Why is iPod touch internet so slow?

[yorkshire]

I've been looking around for answers to this but haven't found much. Does anyone know why iPhone/iPod touch internet is so slow? (in comparison to internet on a computer)

I remember at WWDC Steve was comparing 3g to Wifi and he opened a page where it was something like 17 seconds for Wifi and 20 seconds for 3g. Now I know that's a big improvement over edge, but its still very slow, only just bareable to use IMO. Does anyone know why it takes an iPhone 17 seconds to load a page over Wifi, whereas a computer using the same Wifi connection takes 1-2 seconds?

I realise it could be to do with page rendering, but these devices have fairly nippy processors in them. I remember the first PC I had with dial up internet and a slow processor, about 10 years ago, was slow to load up pages, but still quicker than my iPod touch over Wifi.




So could someone please explain this to me once and for all. Thanks. And sorry if this has come up in another thread, don't bite my head off over it.

[iSaygoodbye]

a laptop has a better signal picker upper so it loads it faster. i think :P

[yorkshire]

I think the touch has 802.11 B so it should still be quick, I used the app for measuring download speed (forgotten what its called) and it gave me around 2MB/S. Yet using touch internet sure doesn't feel like 2MB/S.

[aethelbert]

The RAM and CPU place limitations on how quickly it can render pages. Downloading files, though gets closer to the maximum speed.

[anti-microsoft]

A Mac uses AirPort Wireless Cards that are better than the integrated wireless in iPods and iPhones. Newer Mac's have 802.11n built-in, iPhones and iPods use 802.11b and 802.11g.

Ams.

[yorkshire]

Originally Posted by anti-microsoft

A Mac uses AirPort Wireless Cards that are better than the integrated wireless in iPods and iPhones. Newer Mac's have 802.11n built-in, iPhones and iPods use 802.11b and 802.11g.

Ams.

My old dell only had 802.11 B/G, yet it was only marginally slower than my MacBook. It was far quicker than the touch.

[crazzyeddie]

It is totally dependent on the CPU/RAM in portable devices. The power is limited and so it takes a while to load everything. Simple as that.

[Love]

The lowered power simply makes things slower to render.

[aethelbert]

Originally Posted by anti-microsoft

A Mac uses AirPort Wireless Cards that are better than the integrated wireless in iPods and iPhones. Newer Mac's have 802.11n built-in, iPhones and iPods use 802.11b and 802.11g.

The vast majority of internet connections cannot take full advantage of 802.11g, let alone n.

[ericlmercer]

I was having the same problem on my 5th gen iPod Touch... Changing my DNS server seems to have fixed this issue for me:

To do this, go into your iPod's Settings->Wi-Fi then click on your active wifi hotspot's blue arrow icon. Find "DNS" and after noting the address found there (in case you prefer to revert back to it later), click on it and substitute one of Googles two Public DNS addresses (you can use either 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4). This fixed it immediately for me.

You can download Cisco's app "Gist" (from AppStore) to measure your Wi-Fi throughput before and after. I went from 365 kbps to a respectable 7900 kbps after making the change.

If it doesn't seem to work immediately after applying the fix, try using Safari & surfing somewhere after changing the DNS addr. (I went to Google.com then to "Images" using the link found there, then tried the Gist app again). This was only necessary once in several tests.

Anyway, I was able to reliably recreate the problem by reverting back to my old DNS settings where I found myself again at 365 kbps. Google's DNS address brought me back to 7900 each time. Hope this helps.... - e

[Thetonyk123]

Originally Posted by ericlmercer

I was having the same problem on my 5th gen iPod Touch... Changing my DNS server seems to have fixed this issue for me:

To do this, go into your iPod's Settings->Wi-Fi then click on your active wifi hotspot's blue arrow icon. Find "DNS" and after noting the address found there (in case you prefer to revert back to it later), click on it and substitute one of Googles two Public DNS addresses (you can use either 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4). This fixed it immediately for me.

You can download Cisco's app "Gist" (from AppStore) to measure your Wi-Fi throughput before and after. I went from 365 kbps to a respectable 7900 kbps after making the change.

If it doesn't seem to work immediately after applying the fix, try using Safari & surfing somewhere after changing the DNS addr. (I went to Google.com then to "Images" using the link found there, then tried the Gist app again). This was only necessary once in several tests.

Anyway, I was able to reliably recreate the problem by reverting back to my old DNS settings where I found myself again at 365 kbps. Google's DNS address brought me back to 7900 each time. Hope this helps.... - e

I think these people solved the problem by now. The thread is almost 4 years old.

[ericlmercer]

Originally Posted by Thetonyk123

I think these people solved the problem by now. The thread is almost 4 years old.

Thanks. I do realize this thread's 4 years old, but I'd looked here as well as in the Apple Community Forums because that's what Google provided in response to my query. I'd found no answers in either to this issue that I was experiencing on my iPod 5th, purchased just last month. This solution did fix it however, so I wanted anyone having similar issues as mine to know this might help them as well.

Can you direct me to a thread where there's a fix, save for switching the router radio to 'g' or hoping in an update to iOS 6.0, neither of which worked for me?

[Thetonyk123]

To switch your router radio to g it should be a setting in your router home page. Which brand router do you have?