Airport - upload speed a crawl

Question

Airport - upload speed a crawl

Hello! Yesterday my internet provider, Charter, reinitialized my modem, and now my upload speed has declined by a whopping 97%. It is coming in at under 0.2 Mbs, when before it was almost 6 Mbs. It is insanely slow with my wired-to-the-modem iMac, my wireless MacBook, and my iPhone. My download speed is still the same as before, and is excellent. From what I've been reading, this is a problem with the router, or how the router and modem are communicating...? Obviously, I am unclear about this, and I would welcome any help in how to fix this.

(Please explain this in fairly non-technical language, if possible. The articles I have read are too technical which is why I needed to come here.) Thank you!

macOS Sierra (10.12), null

Posted on Oct 25, 2017 10:43 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tesserax

Level 10

158,202 points

Oct 26, 2017 12:46 PM in response to Border Heeler

Until LaPastenague can reply, let me offer a "first step" for troubleshooting the problem ... and that is to simply power recycle your AirPort Extreme and modem, as follows:

Remove power from the AirPort Extreme.
Remove power from the modem. Wait at least five minutes.
Power-up the modem; wait at least 10-15 minutes to allow it to initialize.
Power-up the Extreme; wait until the status LED becomes a solid green.
Try testing the upload speed now. Do you see any improvement?

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Answer 2

Oct 26, 2017 12:53 AM in response to Border Heeler

Is your computer plugged directly to the modem by ethernet..?? Or do you have another router.. you have posted in airport section.. if you have no airport this is irrelevant and your issue is either your Mac and every other device.. about 0.1% likely.. Or it is your modem router/ISP.. about 99.9% where the problem lies.

Power cycle the modem. Which I am guessing is a router also but please give us the model number. Wait 30min with modem off before you start it up again. .. run a test.. if the test shows slow upload the issue is entirely the ISP and you need to ring them to get help.. it is their problem.

If you now get full speed.. test on your other clients.. everything should be good..

If I made a wrong assumption and you actually do have an airport.. then tell us the model number please of that as well and how it is configured. We cannot help without details of the whole network.

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

158,202 points

Oct 26, 2017 1:58 PM in response to Border Heeler

Keep "power recycling" in the back of your mind as the "first step" in troubleshooting networking issues.

I also would like to second LaPastenague's comments about your AirPort Extreme. If you find yourself having to do the recycling step often, it may indicate it would be time for a change.

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Answer 4

Oct 26, 2017 7:32 AM in response to LaPastenague

I misspoke. My Mac is wired to the AirPort Extreme, not the modem. (That’s why I shouldn’t write at 2 am.) So, yes, I do have an Airport Exteme. I will get further info on it when I am home, but in case that is enough info, I wanted to reply now.

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Answer 5

Oct 26, 2017 1:26 PM in response to Border Heeler

It seems to be fixed.. good work from Tesserax!!

BUT let me say a Gen3 AE is going back a lot of years.. Well beyond the 3year standard limit or even the somewhat better Apple hardware 5 years.. it must be 7-8 years old now.. and in desperate need of an upgrade.

If you continue having issues.. or issues of a different sort start.. look at that ancient AE.. its time.

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Answer 6

Oct 26, 2017 2:23 PM in response to Tesserax

Yes, It has been working fine until recently, but with lots more devices making demands on it lately, I do feel the need for a replacement. The current Extreme that is available, which is already getting a little old - what do you all think of it? Or should I go outside of Apple for a router at this point?

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Answer 7

Oct 26, 2017 8:24 AM in response to Border Heeler

AirPort Extreme 802.11n (3rd Generation).

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Answer 8

Oct 26, 2017 12:48 PM in response to Tesserax

Thank you! That worked. I had tried something similar several times this morning, but did not leave the modem power off for nearly so long a time. (My internet provider recommends "30 seconds." Now I know better.) Thank you so much!

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Answer 9

Oct 27, 2017 10:25 AM in response to Border Heeler

Airports are still good for apple clients.. but the price/age of the current one is too high/old. It has been on the market 4.5years now so it is 5year old design.. at least.

I would happily buy one refurbished from Apple store if the discount is good enough or even from ebay etc.

If you have lots of non-apple wireless stuff.. then yes.. buy alternatives.. I like the Asus AC routers.. or TP-Link at each end of the price spectrum.

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