Wi-fi speed dropped from 50 MBPS to 10Mbps

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Level 1

4 points

Wi-fi speed dropped from 50 MBPS to 10Mbps

Hello there guys!

I tried almost everything that I know trying to find a way to improve my speed connection back to what it was, changing channels, moving the router to a better spot, updating the firmware... And all ways that you can find in these "10 ways to improve your Wi-fi". (There's no packet loss by the way.)

When I used Ethernet the computer gets 50Mbps, but over wi-fi I only receive around 10~15Mbps, I know that the speed normally drops a lot over wi-fi, but I used to receive 48~51Mbps over the Wi-fi (You can compare the results with the pics, the first one is older, both were tested using wi-fi). I'm receiving the contracted 50Mpbs, but I can't understand what could happened that my download speed dropped that much, the setting of the router are the same as before, anyone have any ideas? I did the Wi-fi Diagnostic Scan and nothing seems to be wrong.

Hope someone can help me!

Thanks for reading and sorry any grammar mistakes! <( ^•^)/

iMac

Posted on Jan 12, 2015 7:05 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 12, 2015 7:29 PM in response to S-Loxe

What is the wireless router?

What is the wireless link speed?

What is the local network speed? You are measuring internet speed.. but to figure out where the problem is we need to see link and local network measurements.

If you have a router with 5ghz, have you forced the connection onto 5ghz to see if that works better??

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Answer 2

S-Loxe Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 12, 2015 7:55 PM in response to LaPastenague

I'll try to give some of those informations, and I'll add some screenshots, if I miss anything please say it.

The router it's an ADB (My ISP gave me this router, but I'm not sure about the model so hope the pic bellow can help)

Link Speed: 195Mbit/s

The Local network speed I'll need to check latter since I'm using an iMac and I'll not be able to check right now (If we really need this I'll post as soon as possible!).

I only have 3 options for Bandwidth (Pic bellow again), but to be honest I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, If there are any other information that I can send you I'll try to provide them as fast as possible.

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Answer 3

Jan 13, 2015 12:12 AM in response to S-Loxe

Ok, your link speed is fine.. you can clearly achieve your full internet speed on 195Mbps link..

Now you need to test copying a file from one computer on your network.. that is on wireless to another on wired connection so we can see if the issue is wireless link to the LAN or if the wireless link to WAN in the router is the culprit.

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Answer 4

S-Loxe Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 13, 2015 3:58 PM in response to LaPastenague

How exactly can I copy a file from my wireless iMac to my wired Windows so I can test both WAN and LAN? (If you have any tutorial link to make it easy to you explain I would appreciate as well).

EDIT: I'm trying to use the "Share over LAN" of this site http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-to-transfer-files-from-one-computer-to-anoth er/

Is that what you're talking about? If it is how do I check the results?

Sorry to take so long to reply.

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Answer 5

Jan 13, 2015 4:30 PM in response to S-Loxe

copy files Mac to PC is not hard now.. make sure you have turned on sharing on the PC.

It should show up in Finder. Make sure you have a login of the same name and password on both computers (just makes life easier). Or turn on the guest account on the PC. Or simply use Go, Connect to Server.. type in SMB://PCname and when asked type in the username and password of a valid user.

I wasn't really trying to teach you networking.

There are zillion websites with info on setting it up.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2014/feb/06/move-files-mac-windows -pc

Here.. I have done it from my wireless mini to PC on network.

I copied across one large file.. and using activity monitor i can see the network speed.. average it.. around 12-14MB/sec..

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Answer 6

S-Loxe Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 13, 2015 5:48 PM in response to LaPastenague

First thanks for your help and patience, I'm always trying to learn new stuff, but sometimes I don't know what exactly I'm looking for, =)

Second, since I'm using Yosemite the activity monitor looks a little different, but I believe that this will not make any difference.

I have never tried to share a folder before, I'm still not sure how I did it but it's working, the peak it's only 4MB, I'll add 3 Pics bellow showing the transition, I'm sending a file of around 2GB from my wireless iMac to my Wired Windows.

Does this data help in any way so we can understand what is happening with my Wi-fi?

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Answer 7

Jan 14, 2015 3:15 PM in response to S-Loxe

You should be able to change the units used to see network speed but I can see enough info in what you posted to see the performance is poor.

Look at the spiking nature of the transfer.

Mind you the peak speed is adequate.. 4.6MB/s translates to 46Mbps .. internet speed and data transfer are measured differently data in Bytes.. (B) and network in bits (b).. there are 8bits in a Byte but with overheads of wireless you can say 10.. it makes the maths easier as well.

That kind of inconsistency is usually caused by poor signal.

So what I need you to do next is to run the Utility in the wireless diagnostics.

About Wireless Diagnostics - Apple Support

In the utility you can see a chart of all the networks around you.

Please post me this chart of the scan of your local wireless environment.

And then do performance checking on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz.

eg my 5ghz looks like this.

Take a few minutes of chart length with nothing running.. then start up your file transfer. so I can see how the signal is being affected.

I would like you to move channels at 5ghz in the router.. try 36 or 40 (one of the down low channels) and then test on 149 which is one of the high channels.

You can also do the tests on 2.4ghz and see how that goes.. again testing a couple of channels..

run your simple internet speed tests as well once you finish the file transfer.. and see what that is giving you.

Wireless you need to understand is subject to masses of voodoo .. and getting it setup correctly for your environment and figuring out where issues are is a major task. You will need to be prepared to fight this along for a bit.

I would also recommend buying another wireless router to test against.. obviously with apple having an apple router can be a big help as they tend to be tuned better to apple client devices.

You can buy an extreme and return it if unsuitable or a second hand gen5 would also be a good test device.

I usually get better speed from my apple wireless routers than ISP wireless modems.

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Answer 8

S-Loxe Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 15, 2015 1:11 PM in response to LaPastenague

I always used the 8Bits = 1Byte, but using the 10 rule make it a lot easier to estimate the speed,

My wireless connection is really unstable, but I'm not sure if it's related to poor signal cause the same router in the same position used to give full speed to my iMac (Same position as well), maybe it got damaged with a blackout or something like this, I'll consider get a new and better one!

My Scan looks like this:

^Again, since it's Yosemite the window looks a little different, each function have a separate window, the Scan one looks lie this pic above^

I just found out that I don't have the 5ghz Band option, only 2.4ghz, and this number is related to the frequency that the router operates? People say that one is better for stability and the other one performance or something like this... I'm not sure about this. Is my Bandwidth or my router that cannot use 5ghz?

And I can only choose between channel 1 to 13, but since I don't use wireless phones (Except mobiles) and there aren't any other network around I don't know if the channel is a big deal, here's a pic of my Wireless advanced options without changing the channels:

This test I did with in the Channel 6 set by auto, here's the pic with no activity and then copying the file, before/after interrupting the transfer the speedtest gave me around 16Mbps/22Mbps (Ping around 1~4 in both tests):

Hope this results can help in any way, if the other channel test gave different results I'll add here.

EDIT: Channel 1 gave me 11Mbps and this chart:

Thanks for all the information till now!

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Answer 9

Jan 15, 2015 2:43 PM in response to S-Loxe

Your speed is ok for 2.4ghz.. Apple deliberately reduce the speed on 2.4ghz to N lite so you will never achieve high speed using it.

Your router is capable of 5ghz it seems but you have not selected it.. the channels from 36 up are all in 5ghz band.

The speed on 5ghz is hugely better although range is much poorer.

I cannot say why you are having issues.. the scan gives no results.. I suppose as with most things Yosemite is just useless.. it is not uncommon though to have issues with wireless if you upgrade installed Yosemite.. I can only suggest you test with another device.. laptop or ipad etc in the same location as the computer.. if the loss of speed happened at the same time as Yosemite install it all makes sense.

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Answer 10

S-Loxe Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 15, 2015 3:54 PM in response to LaPastenague

When I highlight the band option there's only 2.4GHz, no 5GHz option at all, only if you have to unlock it somehow...

Still what I think it's awkward is that my iMac used to hit the 50Mbps via Wi-Fi and now barely reach 30, and my upload speed (~19Mbps) is higher than my download speed (~15Mbps)... I cannot say for sure if the loss started with the Yosemite, but for sure this is possible, on Mavericks my wireless was doing perfect, is there anything more that I could try to do?

The other computers are receiving bad/neutral values with the speedtest (2 Windows), my android achieve around 10~15 Mbps but only my iMac was able to hit full speed back in the day.

I'll try to find a good new router to see what happens, the issue is that in my country routers are way to expensive to buy it just to "test" and wish that the new router fix my wireless loss. If anything of this help me I'll start to think about buying a real long ethernet cable to use wired instead os wireless.

EDIT: I'll read about this issue, seems that Yosemite gives wireless trouble to people who made the upgrade from the Mavericks to Yosemite http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/25/fix-wi-fi-problems-os-x-yosemite/

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Answer 11

eli168

Level 1

0 points

Jan 15, 2015 3:51 PM in response to S-Loxe

If there is no 5GHZ option then your Wifi is probably an older model that doesn't support that type. What model do you have?

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