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Help with Wi-Fi

Mac'nCheese

Mac'nCheese

Suspended
Original poster
Feb 9, 2010
3,752
5,109
Suddenly, my wi-fi signal is horrible in my house. It slows down for seemingly no reason, netflix on the tv won't start or will just stop in the middle of something. The iphones work better on LTE service....etc. etc. I will call my cablevision service when I have time later but is there something I can check on my airport ( the latest one) in the meantime. Thanks for any advice.
 
Run a speed test on your line from your phone on wifi and a of on a wired connection

Speedtest.net

If there isn't a speed issue on the wired side but there is on the wifi side restart your box. If you continue to get an issue unplug everything that would interfere with wifi (cordless phones microwaves etc)
 
Reboot everything and try again.

If still having issues plug your computer into the ethernet and test. If speed is slow there on ethernet also then call your ISP.

If only the WiFi is having issues, try running a network scanner (like WiFi Explorer is your on a Mac) and check to see if there are a lot of other WiFi on the same channel as you. If so you can see what channel has the least amount of users and try setting your AirPort to use that wireless channel (AirPort > Wireless > Wireless Options).
 
There is a handy piece of freeware out there called "iStumbler" which will show you ALL the WiFi signals operating in the vicinity of your house, including which channels they are on.

It's -possible- that you may be having interference with others operating on the same channels as you are...
 
or...
alt-click on the wifi icon in the menu bar
select "open wireless diagnostics"
do not hit continue, select "scan" from the window menu or cmd-4

it will show you all networks and their channels, as well as the best channels to use
 
Run a speed test with the AirPort both over Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Then use Ethernet to directly connect to the modem and re-run the test. The results should be comparable. If not, there is a settings or hardware issue. If the speeds are lower than normal on both, verify with the ISP the root cause.
 
Gav2k said:
Run a speed test on your line from your phone on wifi and a of on a wired connection

Speedtest.net

If there isn't a speed issue on the wired side but there is on the wifi side restart your box. If you continue to get an issue unplug everything that would interfere with wifi (cordless phones microwaves etc)
Click to expand...

PsyOpWarlord said:
Reboot everything and try again.

If still having issues plug your computer into the ethernet and test. If speed is slow there on ethernet also then call your ISP.

If only the WiFi is having issues, try running a network scanner (like WiFi Explorer is your on a Mac) and check to see if there are a lot of other WiFi on the same channel as you. If so you can see what channel has the least amount of users and try setting your AirPort to use that wireless channel (AirPort > Wireless > Wireless Options).
Click to expand...

Fishrrman said:
There is a handy piece of freeware out there called "iStumbler" which will show you ALL the WiFi signals operating in the vicinity of your house, including which channels they are on.

It's -possible- that you may be having interference with others operating on the same channels as you are...
Click to expand...

waw74 said:
or...
alt-click on the wifi icon in the menu bar
select "open wireless diagnostics"
do not hit continue, select "scan" from the window menu or cmd-4

it will show you all networks and their channels, as well as the best channels to use
Click to expand...

Altemose said:
Run a speed test with the AirPort both over Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Then use Ethernet to directly connect to the modem and re-run the test. The results should be comparable. If not, there is a settings or hardware issue. If the speeds are lower than normal on both, verify with the ISP the root cause.
Click to expand...


Thank you all. I finally had time to do some of your suggestions and will do more soon. The old iMac by the modem died (it keeps shutting off and it only turns back on sometimes, I think its dying) so I wasn't able to do the compare wi-fi to ethernet speed test. However, I did check the channels twice and once, the best channels for both 2.4 and 5 ghz were not the channels my wifi was using. The second time I checked, the 2.4 was on the best channel and the 5 still wasn't. So my question is, how does this work? Can I change preferences somewhere to have the wifi switch channels to the best one automatically (I don't understand why it wouldn't do this on its own and why did the 2.4 channel change within minutes?)? My wifi speed test on newer iMac was Ping 13 ms, Download 2.20 mbps, upload 3.99 mbps. On my iPhone 6, it was Ping 22MS, download .75 mbps and upload 4.42 mbps. Is this any good to begin with? I have plain old cablevision internet service, nothing fancy like google fiber. Thank you again!

EDIT: CALLED CABLEVISION AND HAVE A SERVICE APPOINTMENT IN TWO DAYS. I THINK I MAY HAVE WASTED EVERYONE'S TIME BY NOT JUST DOING THAT.......
 
Last edited:
You would need to see what the speed coming from the modem is before you call out Cablevision. If the speed coming from the modem is acceptable and the issue lies on your equipment's end, then you maybe charged for the service call!
 
Altemose said:
You would need to see what the speed coming from the modem is before you call out Cablevision. If the speed coming from the modem is acceptable and the issue lies on your equipment's end, then you maybe charged for the service call!
Click to expand...
Thank you. Cable vision did a test on the modem and they agreed that the speed was not acceptable.
 
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