New 27" iMac slower than 2006 MacBook?

[Jnardis]

I just purchased the new 27" imac and have been messing around with files coming off of an external hard drive that is connected through the network. All in all it seems like my old MacBook transfers files much faster from the external hard drive to the MacBook than my Imac from the external hard drive to the Imac. I tested it a few times and the results are:

Transferring the same exact file 112.4MB size.

The MacBook transfered the file in 1min and 27 seconds
The iMac transfered the the same file in 8 in and 42 seconds

I would assume the iMac should be A LOT faster than an old MacBook. Could I have some settings messed up in the iMac?

The imac is the base line for 27 inch (3.2 GHz Intel core i3, 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3

The MacBook is (2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2

Any help would be much appreciated. I really hope the imac isn't slower than my old MacBook.

[Queso]

Wired or wireless? And how do you have the networking settings configured?

[o2xygen]

In no way is a '10 iMac slower than a '06 Macbook. You said the hard drive was connected via a network. Obviously you have a network problem or something else.

[Spanky Deluxe]

If they're both transferring through wireless then what is your signal strength. A lower signal strength will usually resort in a slower connection speed so downloads will be slower.

[Jnardis]

Both computers are wireless. How can I find out the speed for each computer? The external hard drive is plugged into an old PC that I have running 24/7. I log into the external hard drive by going to "connect server" function on the apple and I put the server address in and my un and pw. Thanks for the feedback so far.

[drambuie]

There's something very wrong, even with your faster Macbook's speed. At the normal wireless G 54Mbps speed, your 112MB file should transfer in less than 20 seconds. Your Macbook's transfer speed is about 10Mbps. Your iMac's speed is less than 2Mbps. That's lower than the average cable internet connection speed.

[TheBritishBloke]

Yeah it's a network problem not a computer problem. Most likely signal strength.

Wire it up see if you have the same problem

[Jnardis]

I just used testmyspeed.com and the download speed was 6024kbps and the upload speed was 1829kbps. Is there anything I can do? I can't live with taking 8 min to transfer one file. I have all my stuff stored on the external hard drive so this would drive me crazy.

[aliensporebomb]

I just used testmyspeed.com and the download speed was 6024kbps and the upload speed was 1829kbps. Is there anything I can do? I can't live with taking 8 min to transfer one file. I have all my stuff stored on the external hard drive so this would drive me crazy.

That's not referring to your computer-to-computer speed - it's referring to your internet service providers connection.

Your internet service provider gives you your outside connection.

Your inside connection pc-to-pc or mac-to-mac or pc-to-mac should be immensely faster.

[xraydoc]

I just used testmyspeed.com and the download speed was 6024kbps and the upload speed was 1829kbps. Is there anything I can do? I can't live with taking 8 min to transfer one file. I have all my stuff stored on the external hard drive so this would drive me crazy.

The speed test you just ran is your Internet connection speed, not the speed of your local area network (LAN).

We need more details about how your network is set up. What kind of wireless router? How is the PC connected (Ethernet 10Mbit, 100Mbit, 1Gbit)? The more details you can provide, the better.

[Jnardis]

I apologies for not giving all the info. I'm pretty new to all of this. I'm using a linksys wrt300N Wireless N router. The external hard drive is an hp and it's connected to an HP tablet via hard wire. I right clicked on the drive and pressed share on network. Once it's shared I was able to see the drive from other computers through the connect to server function on my imac. Any other info that could help?

[Spanky Deluxe]

How many bars of signal strength do you have on your iMac? Top right corner of screen. If it's more than your MacBook then there's your problem.

[Jnardis]

How many bars of signal strength do you have on your iMac? Top right corner of screen. If it's more than your MacBook then there's your problem.

Nope they are both at full strength.

[Warbitrary]

While transferring the file, what is the speed in Activity Monitor, under the Network pane?

[Jnardis]

data sent: 114.1MB
Data received/sec: 420KB

[Jnardis]

So after playing with imac for about 6 hours last nght I still wasn't able to figure my problem out. Apple doesn't have a program where they send someone to my house to help, right?

[Spanky Deluxe]

No they don't, you have to take it to an Apple store. You could try placing your MacBook next to your iMac and setting up an ad-hoc network between the two of them and then try transferring files. It's far more likely that the problem lies with your router.

[jmpage2]

So after playing with imac for about 6 hours last nght I still wasn't able to figure my problem out. Apple doesn't have a program where they send someone to my house to help, right?

Both of your devices show slow wireless performance with the iMac being particularly slow.

It is entirely possible that there is something wrong with your wireless router, I have had them fail before where the radio keeps resetting resulting in connection resets and slow transfer speeds.

As others have said, get a long ethernet cable and connect the computers directly to the router and verify that going over wired ethernet you get fast speeds. In fact, if file transfer is a big deal to you this would be a good thing to consider doing permanently. My iMac is connected via wired and with gigabit speeds I can transfer over 20 megabytes per second which makes moving around large files like video, a breeze.

Alternatively I would recommend that you buy another wireless router for testing purposes. Get one that has dual band "N" like the Netgear 3700. You should see blazing wireless speeds with it approaching 100 megabits per second.

You can always return the router to a Best Buy, etc, if it doesn't fix the problem.

It is entirely possible that there is some kind of driver or settings problem going on with your existing wireless, it just comes down to how hard you want to look to fix it.

One relatively easy thing you can try is going into the setup page of your router and try moving it to another radio band to see if that helps, you might be having interference problems, even if both Macs show full bars.

And yes, you CAN get someone out to help you with this, there are plenty of Geek Squad type support services if you are near a major metro that will come out and help you troubleshoot the issue, but typically you are looking at $150 minimum for such a service... far cheaper to buy a new top shelf router yourself and try a swapout as well as checking in the appropriate forums for further advice.

[Jnardis]

I thought the same thing regarding the problem is the router, but when I try to transfer files from another PC (Dell), the transfer is much quicker. So that made me think it was something to do with the iMac.

[jmpage2]

I thought the same thing regarding the problem is the router, but when I try to transfer files from another PC (Dell), the transfer is much quicker. So that made me think it was something to do with the iMac.

It is possible that the wireless network card in the iMac is not playing nicely with the model of router you have. Which again, would mean a router swap to a newer model, would be the fastest way to test. It is also possible that the wireless card in the Mac is defective, but I doubt this since you are also getting pretty poor speeds with the Macbook. In any event, swapping the router is easier than swapping out the Mac or hauling it in to the Apple Store.

[Jnardis]

Both of your devices show slow wireless performance with the iMac being particularly slow.

It is entirely possible that there is something wrong with your wireless router, I have had them fail before where the radio keeps resetting resulting in connection resets and slow transfer speeds.

As others have said, get a long ethernet cable and connect the computers directly to the router and verify that going over wired ethernet you get fast speeds. In fact, if file transfer is a big deal to you this would be a good thing to consider doing permanently. My iMac is connected via wired and with gigabit speeds I can transfer over 20 megabytes per second which makes moving around large files like video, a breeze.

Alternatively I would recommend that you buy another wireless router for testing purposes. Get one that has dual band "N" like the Netgear 3700. You should see blazing wireless speeds with it approaching 100 megabits per second.

You can always return the router to a Best Buy, etc, if it doesn't fix the problem.

It is entirely possible that there is some kind of driver or settings problem going on with your existing wireless, it just comes down to how hard you want to look to fix it.

One relatively easy thing you can try is going into the setup page of your router and try moving it to another radio band to see if that helps, you might be having interference problems, even if both Macs show full bars.

And yes, you CAN get someone out to help you with this, there are plenty of Geek Squad type support services if you are near a major metro that will come out and help you troubleshoot the issue, but typically you are looking at $150 minimum for such a service... far cheaper to buy a new top shelf router yourself and try a swapout as well as checking in the appropriate forums for further advice.



Thanks for the advice. So the netgear 3700 is the best router out there? I will pick one up tonight. It is a big deal to me since my external hard drives hold all my files and I would love to be able to tap into them and use any computer in the house.

[jmpage2]

Thanks for the advice. So the netgear 3700 is the best router out there? I will pick one up tonight. It is a big deal to me since my external hard drives hold all my files and I would love to be able to tap into them and use any computer in the house.

In my own personal experience this is the best consumer grade router on the market and the 3rd party testing and reviews seem to back this up.

Be aware that this router actually has two wireless radios built in. One is 5.4ghz "N" only and the other is a 2.4ghz radio that can do wireless B, G, N.

You will get the highest performance off of the Mac by connecting to the 5.4ghz wireless band (this one also has less interference typically), I'm not sure if the Mac supports dual radios so it can connect to both radios at the same time.

The other nice thing about this router is that it has four gigabit ethernet ports so you can connect some of your devices that way and get even better performance.

If you do get this router then make sure that you update the firmware on it and set up security on it. There's a setup wizard that should be pretty easy to use to get going. You will also want to name the two wireless networks separately. For example mine are named as follows;

"honeycomb-hideout-bgn"
"honeycomb-n"

Then you can simply add both of those wireless networks to all of your wireless devices. If you need more help troubleshooting after getting this router let me know, I'm pretty good at troubleshooting network issues since it's what I do for a living.

[Jnardis]

In my own personal experience this is the best consumer grade router on the market and the 3rd party testing and reviews seem to back this up.

Be aware that this router actually has two wireless radios built in. One is 5.4ghz "N" only and the other is a 2.4ghz radio that can do wireless B, G, N.

You will get the highest performance off of the Mac by connecting to the 5.4ghz wireless band (this one also has less interference typically), I'm not sure if the Mac supports dual radios so it can connect to both radios at the same time.

The other nice thing about this router is that it has four gigabit ethernet ports so you can connect some of your devices that way and get even better performance.

If you do get this router then make sure that you update the firmware on it and set up security on it. There's a setup wizard that should be pretty easy to use to get going. You will also want to name the two wireless networks separately. For example mine are named as follows;

"honeycomb-hideout-bgn"
"honeycomb-n"

Then you can simply add both of those wireless networks to all of your wireless devices. If you need more help troubleshooting after getting this router let me know, I'm pretty good at troubleshooting network issues since it's what I do for a living.

WOW - I can't thank you enough. I'm sure I will be asking some more questions after I purchase it. Thanks again. I assume my Linksys router isn't that great, right? I did buy it about 3 yearsa go. Out dated?

[jmpage2]

WOW - I can't thank you enough. I'm sure I will be asking some more questions after I purchase it. Thanks again. I assume my Linksys router isn't that great, right? I did buy it about 3 yearsa go. Out dated?

Yes, it is pretty outdated, but there may or may not be anything wrong with it.... it's just the single easiest thing to swap out since it is effectively the "heart" of your home network.

BB has the Netgear 3700 on sale for about $149 so I would say you should update the router, do some testing and get back to us. If it does not help remedy the situation you can always return it and get your money back.

[Jnardis]

Will do an TY so much!

[Aadhil]

Instead of the netgear; you could just get the latest Airport extreme for a hassle free experience.

[jmpage2]

The Airport Extreme is also an excellent choice. However it's about $50 more, but you make a good point that it's pretty painless to set up with a Mac. The Mac even handles the firmware updates for it automatically.

I don't have any first hand experience with them though.

[xraydoc]

The Airport Extreme is also an excellent choice. However it's about $50 more, but you make a good point that it's pretty painless to set up with a Mac. The Mac even handles the firmware updates for it automatically.

I don't have any first hand experience with them though.

Smooth as silk in my experience.

[npropes]

Also for your future info, if you hold down "ALT" and click on your airport icon, it will display the signal strength, connection speed, and all sorts of other diagnostic information for your wireless connection.

[Jnardis]

So I did some testing last night and not sure what to make of it. I tested another Dell laptop which was using wireless internet. The speed of transfer of the 110MB file took about 1 min and 3 seconds (noticeably faster than my iMac) but the same speed as my old Macbook. I can't put my finger on the problem, but if it was a router problem wouldn't all the computers perform around the same speed during transfers?

[Spanky Deluxe]

So I did some testing last night and not sure what to make of it. I tested another Dell laptop which was using wireless internet. The speed of transfer of the 110MB file took about 1 min and 3 seconds (noticeably faster than my iMac) but the same speed as my old Macbook. I can't put my finger on the problem, but if it was a router problem wouldn't all the computers perform around the same speed during transfers?

Not necessarily. Wireless routers are odd pieces of kit. They can behave highly erratically for no apparent reason and cheaper ones tend to die within about 18 months in my experience for no reason. It's as if they've got moving parts inside of them that fail (which obviously they do not). I keep meaning to replace my router that crashes out and acts erratically every now and again with an Apple Airport and a DSL modem but it's quite a lot of money to replace something that works ok 90% of the time already - I keep ending up buying other goodies instead.

Wireless signals can behave really quite strange anyway - different machines have different signal strengths and can support different speeds at varying strengths. Walls, bookshelves, humans and cats can all affect wireless signals in odd ways and so can weather conditions. If at all possible I would look at getting your iMac connected to your router with a hard wire since I'm guessing the iMac's not going to be moving around much anyway. The cable's dirt cheap and you can get connectors, crimping tools and cable testers for peanuts on eBay so that you can make any length that you want (it really is easy). That's what I did. You can probably get a crimper, cable tester, 100 ends and 50m of cable or so for about $30 and you'll then be able to make ethernet cables of whatever length you could possibly want.

[Jnardis]

I was thinking about the hard wire option, but my office is in one part of the house and the iMac (in the living room) is in the othe rpart of the house. Would have to go throughr 4 rooms. Won't look that great. LOL

[Jnardis]

I updated to the Netgear 3700 and am using the cool function of readyshare (hooked up my external hard drive to the router) and the speed is still very very slow. 100MB file is taking 12 min to transfer. Could the problem be the computer?

[xraydoc]

I updated to the Netgear 3700 and am using the cool function of readyshare (hooked up my external hard drive to the router) and the speed is still very very slow. 100MB file is taking 12 min to transfer. Could the problem be the computer?

Something is not configured correctly, clearly. I doubt it's a hardware problem if you're actually able to transfer files, albeit slowly. No, there's something wrong with your network/airport settings.

I'm not at my Mac right now (iPad) to look up the exact steps, but I suggest making a new "location" in the network panel, switch to it, and then try reconnecting to your wireless network. You'll have to reenter the network's password at this point. The new location profile will have all the OS's default settings; perhaps you inadvertently changed something at some point that resulting in the slow throughput you're experiencing.

I had a situation where, for no reason I could discover, my laptop wouldn't connect to my wife's Verizon MiFi hotspot modem, yet every other wifi-enabled device we had was able to without problem. It saw the network name, but it would time-out after entering the password. I created a new location profile and retried connecting. Bingo. Connected successfully on the first try. I know this isn't the exact situation you have, but it's worth a try.

[HLdan]

I was thinking about the hard wire option, but my office is in one part of the house and the iMac (in the living room) is in the othe rpart of the house. Would have to go throughr 4 rooms. Won't look that great. LOL

I updated to the Netgear 3700 and am using the cool function of readyshare (hooked up my external hard drive to the router) and the speed is still very very slow. 100MB file is taking 12 min to transfer. Could the problem be the computer?

You would easily narrow down the problem if you just took your own advice about hard wiring it just to test the speed. So what if it's an inconvenience, you do want to find out what's going on right?

[G-Force]

To find out your signal strength and connection speed, press and hold the Option key and click the AirPort icon in the menubar. Please make a screenshot of both the MacBook and the iMac. Make sure your router is not too far away from your iMac because the antenna in the iMac needs a really strong signal because there's way too much aluminum around it.

The WiFi reception on my '07 plastic MacBook is MUCH better than my '09 27" iMac.

[Jnardis]

To find out your signal strength and connection speed, press and hold the Option key and click the AirPort icon in the menubar. Please make a screenshot of both the MacBook and the iMac. Make sure your router is not too far away from your iMac because the antenna in the iMac needs a really strong signal because there's way too much aluminum around it.

The WiFi reception on my '07 plastic MacBook is MUCH better than my '09 27" iMac.

I'm pretty far from the router since it's based in my home office and the imac is in the living room. Same floor, but kinda far. When I hard wired the imac the transfer was very quick. Here are the screen shots: The one on the left is the iMac and the one on the right is the MacBook.

[G-Force]

Did you try using 2,4 GHz instead of 5 GHz?

The RSSI value is not good, the closer to -100 the weaker the signal is. My MacBook currently has a RSSI value of -51. The transmit rate is also too low for an 802.11n network.

It just looks like the iMac is out of range, combine that with the antenna of the iMac being almost completely enclosed by aluminum. I guess you have two options, move the router closer to the iMac and at least use 2,4 GHz, or use a cable. You can also try experimenting with channels.

[bolen]

2.4GHz goes further than 5GHz and since you have like 4 rooms in between I would suggest that you use the 2.4GHz mode. The best solution is hands down to follow Spanky Deluxe's tip and get a real wire, get one without any connectors (like he said) and just get it up there. No more hassles.

Also regarding the readyshare or whatever it was called, those functionalities tends to be very slow since the CPU in the router isn't made for robust file sharing services, works OK for backups mostly.

[Jnardis]

2.4GHz goes further than 5GHz and since you have like 4 rooms in between I would suggest that you use the 2.4GHz mode. The best solution is hands down to follow Spanky Deluxe's tip and get a real wire, get one without any connectors (like he said) and just get it up there. No more hassles.

Also regarding the readyshare or whatever it was called, those functionalities tends to be very slow since the CPU in the router isn't made for robust file sharing services, works OK for backups mostly.

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually switch to the 2.4GHz last night and it seemed a bit faster. I assumed the 5GHz was better than 2,4GHz. I don't know much about these things so I assumed the higher the number the better. Do they make bridges or anything where I can make the signal stronger in other parts of the house? I can't move my modem bcs my home office is where I NEED the speed and the living room is where I would like to have speed. I'm thinking of returning the netgear and going back to my Linksys and then spending the money on a bridge is there is anything out there. I might sound stubborn regarding the hard wire, but the house is brand new and I really don't want to start drilling holes in the walls etc.

[jmpage2]

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually switch to the 2.4GHz last night and it seemed a bit faster. I assumed the 5GHz was better than 2,4GHz. I don't know much about these things so I assumed the higher the number the better. Do they make bridges or anything where I can make the signal stronger in other parts of the house? I can't move my modem bcs my home office is where I NEED the speed and the living room is where I would like to have speed. I'm thinking of returning the netgear and going back to my Linksys and then spending the money on a bridge is there is anything out there. I might sound stubborn regarding the hard wire, but the house is brand new and I really don't want to start drilling holes in the walls etc.

Apparently the newer Macs don't have the capability of running in dual N mode. With wireless N in dual mode you can see speeds of close to 100Mb/s. Which means a 10MB file would transfer in a second or two at most.

Are you running any old legacy 802.11b devices on the wireless network? These will have the affect of slowing all of the other devices on the same wireless network down to paltry 802.11b speeds when they are communicating. The 5ghz band is preferable to the 2.4ghz band as it is less susceptible to interference and can be programmed in the 3700 to operate as an 'N only' band. 5ghz does have lower range but usually you can still get 30-40 feet from it and get decent connection speeds.

It seems to me as though you are not getting the real throughput of 802.11n regardless of how far you have the iMac from the base station.

Try shutting off all other wireless devices in the home for testing purposes and see if this improves the throughput.

There are wireless repeaters but as you can see they get mixed reviews themselves. They will only affect the situation if your problem is one of a weak signal. If the problem is interference, cross-talk, slow old devices jamming up your network or other issues, they will not remedy it at all.

Honestly, the cost of running CAT5e is not as high as you think. You can get a single run between two locations installed, typically for $100, or even better yet order some bulk cable, and the appropriate tools and learn to do it yourself. If there is an attic or basement that is accessible at both locations then installation is a breeze. Then you can put a gigabit switch at the iMac location and plug it in to the gigabit ports on the 3700 and have a gigabit wired network between the two locations which will eliminate any and all wireless problems you might have.

[bolen]

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually switch to the 2.4GHz last night and it seemed a bit faster. I assumed the 5GHz was better than 2,4GHz. I don't know much about these things so I assumed the higher the number the better. Do they make bridges or anything where I can make the signal stronger in other parts of the house? I can't move my modem bcs my home office is where I NEED the speed and the living room is where I would like to have speed. I'm thinking of returning the netgear and going back to my Linksys and then spending the money on a bridge is there is anything out there. I might sound stubborn regarding the hard wire, but the house is brand new and I really don't want to start drilling holes in the walls etc.

The 5GHz is faster, but is more sensitive to obstacles in the middle. 2.4GHz on the other hand is plagued by interference from other household appliances, such as microwaves, cordless phones, bluetooth accessories, tv's and almost all kind of wireless equipment that is running on RF.

Yes, you could buy an accesspoint or two and configure it/them as bridges(repeaters). That should help, unfortunately it's really hard to know how much.

If the house is brand new I would expect there to be a lot of tubing/pipes for cables inside the walls. Can you use those?

[aliensporebomb]

The only downside is realize that if you have cordless phones that operate in the 2.4 ghz band in the area when you receive or make a call you will drop wireless.

I ran into that with one of our users a while back and it was confounding since we were on the other end of a phone line and they'd only drop connections when making or receiving a phone call. Took a few seconds to put two and two together.

[Jnardis]

I think I might know the problem. In between the iMac and the router is a pretty large closet where all my electronics are ran from. All my TVs, gaming systems, surround sound in all rooms etc are all based in this closet. I'm assuming there is A LOT of traffic between the router and then iMac. When I try to transfer files from the external hard drive to the MacBook, the file transfer is pretty quick while I'm in the room where the router is and it starts to get hung up once I leave that room and get near the closet. Also the iMac is right near a 50 inch TV that is controled wirelessly from the closte as well.

[archipellago]

lol..what a thread!

macs just work..?

OP seeing as the problem has only happened with the iMac, why not just get rid of it and go back to what worked before (and works now) i.e. Dell?

so far, the OP has bought an overpriced computer, another router and now someone is suggesting that he gets the house wired with cat 5 for "only $100"

all this for something that just works!!!!

you guys live in fantasy land...what a joke.

OP, good luck with whatever you do, you will deserve it.

[jmpage2]

lol..what a thread!

macs just work..?

OP seeing as the problem has only happened with the iMac, why not just get rid of it and go back to what worked before (and works now) i.e. Dell?

so far, the OP has bought an overpriced computer, another router and now someone is suggesting that he gets the house wired with cat 5 for "only $100"

all this for something that just works!!!!

you guys live in fantasy land...what a joke.

OP, good luck with whatever you do, you will deserve it.

Are you actually here to participate in this thread or just doing a 'drive by' in which you try to insult Mac users?

Networking is relatively complicated topic and I've seen home networks that were screwed up beyond belief. It may or may not have anything to do with the Mac being involved that there is a problem.

And yes, you can get a single CAT5e drop installed by commercial installers typically for $100 per run under 20 meters. Seeing as I work with these types of people professionally I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. :rolleyes:

Macs DO work, but the quality of the Mac software has little to do with the quality of a users wireless network. Perhaps the Dell just happened to have the same wireless chipset as the OPs router resulting in it 'working' whereas the Macs use a different chipset in which case there can be additional issues.

I think you are someone who knows little about technology, less about Macs, nothing about networking but likes to conduct character assassination on Apple users.

[aliensporebomb]

My own setup I have all my computers and my wifes computer connected together via gigabit ethernet even though we also do wireless for those devices.

I must say transfer from one mac to another at those speeds is wonderful.

[xraydoc]

lol..

wharrgarble, wharrgarble, wharrgarlble...

Obvious troll is obvious.

Yeah, and Dells just work so well they just settled a lawsuit regarding the shipment of hundreds of thousands of motherboards known to be defective.