iBook G4- wireless is SLOW.

[Hidendra]

It's not the router, I know that..

On speedtest.net to Montreal I get around 4-5mbps download usually. On another laptop, I get 15-18mbps. laptops are side-by-side. It also randomly will stop working (ie in Firefox it'll take a minute to open a page (that's just doing the hostname lookup.. I use free DNS servers, my ISP's were slow.)

Any reason why the airport extreme card is extremely slow? Also, when I do a direct ethernet connect, it's also slow... ?
I did get 11 mbps a long time ago, I never seemed to get that again. I am using 10.4.11, 1.2ghz, 768mb ram. I do the speedtest when basically nothing is running (Adium/Skype is all pretty much).


Thanks!

 

[Vulcan]

Same as my PowerBook, I'm wondering if there is a solution to this as well.

 

[mkrishnan]

Regarding the DNS lookups, are you sure you've chosen good alternate DNS's if your ISP ones are not good?

Regarding the rest, it doesn't sound right to me. I don't have my iBook G4 anymore, but its speeds under Tiger were much more along expectations than that.

Hmmm... here are some thoughts.

- If this is happening on both Airport and Ethernet, then you've already ruled out things like problems related to the encryption standard. But I will ask one more router-side one, anyways, because its a thing that Windows and OS X may respond to differently. What's your router's DHCP lease duration? Try adjusting it to make it longer, and also make sure OS X isn't letting the DHCP lease expire (in the TCP/IP settings). Also, although much less likely if you don't have these problems with other computers, if your router is obtaining a DHCP lease from a modem, make sure it's set to keep renewing it / keep it alive. This is a problem with DSL particularly sometimes.

- Now on the Mac, go and check your IPv6 settings. If IPv6 is turned on, see how it performs with it disabled. This might help quite a lot.

 

[Hidendra]

Regarding the DNS lookups, are you sure you've chosen good alternate DNS's if your ISP ones are not good?

Yes. I use them on my linux box and other laptop - they are fast.

What's your router's DHCP lease duration? Try adjusting it to make it longer, and also make sure OS X isn't letting the DHCP lease expire (in the TCP/IP settings). ......This is a problem with DSL particularly sometimes.

I don't use DHCP. It's manually configured static ip (for port forwarding). I do not use DSL, I use cable.

- Now on the Mac, go and check your IPv6 settings. If IPv6 is turned on, see how it performs with it disabled. This might help quite a lot.

Not much of a difference with it off :/

 

[dckj95]

im not sure what your problem is exactly but if the computer is still in warranty or applecare, bring it down to a genius bar and have them fix it.

 

[iKennett]

This this issue isolated to your home network, have your tried out a friend or family members network?

Ignoring what the speed testing states, have you tried a like for like download?

How about from Mac > 2nd Computer, then from 2nd Computer > Mac... Same transfer speeds?

EDIT: Same issue with a wried set-up?

 

[Hidendra]

This this issue isolated to your home network, have your tried out a friend or family members network?

Ignoring what the speed testing states, have you tried a like for like download?

How about from Mac > 2nd Computer, then from 2nd Computer > Mac... Same transfer speeds?

EDIT: Same issue with a wried set-up?

Yes, same issue with wired. I can get 200-300kbps for download. On the other laptop for the same downloads I can easily get 1mbps+
Transfer speeds between computers are slow as well.

Is this somehow a hardware issue or os x having a problem? I could install linux - been meaning to install arch or something similar on this for a while now, and see if speeds are any better. Or at least try it in a live environment for now.