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iDevice's WiFi Speed Always Slow Compared to Computer?

gmanist1000

gmanist1000

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 22, 2009
2,884
937
So ever since I had the original iPhone 3G, my SpeedTest results on my WiFi network have always been much slower than when on my computer. Now I know that it's a problem somewhere in the way my Internet is setup, but I have no clue where. So here is some information for people who might know the problem.

-I have Qwest Internet, my package is the 20 Mbps download, and .8 Mbps upload.
-The Qwest modem is in bridge mode and a Time Capsule and Airport Express are connected to it via ethernet.
-The Time Capsule is running in 2.4GHz and 5GHz mode
-The Airport Express is running in 2.4GHz mode

Here are some screenshots from all my devices, you'll notice the speed is similar on the iDevices, but from a computer it is what it should be.

Computer

Screen Shot 2011-10-18 at 10.53.11 AM.png

iPad

ipad.PNG

iPhone

photo.PNG

So as I said, I am wondering what the problem is here. There must be some setting somewhere in there that is restricting my iDevices to get the quicker speed. I know from experience that when I am connected to other WiFi networks, I have seen the speed jump as high as 15 Mbps, so I know they are capable of reaching that high.

Thanks for your suggestions!
 
To be honest, I don't think it is the way it's set up...

there is an inherent upper limit on the iPhones ability to send and receive data, perfect example my 3GS speed tests at about 3meg on broadband, the 4s speed tests closer to 7meg.

I really wouldn't worry, besides which what are you going to download to the iPhone that needs all 20 meg of your broadband connection?
 
One data point here, so take it for what it's worth, but I don't see a "universal" slowdown on computer vs. iPhone.

My network is Cox cable modem connected to Apple AirPort Extreme. Two computers (Win7 and OSX Lion) connected via Gigabit Ethernet through a switch to the Airport. iPhone 4 (iOS5) connected via WiFi. I did not sanitize network traffic for a "true" no-load test, but I ran each 3 times round-robin style to account for possible other traffic on my network.

PC:
Ping 26ms, down 12.91Mbps, up 9.22Mbps
Ping 25ms, down 14.73Mbps, up 9.12Mbps
Ping 25ms, down 14.63Mbps, up 9.00Mbps

Mac:
Ping 33ms, down 12.66Mbps, up 8.63Mbps
Ping 34ms, down 13.04Mbps, up 8.36Mbps
Ping 34ms, down 12.75Mbps, up 8.45Mbps

iPhone:
Ping 143ms, down 11.11Mbps, up 8.66Mbps
Ping 170ms, down 13.22Mbps, up 14.41Mbps
Ping 152ms, down 13.74Mbps, up 15.01Mbps
 
Weird, I found the 4S to be my fastest wifi device. My best speed test on it was over 20 Mbps but my MacBook pro is usually about half that.

Maybe the speed test server is not consistent?
 
Merax said:
Maybe the speed test server is not consistent?
Click to expand...

The problem with this is that I've been having the same problems with my original iPhone 3G, back in 2008. I don't think the server could be having problems for that long!

----------
moel said:
I really wouldn't worry, besides which what are you going to download to the iPhone that needs all 20 meg of your broadband connection?
Click to expand...

Downloading large apps, and backing up to iCloud mostly, lol!
 
gmanist1000 said:
The problem with this is that I've been having the same problems with my original iPhone 3G, back in 2008. I don't think the server could be having problems for that long!
Click to expand...

Try turning off your airport express and re-run the test. Maybe there's some switching or negotiation between the two routers that's slowing it down.

Wifi is tricky to test consistently because so many things can affect it (multiple devices with varying usage, relative position and orientation of devices, antenna types, weather, interference, etc).
 
I have a 50mb internet package and this is what I get on my IPhone 4 upstairs. The router is located downstairs not directly below my room.


d7a1612a.jpg
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

On my 4S, I just got this: ping 23ms, download 26.49 Mbps, upload 11.87 Mbps. This is with Cox Cable's premiere package (20 Mbps) and last year's Airport Extreme.
 
Merax said:
Try turning off your airport express and re-run the test. Maybe there's some switching or negotiation between the two routers that's slowing it down.

Wifi is tricky to test consistently because so many things can affect it (multiple devices with varying usage, relative position and orientation of devices, antenna types, weather, interference, etc).
Click to expand...

Same results. It HAS to be something internal in my network that is slowing my iDevices down.

----------
Frenchjay said:
I have a 50mb internet package and this is what I get on my IPhone 4 upstairs. The router is located downstairs not directly below my room.


d7a1612a.jpg
Click to expand...

See, I knew it was capable of the speeds. Wish I knew what the issue was.
 
Weird because I have the 10mb Package and I just got 20mbps on my iPhone and 17mbps on the computer...

Maybe Cox upgraded my speed. :rolleyes:
 
I have the exact same issue - I'm on Comcast in Denver and my results:

All devices hitting my D-Link DIR-655 router on 802.11n:

Mac - 9ms ping / 20.53Mbps down / 3.90 Mbps up
iPhone - 18ms / 2.45Mbps / 3.76 Mbps
iPad - 22ms / 2.19 Mbps / 3.78 Mbps

nearly 10x slower? :confused:
 
inklight said:
I have the exact same issue - I'm on Comcast in Denver and my results:

All devices hitting my D-Link DIR-655 router on 802.11n:

Mac - 9ms ping / 20.53Mbps down / 3.90 Mbps up
iPhone - 18ms / 2.45Mbps / 3.76 Mbps
iPad - 22ms / 2.19 Mbps / 3.78 Mbps

nearly 10x slower? :confused:
Click to expand...

Interesting, I'm in Colorado too... maybe it's our altitude? :p
 
What kind of routers are you guys using? Make sure it's at least 802.11n and running on channel 6. I've noticed my iOS devices don't work very well on anything above that. It won't give you super fast speeds that'll rival your Macs but it should help. I can only reach 15mpbs on my iPhone 4, 25 on my 4S and about 40 on my Galaxy S. Kind of funny actually :p
 
Try following these points on here!

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4199

Also there was something I found out before which increased the speed on my IPhone 4. My router has 802.11n settings that have 3 options.

54mb

154mb

300mb

These are the connection rates that it supports. Mine was changed from 300mb to 154b and that seemed to improve the speed on my IPhone quite significantly.
 
I have 50mb Internet. The best my 4s has got is 35.55 down and 3.59 up. I've noticed if I've been using a lot of apps and have a lot of tabs open in Safari it test significantly lower.
 
Service from midcocontinent and using airport extreme.

imac download speeds: 29.85 Mbs upload 5.1 Mbs
Iphone 4 with ios5: 25 Mbs/5.1 Mbs
Ipad 1 with ios5: 26 Mbs/5.0 Mbs
 
Frenchjay said:
Try following these points on here!

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4199

Also there was something I found out before which increased the speed on my IPhone 4. My router has 802.11n settings that have 3 options.

54mb

154mb

300mb

These are the connection rates that it supports. Mine was changed from 300mb to 154b and that seemed to improve the speed on my IPhone quite significantly.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that link, I will test it out.
 
Somebody shod post screenshots or something of the set ups they have on their airports or other routers.
My iP4 only get 2 up at best on wifi. I even tried to use the guest account (airport extreme) for my phone only to no avail. Now that I know iPhone. An handle 50up, I know I could do better than 2.

Come on people! Let's share those settings!

Also, for those that didn't know, you can DL airport utility off iTunes and admin your router from your iOS device.

Comes in handy...
 
Frenchjay said:
Try following these points on here!

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4199

Also there was something I found out before which increased the speed on my IPhone 4. My router has 802.11n settings that have 3 options.

54mb

154mb

300mb

These are the connection rates that it supports. Mine was changed from 300mb to 154b and that seemed to improve the speed on my IPhone quite significantly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link - I have tried all these suggestions as well as every other option I can find from googling this issue - still encountering a top d/l speed of about 2-3Mbps on both my iPhone and iPad compared to the 20+Mbps on my Mac. I've tried every combination of g only, n only, b/g/n, g/n, etc. and every channel, have tried disabling the QOS Engine on my router, etc. etc. etc. Nothing helps.

Very frustrating seeing others having no problem getting their full wifi capability and being so crippled.

For those of you with blazing speed - what kind of routers/settings do you have?
 
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