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airport download speed?

chibianh

chibianh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 6, 2001
783
1
Colorado
Quick question for everyone here... Why is my download speed so bad wit my airport card? My friend is sitting right next to me with his peecee and a cisco wireless pc card. I'm getting around 160 Kbps/sec while he's getting 1600 Kbps/sec... What's the deal?

At home on my network, my speeds are just fine. It only happens here at school. Btw, it's showing 4 bars of strength.
 
What kind of wireless router/base station are you connecting to? If it's not the Apple one, that could be most of the reason.

How are you checking your speed?? If you are testing by downloading files, and not from a testing site, then your speed is most likely in KB not Kb (bit of a difference).

I recommend using www.speed411.com to test your internet speed. If you still see the 160Kb/sec speeds there, contact the network weenies and ask them WTF... They probably don't have the wireless network configured to work well with Mac hardware if there is that much of a speed difference.

I remember when I had my Rev. A TiBook with the airport card, how I would loose between 200Kb and 400kB internet speeds. I was plugging directly into my network switch because of that. When I got the new TiBook though, the speeds from the ethernet and airport were the same (for internet work). Stability is through the roof with the new base station too (got it with the new TiBook, but it arrived a few days later).
 
I tried out that website alphatech and i got 1500+ continiously.
 

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From home, I typically see speeds in excess of 1900... Most falling between 1950 and 1980 (some even faster). All of this since my ISP upgraded my DSL speeds (no extra cost to me) because I was seeing 200-400 numbers for some time. They made good on getting me happy... since I was ready to jump ship to someone faster. They even upgraded my upstream to 384... for when I want to use it.
 
Alphatech, I'm curious as to who your provider is and what your advertised download speed was, and also how much you pay.... if you don't mind telling me, of course...

thanks..
 
Earthlink is my ISP, I was using dial-up with them for several years (from 97 until last summer) then I switched to their DSL. The advertised speed was 1.5Mb/sec download and 128Kb upload speeds. My local phone company got involved in the resolution of my speed issues, and they upgraded my lines to 2Mb/sec (with bursts of higher speeds) downstream and 384Kb upstream.

I did the self install (I am a tech after all), and they provide the modem and filters for free. I do pay $49.95 a month, but whenever I need to call, I get someone that actually knows about the Mac OS (even the latest version of OS X) which is a far cry from some ISP's I could name *cough*aohell*cough*.
 
Originally posted by Rower_CPU


I tried but it looks like it's not compatible with Flash Player 6...weak! :mad:
Click to expand...

BS... I have the latest Shockwave and it works fine... Under OS 9.x AND OS X (10.1.4). I update whenever something comes out, including my browser plug-ins. Which browser did you try??? Try using IE 5.x
 
Originally posted by AlphaTech
BS... I have the latest Shockwave and it works fine... Under OS 9.x AND OS X (10.1.4). I update whenever something comes out, including my browser plug-ins. Which browser did you try??? Try using IE 5.x
Click to expand...

Me: OS X, IE 5.1.4, Shockwave and Flash latest versions

Speed411: "Flash Player 0 version detected"

What gives? Everything else works fine (Shockwave.com, etc.)
 
Originally posted by Rower_CPU


Me: OS X, IE 5.1.4, Shockwave and Flash latest versions

Speed411: "Flash Player 0 version detected"

What gives? Everything else works fine (Shockwave.com, etc.)
Click to expand...

Not sure... I go there all the time from home, with the latest version of Shockwave and ie installed under OS X. Never once have I received that kind of message. What happens when you download and install the latest version of Shockwave (since it includes Flash player in it)?
 
Originally posted by AlphaTech
Not sure... I go there all the time from home, with the latest version of Shockwave and ie installed under OS X. Never once have I received that kind of message. What happens when you download and install the latest version of Shockwave (since it includes Flash player in it)?
Click to expand...

Nevermind...I'm a tool. :rolleyes:

I was trying to go to the "Speed Scope" link to the left since I thought that's where the test was. Silly me just noticed the test on the front page. *smacks head*

If you try the "Speed Scope" link let me know if it barks at you about plugins. My PBG4 works, but not the G3 I was trying at work.
 
With that cleared up I range from 1300 to 2300 on my Airport with the base station about 50 feet away, going through a couple of walls and a floor.
 
I gauged my airport speed at that site and got 300-400 Kbps.. Again, my friend with his peecee gets over 1600 Kbps consistently. The base station is a Cisco Aeronet base station. I think I will be sending an email to the networking people here and see what's up.
 
Originally posted by cleo
What's normal for a cable modem? I only got 527 just now on speed411.com... that seems really slow compared to what you guys are getting!!!
Click to expand...

Depends on what your ISP promised and how much traffic is on that line (in your neighborhood, not your home). That is the main downfall of cable modems, if you are the only person on that leg of it, you will get blazing speeds. But as more people go online, the speeds drop. That is because you are sharing bandwidth. With DSL, you get a dedicated bandwidth. What you have is what you have, no drop in speeds because your neighbors go online. It doesn't hurt (for DSL) if you are in close proximity to the phone station (which I am :D).

Most high speed providers offer speeds of 650Kb (downstream), though some offer higher.
 
Originally posted by AlphaTech


Most high speed providers offer speeds of 650Kb (downstream), though some offer higher.
Click to expand...

The idiot neighbor boy is all about download divx movies... grrr. But anyway, I guess 527 Kbps isn't all that bad... :D
 
Ok Rower, what kind of voodoo did you do to get that number??? I typically see speeds right around what I have showing below. This is through the airport card too.
 
Here's mine

Here's what i get with a ti g4 550 using airport card and Dlink awl 1000 access point. I am using at&t broadband as my isp. the speed is 2888kbps i don't know why i can't copy the whole image.
 

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