broadband speed 3 x times faster on my iPad than my iMac,,,why?

(RIP) drillam

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I bought a 2nd hand iMac last year and it's been fine.
Bought an iPhone at the same time, so decided a few weeks back to get rid of my windows laptop and go for a used iPad 2.
The iMac locks up when downloading a lot. I have to switch off the wifi then switch on again to get it moving. Then it downloads a little, then I have to repeat.
The iPad is fine though, so I tested the speeds just now with both devices sitting right alongside each other, one straight after the other.
The iMac gor 4.5mps and the iPad did 15mps.
Why?
any ideas? the iMac is driving me nuts.
 
If you can, connect it to the router with an Ethernet cable or some power line adapters if the cabling would be tricky. It'll be more reliable, and it will take the network slowest device out once you turn the iMac airport adapter off.

'About this mac' will tell you the rate/supported 802.11 levels in the system report under airport. Internally upgrading it is going to be expensive, you could if desperate to keep wifi connect it to a bridged (to your base station) airport express by Ethernet.
 
Thanks Ian
I'm a bit of a computer numpty.
I just got this from "About this mac"
=====================

Software Versions:
CoreWLAN: 2.1.3 (213.1)
CoreWLANKit: 1.0.3 (103.2)
Menu Extra: 7.2 (720.1)
configd plug-in: 7.4.1 (741.1)
System Profiler: 7.0 (700.3)
IO80211 Family: 4.2 (420.3)
WiFi Diagnostics: 1.0.2 (102)
AirPort Utility: 6.1 (610.31)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x88)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.15)
MAC Address: 00:1c:b3:7a:12:e9
Locale: ETSI
Country Code: GB
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140
Wake On Wireless: Supported
Status: Connected
Current Network Information:
sonia:
PHY Mode: 802.11g
BSSID: 14:d6:4d:74:34:c6
Channel: 1
Country Code: GB
Network Type: Infrastructure
Security: WPA2 Personal
Signal / Noise: -78 dBm / -90 dBm
Transmit Rate: 36
=========================

My room is at the top of a three story house and the router is on the ground level, so a cable would not be practical.
What's a "bridged airport express by ethernet"?

cheers
Millard
 
So it supports 802.11n, good it's not old.

You can set up an airport express as a wifi bridge, if your internal card went bad. It would act like an external wifi adapter.

The 3 storey thing is probably a lot of it. You can see what the actual connection is by alt clicking the wifi button on the top of the screen. It'll tell you if its b/g/n channel, and effective rate.

Try borrowing some power line adapters, and cabling them to router and iMac.
 
Hi Ian
I did the Alt click thing and this is what it says

PHY mode: 802.11g
BSSID: 14:d6:4d:74:34:c6
Channel:1 (2.4GHz)
Security: WPA2 Personal
RSSI: - 78
Transmit Rate: 24

does that make any sense?

The odd thing is that right as I'm typing this, it's streaming live music.
It just doesn't seem to want to go to a new webpage unless I switch off, then on the wifi.
Or if it does it's very slow, yet it still streams ???

Thanks for taking the time with this.

Millard
 
OK I'll have a go at that link in a minute, but I'm using it downstairs now and it's nice and fast, download speed test shows 19Mb
So is the problem as simple as the distance upstairs?
If so what can I do if anything?
I know you've mentioned a coupla things above, but I'd be real grateful if you could explain in numpty language.
Cheers
Millard
 
It could be that you get interference or dropped packets when it's upstairs.

Try borrowing some power line extenders to see if cabling the mac via your ring main works better.

Are you copying stuff from one computer to the other a lot, or mostly straming off the internet.

If you aren't too worried about internal speed then something like

http://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/powerline-and-coax/simplesharing/XET1001.aspx

you can get faster more complicated versions, if you have a lot of internal copying/streaming going on.
 
Well I read up a wee bit on Apple's site about this, and it would seem to be a fairly common problem, with wifi connections dropping out and being sluggish.
They suggested that bluetooth devices in the vicinity of the mac can affect it's wifi reception.
So I turned off the bluetooth on the iPhone and the iPad and BINGO :thumb:thumb:thumb

Thanks folks for taking the time to reply
Millard
 
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