Tips on improving wifi speed??

[cperchard]

Hi, my new imac arrived today and absolutely love every part of it.....only slight drawback is my wifi speed.....it isn't a big deal cos I'm still getting 50 meg download speeds (I'm in uk with virgin 100 meg)......but just seemed odd that my 5 year old windows laptop seemed to get between 60-70 quite easily....I would have assumed if anything my imac would have been better not worse!

As I said not a major deal cos 50 on wifi is still awesome for me, just wondering if there's anything I could change to improve it? (Already tried using different channels on router setup!)

Cheers

 

[tom vilsack]

Not gonna help download speeds...but I like to use googles dns server numbers. (seems to help my page loads)

 

[cperchard]

Never mind.....facepalm moment....just learned my ISP have started traffic management.....cos was getting about 75-80 at midnight so researched why......and it's cos of peak time restriction......at least it's not the iMac tho!! Just proper annoyed with my ISP.....since i pay them an absolute bomb!

 

[richard13]

I think you're confusing two different things here. First you have your ISP which supplies your connection to the internet. This is usually measured in MB/s (that's a capital "B" for Bytes per second). If you say they are giving you 50MB/s that's pretty darn good! This is roughly equivalent to 500Mb/s (small "b" for Bits per second).

The speed of your Wifi is not the same. Wireless N (with the appropriate router) tops out at 300Mb/s (30MB/s) and you are likely getting much less than this on your home Wifi. To go faster than this you'd need a computer capable of 802.11ac (if your new iMac is 2013 it is) AND a compatible 802.11ac router. And even then you'd top out at 500Mb/s (50MB/s). Again, this is under ideal conditions which are almost never reached.

Wireless is very sensitive to distance and obstruction. So, to get better performance with your equipment you should try to reduce your distance and how many walls/floors are between your computer and router.

 

[Bl0ckHe1d]

Best solution is to ditch the wifi and plug your iMac directly into the Virgin Media super hub to benefit your full 100 meg

 

[blanka]

Desktops should be wire connected! From your goodielist I expect the only other wire-capable device is a 100 mbit ATV, so for that gigabit does not add much, but when you have more computers on the house network, wired is a breeze. I can transfer 10Gb in 4-5 minutes. Try that with even the most fancy Wifi in a remote (no conflicting networks) area.

 

[cperchard]

I think you're confusing two different things here. First you have your ISP which supplies your connection to the internet. This is usually measured in MB/s (that's a capital "B" for Bytes per second). If you say they are giving you 50MB/s that's pretty darn good! This is roughly equivalent to 500Mb/s (small "b" for Bits per second).

The speed of your Wifi is not the same. Wireless N (with the appropriate router) tops out at 300Mb/s (30MB/s) and you are likely getting much less than this on your home Wifi. To go faster than this you'd need a computer capable of 802.11ac (if your new iMac is 2013 it is) AND a compatible 802.11ac router. And even then you'd top out at 500Mb/s (50MB/s). Again, this is under ideal conditions which are almost never reached.

Wireless is very sensitive to distance and obstruction. So, to get better performance with your equipment you should try to reduce your distance and how many walls/floors are between your computer and router.

Yea sorry I'm probably confused as not very technical minded.....all I know is that when i go to speedtest.net i only get about 50-75 meg on the download test.....where as i pay for 100 meg broadband from my ISP.

As i said, my laptop of 5 years ago can't have had very good wifi internals as it only cost me £400 in 2008......so was a very basic laptop......but on the same speedtest.net site i was getting about 60-70meg download speed on my laptop.

But yea as i said i'm not really understanding everything you have said if i'm honest cos not the best "computer literate" person in the world, all i know is i expected a little better from my new iMac since it has better internals (even if it's the same modem/router i used with old laptop).........but as i said, i think it's my ISP traffic managing anyway so it's no problem really......apart from my IPS ripping me off by the sounds of it

 

[richard13]

Yea sorry I'm probably confused as not very technical minded.....all I know is that when i go to speedtest.net i only get about 50-75 meg on the download test.....where as i pay for 100 meg broadband from my ISP.

As i said, my laptop of 5 years ago can't have had very good wifi internals as it only cost me £400 in 2008......so was a very basic laptop......but on the same speedtest.net site i was getting about 60-70meg download speed on my laptop.

But yea as i said i'm not really understanding everything you have said if i'm honest cos not the best "computer literate" person in the world, all i know is i expected a little better from my new iMac since it has better internals (even if it's the same modem/router i used with old laptop).........but as i said, i think it's my ISP traffic managing anyway so it's no problem really......apart from my IPS ripping me off by the sounds of it

Right. I think you understand better than you lead on.

If your ISP guarantees 100M and you are only getting 60-70M you should call them on it. For instance, I have FIOS service here in the US and mine is supposed to be 25M up / 25M down and using speedtest.net it is consistently just that. The drop in your internet speed is likely, as you suspected, due to metering by your ISP.

Some ISPs (especially cable systems) advertise one number but deliver something less. This is due to the way that bandwidth is metered and it is sometimes done per block or per apartment building or per neighborhood. Essentially it boils down to that you are sharing bandwidth with your neighbors. I'm not sure what services are available in the UK or what you specifically have.

Just remember that what you see on speedtest.net is measuring your internet connection speed and not your wifi speed. Your new iMac has improved wifi speed but can't do a thing about your internet speed. To put it another way, for example, if you had two new iMacs at home, and you had the new Apple Time Capsule that supports 802.11ac, your wifi (LAN) traffic between your two computers would be faster than if you had two older computers talking to each other.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

 

[cperchard]

Right. I think you understand better than you lead on.

If your ISP guarantees 100M and you are only getting 60-70M you should call them on it. For instance, I have FIOS service here in the US and mine is supposed to be 25M up / 25M down and using speedtest.net it is consistently just that. The drop in your internet speed is likely, as you suspected, due to metering by your ISP.

Some ISPs (especially cable systems) advertise one number but deliver something less. This is due to the way that bandwidth is metered and it is sometimes done per block or per apartment building or per neighborhood. Essentially it boils down to that you are sharing bandwidth with your neighbors. I'm not sure what services are available in the UK or what you specifically have.

Just remember that what you see on speedtest.net is measuring your internet connection speed and not your wifi speed. Your new iMac has improved wifi speed but can't do a thing about your internet speed. To put it another way, for example, if you had two new iMacs at home, and you had the new Apple Time Capsule that supports 802.11ac, your wifi (LAN) traffic between your two computers would be faster than if you had two older computers talking to each other.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Yea I get what you mean.....I was worried until I saw my ISP have started traffic management during peak times.....as I said it went up dramatically after midnight.....so my minds at rest, over the moon with my purchase, it's a beast of a machine!