Where is my bottle neck?

I have having occasional (not severe) breaks in the music stream from Vermont Public Radio. The web site permits streaming at two bandwidths, one called high speed and one dial up. I have quite fast internet access from Comcast via supplied cable modem. From the modem I go to a Time Capsule. I have an Air Express (2011) that connects to the TC wirelessly. The AE connects to my stereo receiver with a wired connection to a phono plug. I use a MacBook Air with 4 gigs ram and Firefox to connect to the public radio web site and stream the music.

I have occasional 1-2 second silent periods.

Any suggestions? I could fairly easily connect the AE to the TC with ethernet cable if that would improve things.

20.71 Mb/s Download
2.78 Mb/s Upload
35 ms latency

Thank you that is very helpful. I will give it a try later today. Am I correct that a test with my Air Express connected to my Time Capsule via ethernet and with my computer connected to my Time Capsule via ethernet that would also serve to tease out a problem with my internal wifi performance?? Is it possible to connect the Air Express to the Time Capsule via ethernet cable?

What is latency anyway? I do notice that these numbers vary depending on when I do the test and which server I select.

Does my in house connection to the internet affect these results? I am using what seems to be a good strong wireless connection through a Time Capsule.


Here two tests using two different servers this AM. The latency is up a bit - around 40.

I will do some testing here and see if I get this problem running itunes alone - that will tell me a lot.

It is interesting though because there have been times when I did have numbers like yours. It varies a lot.

I spent some time playing iTunes using airplay from my laptop to the Air Express via wireless and I am having the same problem. So it appears that the problem is related to the hardware and software in my house - not my internet connection. Do any of you have a suggestion about how to go about making the diagnosis?

This is my set up --- stereo receiver connected to air express via wire - air express connected to time capsule via wireless. Time capsule/air express connected to iphones and laptops via wireless. iMac attached to time capsule via ethernet.

Ok. Not sure I am skilled enough to start making manual changes in the settings - but I will give it a try. This will take some time - I need to pull some wire from the time capsule in one room to the air express in the next room. Maybe this weekend.

On the other hand - should I not be able to expect that with standard wireless set up the system will be robust enough to stream music? Even if it is wired to the TC I want to be able to stream wirelessly from my laptop and iphone.

Update

I made a change in the Air Express settings and so far today it appears the issue may be resolved. I changed the "network mode" from "extend" to "join" a wireless network. So far so good.

I assume the difference is that the AE will not send or receive direct from my laptops and iphones and that they will send the music via the time capsule??

Whatever, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping its this easy.

Don't think it is the isp. Problem occurs even when playing music from itunes - ie. not streaming.

The problems are recurrent - not as bad - but still issues.

EDIT: Not so fast - yesterday and today the evening speed results are awful - check this out:

http://speedtest.net/result/2331882461.png

UPDATE - I discovered this AM that the slow speeds are evident when my machine is inadvertently connected to an older wireless access point down in the basement which I am now going to disconnect. Could well have been the source of my troubles. Using my TC as the wireless the speeds are up to snuff.