how-to block ads
|
|
Share Topic
 |
 |
|
|
|
DaemonPremium
join:2003-06-29
San Francisco, CA Reviews:
 ·webpass.net
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·Comcast
| reply to LemonYellow
Re: A simple wireless speed question It's probably the crapiness of the router's throughput. A few additional questions, though:
1. How old are the routers in question?
2. Does the N300 have ethernet ports on it? What is the rate on a speed test through the router but via a wire instead of wireless?
3. When the MacBook Air is connected to wireless, find the wifi status icon on the menu bar and option+click on it. Let me know what the RSSI and Transmit Rate numbers are. Because you didn't notice any speed degradation as you got further away, it's probably not interference, but if you have a very strong, uniform source of interference (for example, many many other wifi networks nearby) you might get lower signal to noise numbers.
--
-Ryan
I use Linux, OS X, iOS and Windows. Let the OS wars die. | |
| Thanks for the quick response -
1) Routers are recent. Apple Airport about a year and N300 about 6 months.
2) I have an Air - gotta get the wired ethernet dongle from work to test this.
3) Love that option key. RSSI: -49, Transmit Rate: 130
There are *many* other routers around me. I'm in a NYC mega apartment building - I can see a couple of dozen without even trying.
Thanks for the help. | | |
|
 lordpufferComfortably NumbPremium
join:2004-09-19
Rio Rancho, NM
kudos:1
·CableOne
 ·CenturyLink
 ·Vonage
 ·T-Mobile US
 ·Dish Network
·Time Warner Cable
·AT&T Wireless Br..
| said by LemonYellow :There are *many* other routers around me. I'm in a NYC mega apartment building - I can see a couple of dozen without even trying.
As was said above by Daemon, that is probably your problem. I don't know of the configuration abilities of your routers, however, I believe the MBA you have probably has a 5GHz Card in it. Make any channel adjustments to your router if you can under 5MHz. If a 2.4MHz card is in the MBA, you should have many channels to chose from.
--
PR is back in town | |
DaemonPremium
join:2003-06-29
San Francisco, CA Reviews:
·webpass.net
·AT&T U-Verse
·Comcast
| reply to LemonYellow
said by LemonYellow :3) Love that option key. RSSI: -49, Transmit Rate: 130
Are you on a 5GHz network or a 2.4GHz network? (the information is available under the Channel heading if you option click again). The Air supports both.
Generally speaking, your RSSI numbers are good, indicating good signal to noise, and your transmit rate is 130mpbs, meaning you should, at a minimum, be able to get half of that, or 65mbps on a speed test. OS X is typically very good at dynamically adjusting the transmit rate downward to compensate for noise, so it's usually accurate.
Seeing as your numbers are so good, the many networks around you may not be the problem. The vast majority of wifi networks use the 2.4Ghz band, so if yours is 5Ghz, they aren't using the same spread as you are and won't interfere nearly as badly.
One additional test that would be helpful is to ping flood your router and look for dropped packets or high latency. To do that, open Terminal and run:
ping -c 20 -f (router IP address)
the -f will tell it to flood with pings as fast as possible, and the -c tells it to stop after 20 pings (so you don't flood it for too long). Let me know what the typical response time is, as well as the highest numbers and how often they occurred.
If you only have a MacBook Air, how did you directly connect to your modem? Does your modem have a wifi router inside of it? If so, you may be behind a double level of NAT, which is going to potentially cause internet problems and slow things down too. If possible, you'd want to disable the router inside the modem and put the modem into 'bridge' mode, so your separate router gets the public IP address directly.
--
-Ryan
I use Linux, OS X, iOS and Windows. Let the OS wars die. | |
|
