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Poor wireless streaming performance

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nbedros

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2010
11
0
Hello,

I am getting a lot of lag when I try to stream videos (especially MKVs) over wireless on my new MBA and also my T420 Thinkpad. The same MKVs play without any problems when played from the SSDs.

When I try to copy a 4.5gb .ISO file wirelessly on either laptop, it says it'll take about half an hour... which is ridiculous. Also, my WDTV Live setup has an ethernet cable and has no problem at all with streaming.

Do I just need to change routers? It's a pretty old Linksys WRT456... I think v5.

Thanks
 
DustinT

DustinT

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2011
1,556
0
You can hold the alt key and click on the wifi icon to see what speeds your router is connecting at. Thats a good indicator of your wifi performance. If you are in the mood to buy a premium router, the Apple Airport Extreme is a great product and will pretty much take care of any wireless issue that can be handled reasonably.
 
N

nbedros

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2010
11
0
Thanks for the tip.

Here is my info;

PHY Mode: 802.11g
BSSID: 00:16:b6:b4:ed:e6
Channel: 6 (2.4 GHz)
Security: WPA2 Personal
RSSI: -36
Transmit Rate: 54
MCS Index: 0

Is that bad performance?
 
D

DJTechz

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2011
13
0
Its your router, its on 802.11g.

If you want to transfer faster you need 802.11n or ethernet (preferably Gigabit)
 
N

nbedros

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2010
11
0
Thank you. I'll check out other routers, might go with latest Airport.
 
B

Bob Coxner

macrumors 6502a
Mar 24, 2011
854
58
I have a Linksys wrt54gl router. I just tested it on my 2011 MBA 13" and on my wired Win 7 PC desktop. I got about 8.6gb down, .9gb up on the MBA wirelessly. I'm sure it was a test fluke but I actually got a lower speed on my wired PC. 7.9 down, .9 up. http://www.dslreports.com then click on Tools and Speed Tests.

Obviously no problems with my Linksys. Also, it's about 6 years old. These are built like tanks.

If you change to an 802.11n router be sure to note that it defaults to the slowest device on your network. In other words, everything has to be 11n or else it will drop to 11g. Weakest link in the chain.
 
H

h00ligan

macrumors 68040
Apr 10, 2003
3,028
136
London
You can tell it not to do that.

Also your test is irrelevant regarding LAN speed.

OP - if you are not worried about being techy - get the latest airport. I copy about a gig in 2 mins on my older version.. it's fine but feature limited for more advanced stuff.
 
N

nbedros

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2010
11
0
Out of curiosity, does the USB ethernet adapter give the same network performance as using a conventional ethernet port?

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h00ligan said:
You can tell it not to do that.

Also your test is irrelevant regarding LAN speed.

OP - if you are not worried about being techy - get the latest airport. I copy about a gig in 2 mins on my older version.. it's fine but feature limited for more advanced stuff.
Click to expand...

Very interesting. It's a bit pricy but I'm tempted, lol. I also dig the USB port feature for hooking up an external HDD.
 
H

h00ligan

macrumors 68040
Apr 10, 2003
3,028
136
London
nbedros said:
Out of curiosity, does the USB ethernet adapter give the same network performance as using a conventional ethernet port?

----------



Very interesting. It's a bit pricy but I'm tempted, lol. I also dig the USB port feature for hooking up an external HDD.
Click to expand...

Gigabit is faster than USB 2. So no.
 
H

h00ligan

macrumors 68040
Apr 10, 2003
3,028
136
London
nbedros said:
Out of curiosity, does the USB ethernet adapter give the same network performance as using a conventional ethernet port?

----------



Very interesting. It's a bit pricy but I'm tempted, lol. I also dig the USB port feature for hooking up an external HDD.
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention. That USB port cannot be used for hard drive backups over wifi reliably.
 
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