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Poor WiFi with Airport extreme

T

topgazza

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 6, 2013
30
1
Basingstoke, UK
Just bought an Airprort Extreme to boost my WiFi performance in my house. Everyone tells me its the absolute tops for performance in n or ac. I have tried several locations but cannot get more than 180Mbs on my iMac when is on a dedicated 5GHz channel on ac. iMac is no more than 15 feet away at the top of the stairs from where the Extreme is so no walls or ceilings as such. Pretty poor by any standards. Interference is around -72 so not that high.

I am sending it back to Amazon for exchange in case there is something wrong with it but it seems odd for such a highly rated device to perform so badly. Anyone else had similar experiences or what should I expect given the location of the devices ? :)
 
topgazza said:
Just bought an Airprort Extreme to boost my WiFi performance in my house. Everyone tells me its the absolute tops for performance in n or ac. I have tried several locations but cannot get more than 180Mbs on my iMac when is on a dedicated 5GHz channel on ac. iMac is no more than 15 feet away at the top of the stairs from where the Extreme is so no walls or ceilings as such. Pretty poor by any standards. Interference is around -72 so not that high.

I am sending it back to Amazon for exchange in case there is something wrong with it but it seems odd for such a highly rated device to perform so badly. Anyone else had similar experiences or what should I expect given the location of the devices ? :)
Click to expand...

I would try a factory reset. Take a paper clip or ball point pen and insert it in the reset hole. It is located on the rear of the unit. Then, while holding the reset button, plug it in and continue to hold until the front status light begins to flash rapidly. Then release the button and reconfigure in AirPort Utility. Ensure you are using the latest AirPort Utility in Lion 10.7 + or the latest for iOS.
 
Altemose said:
I would try a factory reset. Take a paper clip or ball point pen and insert it in the reset hole. It is located on the rear of the unit. Then, while holding the reset button, plug it in and continue to hold until the front status light begins to flash rapidly. Then release the button and reconfigure in AirPort Utility. Ensure you are using the latest AirPort Utility in Lion 10.7 + or the latest for iOS.
Click to expand...


I'll give that go...thanks. I'm on Mavericks and I believe the latest Airport utility. My iMac is new and a late 2013 model

Jon.. its fast to be fair but not as fast as it supposed to be capable of. 2.4GHz performance is great on my MBP with n only and runs at 300Mbs which is max for n.

ac, given the distance and lack of walls/interference should be giving a lot more. Certainly seen people quoting 700-900 Mbs. But I'd love confirmation as to what wireless speed to expect
 
topgazza said:
I'll give that go...thanks. I'm on Mavericks and I believe the latest Airport utility. My iMac is new and a late 2013 model

Jon.. its fast to be fair but not as fast as it supposed to be capable of. 2.4GHz performance is great on my MBP with n only and runs at 300Mbs which is max for n.

ac, given the distance and lack of walls/interference should be giving a lot more. Certainly seen people quoting 700-900 Mbs. But I'd love confirmation as to what wireless speed to expect
Click to expand...

So is the speed your Transmit Rate or how fast your benchmarks were showing?
 
Afraid not. It's unlikely to be the case but I have requested an exchange which has been authorised on case I have a suspect one
 
topgazza said:
Everyone tells me its the absolute tops for performance in n or ac. I
Click to expand...


That's just plain wrong. It is certainly tops for simplicity and ease of setup, but nowhere near tops for performance, either in throughput or range. It lags well behind the latest from net gear and asus in both of those areas. See reviews at small net builder for details.

Of course, the asus and net gear have other issues, so if you want reliability and ease of use the airport may still be the best option for you. And the performance increases that the net gear and asus have May not be noticeable in real world use depending on your usage. But do not be deceived--AirPort Extreme performance is decidedly not "tops."
 
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