For quite some time the d/l throughput to my deuced Mac(hina) from my AirPort Express Base Station (1st generation "n") was very much at odds with what it should have been based on what I saw at my router...erratic and considerably slower.

So after waiting way too long I tried switching from the 2.4GHz n only band to the 5GHz n only band yesterday, and my problem cleared up instantly.

But just now I switched back to 2.4GHz to see what would happen...and my problem didn't recur.

Is it possible that in making the initial change I somehow "flushed" or "jolted" my Base Station? (It's possible that the bad throughput began when I upgraded from Snowy to El Cap, but I just can't be sure.)

Thanks.

5 GHz is supposed to be "cleaner" than the 2.4 band; less subject to interference from spurious outside sources.

But why did switching back seem to clear things up? Perhaps your neighbor was using the microwave less often, your refrigerator settled down, or…?

As I have said before, with the complexity of all of these things, the fact that they work at all, or as often as they do, is amazing to me.

Got me beat!

I've now experimented by bouncing back and forth between the 2.4 GHz and and 5 GHz bands several times, and since my first venture back to 2.4 I've gotten similar throughput from both.

I doubt that my issue had anything to do with outside devices, spurious or otherwise...it was consistent for too long, and then it just disappeared.

Being that the problem began when I upgraded from Snowy to El Cap and disappeared when I switched bands suggests to me that something in the Base Station needed "flushing", but since I know absolutely nothing about its internal workings, that's nothing more than a very wild guess.


I've said the same thing many times, Ira; sometimes I sit here scratching my head...in awe of it all.