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Internet and network performance questions

E

el-John-o

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 29, 2010
1,600
794
Missouri
Hey all,

Okay so I got my new iPhone 4 today, lovin it! One question though, various speed tests on WiFi I get speeds around 5.5Mbps down, 1.5mbps up, on any other computers on the network, it's 10-12mbps down, 1.5mbps up. Any reason why the iPhones download speed would be half as much?

Secondly, is there a way to determine if it's actually utilizing wireless N? How about what speed it's connecting? My router is a dual band so supposedly is supports simultaneous Wireless G and Wireless N connections (everything is Wireless G except for my iPhone), not a big deal or anything, just curious. (That's obviously not the internet issue though, even if it was on Wireless G thats 5 times the speed of my internet connection)

Thanks!



John
 
Even with a 12mb connection, your send/receive speed might be a lot slower in real life. The server you connect to might be slow, or any of the internet connections between you and the servers could be slow. Also, a loose connector, or a corroded connector on your physical connection could slow you down. Your router could be a factor, along with your modem. Or your providor could be having issues.
If you run a speed test app you can select different servers and see what speeds you get. In my case, the closest server is not the fastest server.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedtest/id286356274?mt=8
or
http://itunes.apple.com/app/speedtest-net-mobile-speed/id300704847?mt=8
There are some more free apps available.
 
My Internet connection at home is 5-6mbs down and 1.5 up. My old laptop gets great speeds and pings, but my iPhone 4 never gets over 2mbps down or 1mbps up and pings 400+ and that's standing right next to my new N router.

I have also come to the conclusion that the iPhones networking is pretty poor.
 
TITNTUFF said:
Even with a 12mb connection, your send/receive speed might be a lot slower in real life. The server you connect to might be slow, or any of the internet connections between you and the servers could be slow. Also, a loose connector, or a corroded connector on your physical connection could slow you down. Your router could be a factor, along with your modem. Or your providor could be having issues.
If you run a speed test app you can select different servers and see what speeds you get. In my case, the closest server is not the fastest server.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedtest/id286356274?mt=8
or
http://itunes.apple.com/app/speedtest-net-mobile-speed/id300704847?mt=8
There are some more free apps available.
Click to expand...

The problem with that is, all of my other devices get 10-12 down using the same speedtests, locations, servers, etc.

Also, nobody has answered the question of how to determine if I am on 'N' or not, is there a way?
 
The iPhone supports 2.4ghz "N" only, so you would need your router to be set to broadcast on that frequency. Also, name your N differently than your G, this way you can choose which one you connect to.

My iPhone goes through my G frequency, but my iPad supports the 5ghz N so I leave it set to 5ghz for better performance on the iPad. (Using an AEBS router)

Edit: The Apple TV 2 also supports the 5ghz N band, so iPad & ATV2 are using N, everything else is using G.
 
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OP you are comparing a full blown computer to a cell phone. At some point you have to take into consideration that the iphone is cpu/ram limited by how fast it can write information down.
 
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I noticed my iPhone gets better speeds and pings running in G rather than N mode. So I run my 5ghz network in N mode for computers and G on my 2.4ghz for our iPhones. Works great.
 
I get the same speed on the iPhone as my laptop and desktop. But on the iPhone the latency/ping is much higher.
 
Hey all,

Okay, Wireless G is faster than my 10 meg speed, even with wireless G I would get full speed internet. I also know of folks who achieve speeds faster than 5mbps. The question about Wireless N was simply if there was a way to see if I was utilizing it, out of curiosity.

I think it's safe to assume that the iPhone 4 is capable of higher than 5mbps speeds, so it should easily be able to handle my internet connectivity.

Edit: My router only supports N over 5GHz, so indeed the iPhone is on G. Fact remains that it's performing half as fast as it should be.
 
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Try a narrow channel on your G band, also try different channels to see if you are running into interferance with other G band equipment near you.
 
stisdal said:
Try a narrow channel on your G band, also try different channels to see if you are running into interferance with other G band equipment near you.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I've already tried both. :/. I guess it's not a big deal, I mean it's fast enough, just annoying that my old windows mobile 6.1 phone could handle it, and who likes to spend money and lose functionality?
 
At my home we use two air port extreme's that are set up in dual mode. They both broadcast in 2.4G, 2.4N and 5N. They all have different names and are set up where you know which one you are connected to. For some reason the IPhones in my family don't play well with the N network nor does my daughters Ipad. They are very inconsistent and just do not perform very well. My other Mac's love the N network, both the 2.4 or the 5. So it's something in the OS of these systems in my opinion that does not agree with the N network at all. I have tried several people's N networks and have got the same results. I get more accurate and consistent numbers on the G network. Not as fast but more accurate and dependable. Thats just my .02 cents.
 
This ought to shut you guys up

Connected to a wifi router directly connected to a T3 line

Test Date: December 5, 2010 4:22 PM
Connection Type: WiFi
Server: Los Angeles, CA
Download: 12.20 Mbps
Upload: 11.44 Mbps
Ping: 61 ms

External IP:*
Internal IP:*
Latitude:*
Longitude: *

A detailed image for this result can be found here:

http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/76428923.png
76428923.png
Click to expand...
 
ItsJustafnPhone said:
This ought to shut you guys up

Connected to a wifi router directly connected to a T3 line
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that's with your iPhone?

Also, to COMPLETELY debunk the MYTH that 12mbits of performance is too fast for the iPhone (it's not, lots of stuff happens alot faster, it's fine).

I dusted off an old laptop I had sitting in a closet, still works! Plugged it in to ethernet (no wi-fi back in the day)

11.62 down, 1.6MB up. Nearly identical (and within the margin of error) to the test run on my rig listed in my signature.

The specs of this laptop:

266MHz Pentium II
32MB SDRAM (I think SDRAM anyway, I don't remember, she's old!)
10/100 Ethernet used for connection to the router
Windows 95 OSR2
4MB ATi Graphics card (800x600 resolution on the LCD display)
Original battery still gives me an hour of battery life. My mind is blown, considering it's been sitting in a closet, and my CURRENT laptop, one with a dual-core Turion CPU and 4GB of RAM, has 25 minutes of battery life, as it's shot after a couple of years! lol, fail!!

Anyway, yes, the iPhone is capable of full speed. Even over wireless G (54mbps, same room as the router). So I am still perplexed as to why it's not performing as fast as all of my other devices, I even tried my old Cingular 8125, running PocketPC 2003, it was like 9 down and 1 up I think, usuing speakeasy, but that's still faster than the iPhone!

/Fail.


-John
 
Just took a SpeedTest, mine works fine? I'm assuming it has something to do with your router if you're not getting the proper results. I'm using a NetGear WNDR3700 at the moment. Btw, how the hell does one have 11MBPS as an upload speed, the highest offered here is 3. >.>
 

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Goldinboy17 said:
Just took a SpeedTest, mine works fine? I'm assuming it has something to do with your router if you're not getting the proper results. I'm using a NetGear WNDR3700 at the moment. Btw, how the hell does one have 11MBPS as an upload speed, the highest offered here is 3. >.>
Click to expand...

His is T3 (which is a type of ISDN am I correct?) either way, it's a more commercially oriented connection, where a high upload speed might be more critical (for web servers or what not). I'm sure if you looked in the commercial sector you could find it. It's gonna have to come to the private sector if cloud computing is gonna take off though. Mine is 1~2ish, that'd be a pain to transfer large files "to the cloud".

Does anyone know of a way then, to detect the NETWORK speed (NOT the internet speed) from my phone to the router? To determine, for example, if my network is being choked that hard? I wish I had something to compare it to, I mean I did some random speed tests at the mall the other day at different hot spots, it never wen't over 5, but how the heck do I know (and I'm almost positive they DON'T) if they don't go over 5 anyway?

It's frustrating!
 
yup from iphone4 (look at the URL , I can't spoof a jpg that's on their servers)

the point of my picture is to show the bottleneck of the iPhone is faster than what you guys are posting = it's not going to be the iPhone that limits the download/upload speeds it's the router/network you are connected to

so stop freaking worrying about it/being paranoid that the iPhone has a crappy hardware design, it doesn't
 
ItsJustafnPhone said:
the point of my picture is to show the bottleneck of the iPhone is faster than what you guys are posting = it's not going to be the iPhone that limits the download/upload speeds it's the router/network you are connected to
Click to expand...

You haven't shown this at all.

All you have shown is that in your network configuration, the iPhone performs adequately.

Many posters on here have shown that in their network configuration the iPhone is significantly slower than other devices.

It's perfectly possible for a device to work well in some configurations but not others - and in this case, the iPhone isn't working well in many common configurations.

Let me post my own pictures:

Computer:

iPhone: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/77312341.png

Both using the same 802.11g Wireless network (I get 20mbps down and 768kbps up - it's running a bit slow today!).
 
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Daveoc64 said:
You haven't shown this at all.

All you have shown is that in your network configuration, the iPhone performs adequately.

Many posters on here have shown that in their network configuration the iPhone is significantly slower than other devices.

It's perfectly possible for a device to work well in some configurations but not others - and in this case, the iPhone isn't working well in many common configurations.

Let me post my own pictures:

Computer:

iPhone: http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/77312341.png

Both using the same 802.11g Wireless network (I get 20mbps down and 768kbps up - it's running a bit slow today!).
Click to expand...

Well then lets get down to the bottom of this, WHY is HIS network configuration working, but ours not?

Are you using a linksys router? I've heard that Linksys is to blame for a lot of iOS issues, and every network I frequent uses Linksys routers!

How about Itsjustaphone, would you share some of your details? What brand/model of router, perhaps? Other config settings? I'd be curious to see what the issue actually IS. The iPhone is grossly in-configurable, apart from static IP settings I can't modify anything on the iPhone. It also probably has a "cookie cutter" Wi-Fi setup which is why it might not perform well on hardware like I am using. It also seems that they favor Airport routers (and why wouldn't they? I'm sure that's what they used as a base model for developing Wi-Fi on the iOS platform).

-John

FWIW: I'm using a Linksys WRT110 (Which has NO IPv6 support WHATSOEVER and in fact delivers VERY poor performance unless IPv6 is disabled. I'm leaning towards THAT being the iOS issue). Set to Wireless G only (which improved file transfer speeds between my laptop and my desktop PC, since nothing uses Wireless N and, as aforementioned, only does N over 5GHz so my iOS devices don't support it). Aside from that, everything else is set to "auto" or "default", including things like Beacon interval and RTS threshold.

By the way, Linksys support is not what it used to be, and their products on the consumer end leave a lot to be desired. If anyone is shopping for a router, research before buying. Not all models, but some like this one are WAY BEHIND the industry standards of supported standards, and even internal hardware. I just bought the cheapest router I could find that wasn't an off-brand thinking it would be okay. It was an absolute mistake. After the first of the year I'm going to invest in an Airport router, or something better than this.
 
el-John-o said:
Well then lets get down to the bottom of this, WHY is HIS network configuration working, but ours not?

Are you using a linksys router? I've heard that Linksys is to blame for a lot of iOS issues, and every network I frequent uses Linksys routers!

How about Itsjustaphone, would you share some of your details? What brand/model of router, perhaps? Other config settings? I'd be curious to see what the issue actually IS. The iPhone is grossly in-configurable, apart from static IP settings I can't modify anything on the iPhone. It also probably has a "cookie cutter" Wi-Fi setup which is why it might not perform well on hardware like I am using. It also seems that they favor Airport routers (and why wouldn't they? I'm sure that's what they used as a base model for developing Wi-Fi on the iOS platform).

-John

FWIW: I'm using a Linksys WRT110 (Which has NO IPv6 support WHATSOEVER and in fact delivers VERY poor performance unless IPv6 is disabled. I'm leaning towards THAT being the iOS issue). Set to Wireless G only (which improved file transfer speeds between my laptop and my desktop PC, since nothing uses Wireless N and, as aforementioned, only does N over 5GHz so my iOS devices don't support it). Aside from that, everything else is set to "auto" or "default", including things like Beacon interval and RTS threshold.

By the way, Linksys support is not what it used to be, and their products on the consumer end leave a lot to be desired. If anyone is shopping for a router, research before buying. Not all models, but some like this one are WAY BEHIND the industry standards of supported standards, and even internal hardware. I just bought the cheapest router I could find that wasn't an off-brand thinking it would be okay. It was an absolute mistake. After the first of the year I'm going to invest in an Airport router, or something better than this.
Click to expand...

I agree with the Linksys comment. Prior to buying the 3700, I tried the Linksys e3000 and Cisco Valet Plus (the same maker). I was only able to reach speeds of 5-6 Mbps standing right next to the router. The Valet Plus costs the same as the Netgear WNDR3700, 150. If I could appraise the Valet Plus I wouldn't value it at more than $50. It has decent range sure but the speeds suck.
 
Goldinboy17 said:
I agree with the Linksys comment. Prior to buying the 3700, I tried the Linksys e3000 and Cisco Valet Plus (the same maker). I was only able to reach speeds of 5-6 Mbps standing right next to the router. The Valet Plus costs the same as the Netgear WNDR3700, 150. If I could appraise the Valet Plus I wouldn't value it at more than $50. It has decent range sure but the speeds suck.
Click to expand...

I have a sneaking suspicion it might have something to do with ipv6. By the way, if you are still using that, on all Mac/Linux/Vista+ boxes, disable IPv6 (google it for your OS, Windows XP and down don't have it). You'll get full speed again. I think tomorrow I am going to call Apple and figure out what the issue is, maybe one of the geniuses (I always feel like I'm being derogatory when I use their actual title, sounds sarcastic haha), knows a way to access more settings through some Apple voodoo or something. Disabling IPv6 would probably fix it.

-John
 
Daveoc64 said:
You haven't shown this at all.

All you have shown is that in your network configuration, the iPhone performs adequately.

Many posters on here have shown that in their network configuration the iPhone is significantly slower than other devices.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? that's exactly what I posted in my comment

Your reading comphrehension sucks

let me put it to you clearly then

IT'S NOT THE IPHONE THAT HAS THE PROBLEM IT'S YOUR NETWORK

there how simple is that

my post proves that if your network is capable of it ( theoretical max for ) then the iPhone can communicate at very fast speeds aswell

the people in the posts before ( and after ) were trying to say that there is something wrong with the Iphone hardware since it was slower on their home networks than their computers. This is a wrong assumption, its not the iPhone that has the problem but the wifi network itself ( not sure why its not communicating with the iPhone correctly but its still not the iPhone's fault)



As for the network I am on, I have no idea what it is, it's not my network it's where I work

fastest speeds from a computer directly to the wall was speakeasy
( will not provide picture since it shows ip and ISP information)
Download Speed: 91785 kbps (11473.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 75321 kbps (9415.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

I'll bring a laptop to work tommorow to see if I can figure out if the network is 80211.b g or n (unless there's a way to check on the iphone ? )
 
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