'm rarely seeing it dip much below its highest Transmit Rate of 130. A G Router will be far less effective, especially in a crowded environment.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320168


Even at $40, it's an excellent router.


You can use the stock Asus firmware (aka operating system) or a much superior one called Tomato can be installed without a lot of trouble. If you get one of these and want to use Tomato, then post back to this thread.


Just a tip: I installed Tomato immediately, so don't know if this option is present or not with the Asus firmware, but if it is, keep the channel bandwidth at 20MHz. At 40MHz, it will pick up too much interference, and performance will be terrible.


You can only really accurately know what your real Internet speed is by connecting with an ethernet cable, instead of wirelessly.

Apr 11, 2014 9:12 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I have 26 other networks of varying strength (some even stronger than mine) and counter-intuitively, I'm on 6 which is the most crowded, but after frequent moves, I've found things are best there. I'm not experiencing any problems with this N router a few rooms away. Staying usually around 130. Of course, YMMV, and you can't know until you know.

Slow wifi connection

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