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iPhone 6 and 802.11ac Airport Extreme/Time Capsule

V

vtbb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 21, 2014
9
4
I was excited to pick up an iPhone 6 as my first device with 802.11ac. I have the newest Time Capsule with up-to-date firmware. Has anybody else checked to see what their link speeds are with this setup? I'm not talking internet speeds...I'm talking link speeds you see within the Airport Utility. I can't get above 86 mbps on my iPhone 6. For reference, my 2012 Macbook Pro is consistently above 200 mbps...my iPad Air is around 140 mbps...and then my iPhone 5 is only around 50-60 mbps. My iPhone 6 should be getting speeds well above my iPad Air.

I've also seen the video of the 6+ getting speeds well into the 250s. What gives? Apple support was no help. I've tried everything on the Time Capsule itself...but this seems like a phone issue.
 
Couple things here... I have a 6+ and Airport Extreme 802.11ac. I'm able to get about 250mbps w/ my 6+.

First, is your phone running on the 5Ghz band? Second, are there any 802.11n, g, or b devices working on the 5Ghz band? If so, you're speeds will drop significantly. The network can only work as fast as the slowest connection. So if you've got some 802.11n device connected, you're not going to get 802.11ac speeds on your 6.

If this is the case, seperate your devices and make sure your using dual band. I have all my 802.11n, g, and b devices on my 2.4Ghz band. Then I have all my 802.11ac devices on my 5Ghz band.
 
I tried creating a 5GHz only network and just connected the 6 to that SSID. It didn't make any difference. And as I said, my iPad Air is getting speeds in the 140 mbps range on N.
 
433 Mbps here (6+), with seven other devices connected to the 5 GHz band.
 
vtbb said:
I tried creating a 5GHz only network and just connected the 6 to that SSID. It didn't make any difference. And as I said, my iPad Air is getting speeds in the 140 mbps range on N.
Click to expand...

try changing channels on the band. might be some interference somewhere.
 
tekkt0r said:
Couple things here... I have a 6+ and Airport Extreme 802.11ac. I'm able to get about 250mbps w/ my 6+.

First, is your phone running on the 5Ghz band? Second, are there any 802.11n, g, or b devices working on the 5Ghz band? If so, you're speeds will drop significantly. The network can only work as fast as the slowest connection. So if you've got some 802.11n device connected, you're not going to get 802.11ac speeds on your 6.

If this is the case, seperate your devices and make sure your using dual band. I have all my 802.11n, g, and b devices on my 2.4Ghz band. Then I have all my 802.11ac devices on my 5Ghz band.
Click to expand...

802.11b and g devices are 2.4GHz only. The newest Airports and Time Capsules, as well as the generation before them, are capable of simultaneous dual band operation, meaning that having a 2.4GHz device on the network won't limit the speeds of other devices.
 
I have the same router.

iPad Air - 300Mb/s

iPhone 6 Plus - 78Mb/s

What the heck? The only ac capable device has the slowest connection? No other devices are currently connected atm.
 
This is the speed I get between my iMac and iPhone 6 Plus via my Airport TC.

picture.php


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cababah said:
I have the same router.

iPad Air - 300Mb/s

iPhone 6 Plus - 78Mb/s

What the heck? The only ac capable device has the slowest connection? No other devices are currently connected atm.
Click to expand...

Do a reset network settings on your iPhone and try again.
 
Have AirPort Extreme with duel band simultaneous capability. IPad Air connects at 150 to 160 on n band. At same time iPhone 6 Plus is connecting at 275 - 290 ac band.

There is a rapid fall off from the high speeds with 5 GHz ac based on distance and number of walls signal is passing through.

Am using the app WI-FI Sweetspots. Works real well, reveals where signal strength/speed falls off.

One more thing. One time I noted the 6+ was connecting at only 50-60. When I disconnect (forget network) that's settings, general, reset, reset network settings and re-logged in, it shot back up to 285mbps.
 
Last edited:
JD92 said:
802.11b and g devices are 2.4GHz only. The newest Airports and Time Capsules, as well as the generation before them, are capable of simultaneous dual band operation, meaning that having a 2.4GHz device on the network won't limit the speeds of other devices.
Click to expand...

my understanding is any 802.11b or g device on the 2.4Ghz band will limit the entire network bandwidth to b or g speeds. i even tested this with an 802.11ac network card w/ my PC. On the 2.4Ghz band i was limited to a little less than 100mbps (802.11g devices were on the net). When i moved the 802.11ac card/PC to the 5Ghz band I jumped up to 700mbps.
 
wxman2003 said:
This is the speed I get between my iMac and iPhone 6 Plus via my Airport TC.

Image

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Do a reset network settings on your iPhone and try again.
Click to expand...

That didn't work for me. I manually forced my 6+ on the 5GHz band and now it is seeing 433Mb/s. This seems strange because isn't the router supposed to automatically sense that the 6+ is capable of "ac" protocol and always provide the fastest connection for it?
 
My fastest speeds are limited by my 2011 iMac. Fastest I can get is through my Airport TC between the two, with no other device connected to the router is around 255 Mbs. Doesn't matter whether my iMac is connected via wifi or ethernet to the TC. Just the limitations of my older iMac.

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cababah said:
That didn't work for me. I manually forced my 6+ on the 5GHz band and now it is seeing 433Mb/s. This seems strange because isn't the router supposed to automatically sense that the 6+ is capable of "ac" protocol and always provide the fastest connection for it?
Click to expand...

I thought so too, but never got it to work that way. I had to set my router set up for a a separate 5GHz connection in addition to 2.4 GHz.
 
cababah said:
That didn't work for me. I manually forced my 6+ on the 5GHz band and now it is seeing 433Mb/s. This seems strange because isn't the router supposed to automatically sense that the 6+ is capable of "ac" protocol and always provide the fastest connection for it?
Click to expand...

i did the same thing. i set up a seperate 5Ghz network and allow only my AC devices on it.

great speeds now :)
 
I have an AirPort Extreme (newest 802.11ac model) in my relatively small apartment, and the AirPort Utility consistently reports that my iPhone 6 Plus is connected at 433 Mbps. My other devices (all 802.11n) are connected at 300 Mbps.
 
ryanmcv said:
I have an AirPort Extreme (newest 802.11ac model) in my relatively small apartment, and the AirPort Utility consistently reports that my iPhone 6 Plus is connected at 433 Mbps. My other devices (all 802.11n) are connected at 300 Mbps.
Click to expand...

Did you manually put your 6+ on the 5GHz band?
 
tekkt0r said:
my understanding is any 802.11b or g device on the 2.4Ghz band will limit the entire network bandwidth to b or g speeds. i even tested this with an 802.11ac network card w/ my PC. On the 2.4Ghz band i was limited to a little less than 100mbps (802.11g devices were on the net). When i moved the 802.11ac card/PC to the 5Ghz band I jumped up to 700mbps.
Click to expand...

Interesting. The point of having simultaneous dual-band capability in a wireless access point is to make sure one older device doesn't throttle other devices on the same network to 2.4GHz speeds. Maybe certain implementations still struggle with it for some reason, even if they have simultaneous dual band capabilities in the hardware.
 
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