Arris TG1672G with Airport Extreme A1408

Question

Arris TG1672G with Airport Extreme A1408

I have TWC and just recently received the Arris TG1672G Modem/router since they upgraded me from the 50/5 to 300/20 speeds. I set up everything the same as I had it before. I didn't change my AirPort settings, disabled wifi on the modem, and set the modem to Bridge mode. This morning the new speeds finally kicked in and on a wired connection coming from the airport to my iMac I get the full 300/20 but when I check the wifi speeds I'm only getting 57/20. Prior to that my wifi speeds always showed around 57/5, so I know atleast my upload got a boost. Now I am well aware that I wouldn't be getting the full 300/20 on my wifi devices but I did expect a decent bump in speeds. The devices I tested the Wifi on are all Wireless N.

Is there a setting or something I can do with the AirPort Extreme to get better Wifi speeds? Or is it just a limitation of the older hardware? I am expecting atleast 100-150mbps out of the wifi speeds from it. When I get home later I will try out the wifi that's built into the modem to see if there's any differences between the Arris Wifi and AirPort Wifi.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 23, 2015 8:42 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,208 points

Apr 23, 2015 2:07 PM in response to CrashingEchelon

It depends on the age of the computer..

But part of the issue is just wireless at 2.4ghz is limited by Apple to 20mhz. That gives a Max link speed of 130mbps and an actual transfer speed of half that number.. which happens to come out to 65mbps.. (ie real world 57).. Later Macs can get dual streams which means a link speed of 217mbps from 2.4ghz.. but it still will give less than 100mbps in real world.

You MUST use 5ghz for high speed connections.. and that means close.. the Mac and the AE should be in the same room and your link speed should show 450Mbps as that is the fastest speed possible on the older N wireless equipment.. If your Mac is 2010 or earlier it will also connect only at 300mbps.. as it cannot handle multiple streams per channel. You still have to halve the transfer speed because wireless is half-duplex.

To force the connection to 5ghz you need to give the 5ghz band in the airport a different name.

The Mac will always connect to the best signal.. that will inevitably be 2.4ghz once you are a room or two away from the AE.. but if you force the connection to 5ghz it might actually be faster even with weaker signals.

Apple have wireless diagnostics program in the computer.

About Wireless Diagnostics - Apple Support

Check your link speed.. you can do this quickly using option click on the wifi icon.

On my 2011 mini I get 450 which apple calls Transmit Rate.. but is more commonly known as link speed. That is the fastest you can get with older equipment without AC cards.

Note my Time Capsule.. has the two bands named.. TC5ghz and TC24ghz so I can tell from the name which band I am choosing.

If I link to 2.4ghz the speed will drop dramatically.

I do get 217 because this computer is post 2010.. and it is able to pick up multiple streams .. otherwise it would be 130mbps.

On the whole.. Yosemite will do you no favours for networking.. especially if it was upgrade installed.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 23, 2015 2:11 PM in response to LaPastenague

Your response helped me understand this better. I have my iMac from 2008 hardwired so I get the full 300/20 on it without any problems. My Xbox One and iPhone 6 are the only two devices that I did a wifi test on and their speeds didn't change. So it looks like I'll have to use the wireless router that's built into the modem for the time being until I can get a new AirPort Extreme. That's what seems to be my issue of having limited speed over Wifi. I'll give the wireless router a try and disconnect the AirPort and see what happens.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 23, 2015 2:29 PM in response to CrashingEchelon

2008 Mac will be poor on wireless.. and you should indeed stick to ethernet..

In fact if you want high speed internet.. I would stick to ethernet period.

The Arris is probably only 300Mbit N wireless. (2.4ghz only).. I am trying to download the spec sheet but it is typical in having loads of screed and little hard facts.

I doubt any wireless except AC is going to get you near those speeds.. and it is only AC both ends that will work.. Even then range is poor so it often looks great on paper and a lot less satisfactory in real world.

Wireless for streaming btw is never good, no matter how fast.. it is just difficult to get decent and reliable streaming since wireless is a shared media.. it cannot handle more than one device at a time.. so it time slices to share.. whereas ethernet can handle multiple computers simultaneously.

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 23, 2015 2:41 PM in response to LaPastenague

Ideally I would like to hook up everything through ethernet but right now that's not a possibility. So I'm going to mess with the router settings and see if the Arris will do any better. I just kept everything the same when I put in the new modem.

Hopefully I'll figure out some solution that'll work out for me in the long run. Your information is definitely helpful. So if I did get an AC router, only my iPhone 6 would benefit from it.

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 23, 2015 3:03 PM in response to CrashingEchelon

CrashingEchelon wrote:

So if I did get an AC router, only my iPhone 6 would benefit from it.

I think the Gen5 AE is great.. When I compare the Gen6 AE to it.. there is no improvement for me.. None .. I would need to buy a new computer with AC wireless.. to get increased speed and that is only close up and personal.

I also think the AC version AE and TC is buggy enough to wait.. It must be due a refresh mid year.. although who ever knows..

Asus. Netgear, Dlink, etc build their routers using the same basic components and get double the throughput, wan to lan.. more the double the range, much better specs all around.. but then Apple have to write the firmware from the ground up.. since they are Apple.. and that leaves them without all the knowledge that is supplied from the OEM supplier who writes all the drivers in linux.. but apple hate open source so rewrite it in NetBSD.. with the result it performs poorly. After a while they will sort the bugs.. and improve it.. might even add USB3 port.. which is built into the chipset.. so no excuse for them not to use it.. except that they can cheaply develop a new version 2.. and finally make use of some of what they missed.

Reply