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Why does 5ghz Wifi Suck on MacBook Air and other Apple Devices

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dwmreg

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2007
86
13
I've noted a lot of problems with 5ghz wireless in my home. I don't know the root cause as of yet and so I was wondering if any of you experience the problem I'm having.

It is very noticeable on my MacBook Air. I'll be using it and I'll have drop outs - the signal strength indicator is good, but the wifi performance slows to a crawl or just flat out stops. Safari stops loading pages, Mac App Store downloads stop or slow to a crawl. If I switch to the other band everything goes back to normal and it is fast again. I don't ever see any issues on the non-5ghz band.

I've seen the same problem on my iPhone 5.

I'm using a 4th gen Time Capsule and a 4th Gen Airport Extreme. Both with the latest firmware.
 
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dwmreg

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2007
86
13
Distance

I'm in home without lead painted walls - as my friend joked which is under 2000 square feet. No signal strength issues I have full bars and two access points. Doubt its a distance issue since it happens any where in the house.
 
M

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
Other than signal strength u want to look at signal quality or signal to noise or whatever they call it in the Apple world. This number tells u how noisy your environment is.
 
drsox

drsox

macrumors 68000
Apr 29, 2011
1,706
201
Xhystos
dwmreg said:
I've noted a lot of problems with 5ghz wireless in my home. I don't know the root cause as of yet and so I was wondering if any of you experience the problem I'm having.

It is very noticeable on my MacBook Air. I'll be using it and I'll have drop outs - the signal strength indicator is good, but the wifi performance slows to a crawl or just flat out stops. Safari stops loading pages, Mac App Store downloads stop or slow to a crawl. If I switch to the other band everything goes back to normal and it is fast again. I don't ever see any issues on the non-5ghz band.

I've seen the same problem on my iPhone 5.

I'm using a 4th gen Time Capsule and a 4th Gen Airport Extreme. Both with the latest firmware.
Click to expand...

I've seen this too but it seems to happen only when I'm connected to an AE that is transmitting different protocols on the 2.4Ghz and the 5Ghz bands. If the AE is transmitting WiFi n on both, then it seems to be OK. If I only have the 5Ghz n listed in my MBA Networking, then it's also better.

I get better data rates on the 5Ghz n but it depends on which AE I'm connected to. As I have an iPhone 4S and a WiFi Camera I have to maintain a 2.4Ghz non-n protocol (unfortunately).
 
R

RolledUp20s

macrumors regular
Jun 14, 2011
243
0
Wrexham, North Wales
I had this issue using a net gear n300. 5ghz was pants in the kitchen, next room. I just used 2.4ghz in the end, much more reliable and faster. Weird

That's on my mac air 2011
 
S

stchman

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2012
671
2
St. Louis, MO
The 2012 MBA uses a Broadcom 43xx from everything I have read, it is NOT a dual band card. It can use 5GHz wireless connections from what I understand, but you need to select the proper channel.
 
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