Arris SB163 and AirPort Extreme issues

[Bocktagon]

Okay guys,

So a lot of research has gone into this and I still have not found a solution. I wanted to try here in hopes you folks have an idea.

So I live in San Diego and now have Time Warners Maxx 300mbps. However, for some reason I cannot get the AirPort Extreme to broadcast anything over 130. I have spoken to TW and they sent a technician over that checked the modem and connected the computer via Ethernet and confirmed I was getting well over 300mbps. After playing with the settings on the AirPort Extreme for a considerable amount of time, the best we could do is get it back to 120ish Mbps.

I have contacted apple and they suggest it's an issue on time Warners end. I have searched forums and have found several people having the same issue with no real solution other than buying a netgear nighthawk which will apparently work fine. With me being a huge apple fan, I'm not really excited about ditching the airport and spending an additional 200 plus on another router.

Anyway. If anyone has any experience in this or if you happen to know how to fix it so I can stick with the airport, that would be amazing.

 

[Weaselboy]

So you have the cable modem connected to the AE over ethernet?

I have that same cable modem on TWC and this spring they were testing the new MAXX speeds in my area and I was able to get the advertised 200mbps over my latest gen. Time Capsule. According to this test you should be able to pull over 300mbps.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201945

I would try a hard reset of the Extreme and see if that helps.

Are you sure both your cables are good?

 

[Bocktagon]

So you have the cable modem connected to the AE over ethernet?

I have that same cable modem on TWC and this spring they were testing the new MAXX speeds in my area and I was able to get the advertised 200mbps over my latest gen. Time Capsule. According to this test you should be able to pull over 300mbps.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201945

I would try a hard reset of the Extreme and see if that helps.

Are you sure both your cables are good?

Thank you for the reply. I did try a hard reset with no change whatsoever. Also, the tech looked at my CAT cables and said they were fine. It should be CAT 5 cable correct?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you for the reply. I did try a hard reset with no change whatsoever. Also, the tech looked at my CAT cables and said they were fine. It should be CAT 5 cable correct?

Yeah... CAT5 cable would be okay. You really can't tell if a cable is good by just looking at it though. I would try a couple new CAT5E cables if it was me. Because that router for sure can handle 300mbps over ethernet.

 

[Bocktagon]

Yeah... CAT5 cable would be okay. You really can't tell if a cable is good by just looking at it though. I would try a couple new CAT5E cables if it was me. Because that router for sure can handle 300mbps over ethernet.

Gotcha. Actually I know the cables are good because when I connected the Arris to the AE then to the MAC via Ethernet the entire way, I was able to get well over 300mbps. The problem is that the AE won't broadcast that fast for some reason.

 

[Weaselboy]

Gotcha. Actually I know the cables are good because when I connected the Arris to the AE then to the MAC via Ethernet the entire way, I was able to get well over 300mbps. The problem is that the AE won't broadcast that fast for some reason.

Ah I see.. so you have swapped in both cables for a modem to Mac setup and they both get 300mbps then. That kind of eliminates that then. I dunno what else to try if you already did a hard boot.

 

[Altemose]

Thank you for the reply. I did try a hard reset with no change whatsoever. Also, the tech looked at my CAT cables and said they were fine. It should be CAT 5 cable correct?

Cat 5 is only officially rated for 100 Mbps. That being said, it is capable of Gigabit speeds when used in shorter strands especially. What I would do is start with a hard reset of the AirPort, which is different than merely hard rebooting. To do this, unplug it from power, press and hold the reset button (use a pen or paper clip), plug into power and continue to hold the reset button until the front light flashes rapidly. Reconfigure manually and retest your speeds.

Verify that your AirPort is going into DHCP & NAT mode and not Bridge Mode. You can find this under the "Network" tab in AirPort Utility. Report back with the results of your findings and we can troubleshoot further. I can get a full 250 Mbps over wireless from one of my client's Extremes without an issue and the hardware is more than capable.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
I'm just another end user. Not a networking expert.

My suggestion is to set up like this:

- Let Arris serve as router and NAT, turn its wifi off.

- Set up Airport in "bridge mode", use it to create wireless network ONLY.

- Test that way to see if anything changes. You can always revert if no improvement.

My rationale is that routing and NAT ought to be running from the device "closest to the net", so to speak.

The airport is a great wifi device, easy to set up and update when required.
So use it just for that, and be happy.

 

[Weaselboy]

- Let Arris serve as router and NAT, turn its wifi off.

This won't work. That Arris SB6183 is just a plain cable modem with no router or wifi.

 

[Bocktagon]

Cat 5 is only officially rated for 100 Mbps. That being said, it is capable of Gigabit speeds when used in shorter strands especially. What I would do is start with a hard reset of the AirPort, which is different than merely hard rebooting. To do this, unplug it from power, press and hold the reset button (use a pen or paper clip), plug into power and continue to hold the reset button until the front light flashes rapidly. Reconfigure manually and retest your speeds.

Verify that your AirPort is going into DHCP & NAT mode and not Bridge Mode. You can find this under the "Network" tab in AirPort Utility. Report back with the results of your findings and we can troubleshoot further. I can get a full 250 Mbps over wireless from one of my client's Extremes without an issue and the hardware is more than capable.

Awesome. Thank you for the suggestion. I'm going to give this a shot hopefully tonight. I will update you with my results.

 

[Bocktagon]

Cat 5 is only officially rated for 100 Mbps. That being said, it is capable of Gigabit speeds when used in shorter strands especially. What I would do is start with a hard reset of the AirPort, which is different than merely hard rebooting. To do this, unplug it from power, press and hold the reset button (use a pen or paper clip), plug into power and continue to hold the reset button until the front light flashes rapidly. Reconfigure manually and retest your speeds.

Verify that your AirPort is going into DHCP & NAT mode and not Bridge Mode. You can find this under the "Network" tab in AirPort Utility. Report back with the results of your findings and we can troubleshoot further. I can get a full 250 Mbps over wireless from one of my client's Extremes without an issue and the hardware is more than capable.

Unfortunately no luck my friend. I did exactly as you said and ensured the extreme is in dhcp&nat mode with no luck. What could possibly be the problem?

 

[Bocktagon]

What might even be more interesting is that this is what my phone gets most of the time when connected to wifi. Even when the iMac says it gets 100.

 

[Altemose]

Unfortunately no luck my friend. I did exactly as you said and ensured the extreme is in dhcp&nat mode with no luck. What could possibly be the problem?

We need to isolate whether this problem is hardware related or only on a single band. Under the wireless tab in AirPort Utility, you should see a button titled "Wireless Options". Select that and check off the button that says "5 GHz Network". Leave the default name and connect to it and retest. This effectively separates the 2.4 and 5 GHz network bands into separate SSIDs. This will rule out a specific band or not and confirm if we have a hardware issue. If you see lower speeds on the 2.4 GHz regular SSID, then you have an interference issue. If the speeds continue to be slow on both SSIDs, then you have a hardware issue where AppleCare will need to repair or replace your AirPort.

 

[Bocktagon]

We need to isolate whether this problem is hardware related or only on a single band. Under the wireless tab in AirPort Utility, you should see a button titled "Wireless Options". Select that and check off the button that says "5 GHz Network". Leave the default name and connect to it and retest. This effectively separates the 2.4 and 5 GHz network bands into separate SSIDs. This will rule out a specific band or not and confirm if we have a hardware issue. If you see lower speeds on the 2.4 GHz regular SSID, then you have an interference issue. If the speeds continue to be slow on both SSIDs, then you have a hardware issue where AppleCare will need to repair or replace your AirPort.

Wow. Now that seemed to help out quite a bit for the iMac

While it's much better, for some reason my phone is reading much less than what the computer does. Is that a normal thing that happens? You would think it would be at least a little better than the upload speed right? That's quite confusing.

Nevertheless, you've been very helpful. It's really nice to know that there are still folks out there that are willing to take the time out of their day to help others out. Thank you for that.

 

[Altemose]

Wow. Now that seemed to help out quite a bit for the iMac

Indeed. This indicates to me that you simply had an issue with wireless interference on the 2.4 GHz network. You can try manually setting a 2.4 GHz channel after checking for one with the highest signal to noise ratio. The tool is built into wireless diagnostics now on OS X.

While it's much better, for some reason my phone is reading much less than what the computer does. Is that a normal thing that happens? You would think it would be at least a little better than the upload speed right? That's quite confusing.

What generation iPhone and was it on 2.4 or 5 GHz bands?

Nevertheless, you've been very helpful. It's really nice to know that there are still folks out there that are willing to take the time out of their day to help others out. Thank you for that.

No problem! We are all on the forums to help each other out.

 

[Bocktagon]

Indeed. This indicates to me that you simply had an issue with wireless interference on the 2.4 GHz network. You can try manually setting a 2.4 GHz channel after checking for one with the highest signal to noise ratio. The tool is built into wireless diagnostics now on OS X.


I will try to find that to run the diagnostic check.

What generation iPhone and was it on 2.4 or 5 GHz bands?

That last test was on the 5ghz. It's an iPhone 6 and its up to date. Very confusing.


No problem! We are all on the forums to help each other out.

I agree

 

[Altemose]

Are you going to try switching the iPhone to the 5 GHz band or try changing the 2.4 GHz band to a different channel?

 

[priitv8]

What iPhone is this? No iPhone will ever reach Mac speeds due to simpler wifi radio design.
AFAIK all prior to 6S are single-radio designs, so even theoretically only 6S can reach only MacBook Air's wireless speed.
Never that of a MBP or iMac, that has 3 parallel radios.

However, the "Late 2013" iMac systems also support 802.11ac Wi-Fi, whereas the "Late 2012" iMac systems only support slower "MIMO" 450 Mbit/sec 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.

Source

 

[Bocktagon]

Are you going to try switching the iPhone to the 5 GHz band or try changing the 2.4 GHz band to a different channel?

Tried both. Still the same issue. Even tried resetting the network settings on the phone. No change.

 

[Bocktagon]

What iPhone is this? No iPhone will ever reach Mac speeds due to simpler wifi radio design.
AFAIK all prior to 6S are single-radio designs, so even theoretically only 6S can reach only MacBook Air's wireless speed.
Never that of a MBP or iMac, that has 3 parallel radios.
Source

This is an iPhone 6. I didn't know that. Was is the max speed you should receive with the 6 then?

 

[cynics]

I skimmed the thread a little bit so excuse me if I missed potential issues already eliminated.

Use the app wifi sweetspots on your iPhone to actually determine your network speed over wifi. This will take the internet out of the equation.

Are you absolutely sure your iPhone is on the 5ghz channel?

 

[Bocktagon]

I skimmed the thread a little bit so excuse me if I missed potential issues already eliminated.

Use the app wifi sweetspots on your iPhone to actually determine your network speed over wifi. This will take the internet out of the equation.

Are you absolutely sure your iPhone is on the 5ghz channel?

I'm currently using ookla's speed test app, wouldn't that be the same thing? Yes I am absolutely sure that it is on the 5ghz channel.

 

[cynics]

I'm currently using ookla's speed test app, wouldn't that be the same thing? Yes I am absolutely sure that it is on the 5ghz channel.

No, ooklas speedtest is testing your internet + network connection. Wifi sweetspots is testing strictly your wifi network connection.



The apps purpose is for finding and eliminating dead zones but it displays speed uncapped by your internet speed.

 

[Bocktagon]

No, ooklas speedtest is testing your internet + network connection. Wifi sweetspots is testing strictly your wifi network connection.

View attachment 646816

The apps purpose is for finding and eliminating dead zones but it displays speed uncapped by your internet speed.

Fair enough. As you can see, not any better though.

 

[cynics]

Fair enough. As you can see, not any better though.

Now we can at least say for certain this is an issue with your iPhone, or the combination of your iPhone and your AirPort Extreme.

You could try resetting network settings on your iPhone. Personally I find that to be a massive pita and never fix anything. Although many will swear by it.