How can I make my network faster?

[JW008]

I'm using a Time Capsule set to 802.11N only with an old Airport Express connected via ethernet running an 802.11G network in bridge mode.

With the other two ethernet ports on the TC I hooked up my AppleTV and my Slingbox. The Slingbox because I have to and the AppleTV because I assume being wired into the TC it will stream things more smoothly. (Is that a good assumption?)

I was wondering if there was any way to make my network run faster than it is. Any settings I can change, anything I should disconnect? It seems that whenever I'm doing wireless Time Machine backups I can't stream movies to my AppleTV. Since both of these are running on the "N" network, it seems like there should be no problem. It also seems like I'm getting constant bottlenecks.

I've got a full airport signal on my iMac, I've got wide channels checked in Airport Utility, but I never see the "Data sent/sec" under Activity Monitor go higher than 1 MB/sec.

I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for making my network run faster. Thanks!

 

[waw74]

open network utility, what does it say under "link speed"? You'll want your airport card, probably "en1"
mine says "270 Mbit/s" if it's 54, you're connected to your G network instead of the N.
connection to your G network would make sense with your transfer rates. Although even with N, you'll only top out at 5-6 when in the same room, and walls can kill speed pretty quick. i get 3-4 in the living room.

your time machine backups can easily eat all of the available bandwidth in a wireless signal, so it's understandable that you can't stream movies.

you can get a fairly cheap (easily under $25) wired switch to add available ethernet ports so you could hardwire your computer, which will tremendously increase the speeds of your backups.

 

[CarlsonCustoms]

Is there ANY way you can get some devices hardwired? The best thing I ever did for my network was to run Cat6 cables to everything. The only thing I run wireless is my Iphone and PS3 (will be hardwired sometime) and there is no problems with wires..

If you can run it .. that'd be the best solution.

Zack

 

[deorg]

Hard wire is the fastes way to do it, ive done it will my ps3 and desktops and their speed is much faster than the others

 

[CarlsonCustoms]

glad someone agreed... I was worried someone was going to praise wireless

 

[waw74]

and i'll agree on the wired, got gigabit ethernet around the house, plugins where i normally use the computer if I want, but I'll use wireless if i'm not transferring big files.

 

[JW008]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

open network utility, what does it say under "link speed"? You'll want your airport card, probably "en1"
mine says "270 Mbit/s" if it's 54, you're connected to your G network instead of the N.
connection to your G network would make sense with your transfer rates. Although even with N, you'll only top out at 5-6 when in the same room, and walls can kill speed pretty quick. i get 3-4 in the living room.

your time machine backups can easily eat all of the available bandwidth in a wireless signal, so it's understandable that you can't stream movies.

you can get a fairly cheap (easily under $25) wired switch to add available ethernet ports so you could hardwire your computer, which will tremendously increase the speeds of your backups.

I'm not home right now, so I can't check the wireless speed, but I'm 95% sure I'm on my N network (since I name my N network and G network different things, I can easily tell which one I'm connected to).

That's unfortunate about the wireless speeds. I was hoping they would run much faster. Even though my TC and my iMac are only 40-50ft away from each other, I have no doubt the walls that are in between them are the culprit here. I just wish there was a way to increase the signal (even if it decreases range, like I said, I'm relatively close).

Is there ANY way you can get some devices hardwired? The best thing I ever did for my network was to run Cat6 cables to everything. The only thing I run wireless is my Iphone and PS3 (will be hardwired sometime) and there is no problems with wires..

If you can run it .. that'd be the best solution.

Zack

Hard wire is the fastes way to do it, ive done it will my ps3 and desktops and their speed is much faster than the others

glad someone agreed... I was worried someone was going to praise wireless

Like I mentioned above, I'm far enough away to not be able to wire things, although I'm not entirely sure what Cat6 cables are. I do have my AppleTV connected to my TC via ethernet. That should help out things, right?