Sloooooow wifi on iPhone and iPad

[karilynn]

Ok, I am really stumped about this and I'm not sure if I am posting this in the correct place, so forgive me if I am not.

At any given moment in time, when I run a speedtest on my laptop (macbook pro) I get a lovely 20-25MBPS speed. When I run a speedtest on my iPhone or iPad? Lucky if I get over 1MBPS. So what is the deal here? I am not very technically savvy and I have no idea why this is happening. My ISP is centurylink (yes, total crap, but it's the only ISP allowed in my apartment building) and I've had centurylink for about 4 months and this issue has been happening only for the past week. I couldn't begin to fathom why. I didn't change any router settings. I've reset both my iPhone and iPad. I've reset the router. The router/modem is the all-in-one actiontech modem given to me by centurylink.

Does anybody have any ideas, any settings I can change on my iPad or iPhone (iPhone 5S and iPad air) or any suggestions with the ISP/modem? Would truly appreciate it. Nothing makes me happier than crawling into bed at night with my iPad and watching HBOGO and I can't do it anymore because HBOGO won't load.

thank you!!

 

[rockitdog]

Hey, I also live in Minnesota (Rosemount to be exact). From what I've heard from other CentryLink customers, what your experiencing is pretty common. Their speeds are terrible. My in-laws live in Eagan and have CentryLink and get pathetic speeds too. They are awful. Wish I had a better explanation.

 

[dcharleyultra]

Sloooooow wifi on iPhone and iPad

Karyilynn, what did your iDevice speeds used to be?

Have you contacted CenturyLink Tech Support?

What's your modem model number?

Do you have friends in the building that will let you determine your speeds on their wifi?

 

[I7guy]

Ok, I am really stumped about this and I'm not sure if I am posting this in the correct place, so forgive me if I am not.

At any given moment in time, when I run a speedtest on my laptop (macbook pro) I get a lovely 20-25MBPS speed. When I run a speedtest on my iPhone or iPad? Lucky if I get over 1MBPS. So what is the deal here? I am not very technically savvy and I have no idea why this is happening. My ISP is centurylink (yes, total crap, but it's the only ISP allowed in my apartment building) and I've had centurylink for about 4 months and this issue has been happening only for the past week. I couldn't begin to fathom why. I didn't change any router settings. I've reset both my iPhone and iPad. I've reset the router. The router/modem is the all-in-one actiontech modem given to me by centurylink.

Does anybody have any ideas, any settings I can change on my iPad or iPhone (iPhone 5S and iPad air) or any suggestions with the ISP/modem? Would truly appreciate it. Nothing makes me happier than crawling into bed at night with my iPad and watching HBOGO and I can't do it anymore because HBOGO won't load.

thank you!!

The 5s has no configurable wifi settings. This is either a signal quality issue or a router setup issue. If you post the name and model number of your router maybe we can help.

Here is my 5s on wifi, showing it's not the 5s.

 

[PNutts]

Do you have a password on your network so nobody else is able to join?Also, did you starting using any additional WiFi devices around the same time your speed decreased?

I ask both questions because depending on the router it will drop all devices to the same speed of the slowest device. The MacBook might not be affected if the router offers (and it's using) a faster 5GHz connection.

You can see this is going to evolve into a technical discussion very quickly.

Now that I think about it, the easiest and most common answer is that someone in your building got a new WiFi router and they are stepping all over yours. iStumbler on your Mac will show you all the WiFi and you can check to see if any are sharing the same channel and change yours to something less congested.

 

[karilynn]

Hi all - thanks for the replies!

Yes, CL sucks and I hate it. We aren't allowed to have Comcast here because Comcast is a monopoly and my building is against monopolies, apparently. Not that I love Comcast either, but at least the internet is for the most part decently fast and stable.

Also, yes, I have contacted CL tech support a few times. I sit on hold for ages and end up with a foreign woman who reboots my modem and tells me that I need to connect my computer to the modem via ethernet cable. Problem is, I have a new MBP and apple decided not to put an ethernet port on them. It's the only computer I have at the moment, too. Then they tell me that wireless is not dependable and many, many things can interfere with the signal.

I have not added any new devices using the wireless lately. My Visio TV uses it, my Apple TV uses it, and my Wii U uses it. I've turned them all off and disconnected the wireless on the TV - makes no difference.

The modem model is the ActionTec C1000A. I do have a friend who lives in this building, has the SAME modem, same CL internet package, and the same devices (iPhone, iPad, and a MBP) and she is getting consistently good speeds. I get good speeds in her apartment on her wireless.

So here is what I am thinking. A few weeks ago a new neighbor moved into the apartment next to mine. I never realized that her router could be on the same channel and hogging the bandwidth. I checked out my modem settings earlier and the channel was on 11. I put it on auto-detect. Speeds went way up for a little while. I thought, oh sweet, problem solved! But the speeds are back down again now.

I will check out that link to figure out the wifi usage and which channels are being used and try to pick a channel that isn't being accessed by many. There are so many people in this building. Lots and lots of wifi connections. And of course, they're all using CL.

Thanks again for the suggestions and help. Any other advice would be appreciated. I wish I could get better help from CL, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

 

[PNutts]

Try channels 1, 6, or 11 (again) to see if any of those provides better performance.

 

[karilynn]

Try channels 1, 6, or 11 (again) to see if any of those provides better performance.

Ok, thank you. Also, I forgot to mention, yes I do have a password on my network. It's the one from the bottom of the modem that CL gave me. Should I change it?

 

[PNutts]

Ok, thank you. Also, I forgot to mention, yes I do have a password on my network. It's the one from the bottom of the modem that CL gave me. Should I change it?

I would. The goal is to keep people around you from joining your network. Unless they saw the password on the bottom of the modem then they won't know what it is. However, I can't say that password isn't the same for every modem so someone might be able to get it from the Internet. Or if it follows a pattern that can be determined.

You may be able to go into the modem and see if there are any wireless clients on your network that you don't expect. It's just one less thing to worry about when troubleshooting an issue.

 

[I7guy]

Channels 1 and 6 et al are for the 2.4 ghz band. Does the modem support a 5ghz band? If it does try connecting to an ssid associated with the 5ghz band.