Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Difference in download speeds

My wife and I each connect to the internet wirelessly via an Apple Airport Extreme and a RoadRunner modem. The Airport Extreme is on my desk, a couple of feet away from my Intel iMac (Snow Leopard OS).

My wife's G5 iMac (Tiger OS) is about thirty feet down the hall. Her download speeds, according to Speedtest.net, are about one-half of mine (5 Mb/s vs 10 Mb/s). Her Ping (latency) test was twice as high as mine.

I had placed an Apple Airport Express in her office, a couple of feet from her computer, which I had set up as a "WDS remote", slaved to the Airport Extreme. Both are on frequency "1", and there are no other routers using that frequency nearby.

When the Airport Express was running, she had more "bars" in Internet Connect, indicating a stronger signal. However, her latency actually increased and her download speeds similarly decreased when the Airport Express was running. Not good!

I emptied her internet cache and used Onyx to clean her cashes and perform other routine maintenance. It did not make any difference.

Any suggestions as to how I might configure everything so that her internet speeds come closer to mine?

Thanks,
Bob

Could it be that the G5 has 802.11g wireless, while your new computer has the faster 802.11n?

No, neither uses .11n (I don't believe the Airport Express is .11n capable, and we use a couple of them in our home network).

I can't help, in my total ignorance of the significance of latency, but think that her higher Pings have something to do with the speed difference.

While your assessment may very well be correct, the current AE, like your iMac, is 11n capable, whereas the G5 is not. It would be interesting to see if the same difference persists if both Macs are using a wired (ether)net connection only.

There is still a huge difference, but it is a very different kind of difference!

Using ethernet to both computers (with a much longer cable to my wife's computer than to mine), she averaged 17 Mb/s and I averaged 19 Mb/s!!

Clearly, we're both sacrificing speed big time by using Airport wireless, rather than Ethernet. Is this usually the case, or is it likely the result of the way I set up the Airport Extreme (or perhaps the fact that the Airport Extreme is the top end of a WDS network?)?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

In my experience wired networks are almost always faster, more stable, and more secure. The one advantage of wireless is the ability to locate your network devices pretty much at will and not having to run cable all over the place.

I agree with Joe... hard wired is a much superior system... I had to use wireless at my last job and found it inconsistent, slow and flaky...

I ran my ADSL 2+ to five areas of my 2 story house and have cabled it everywhere... even went outside and ran it through conduit... my wife was not all that happy with the holes in the walls but after the fact there was not much complaining when the speeds were so significantly faster...

I felt much better too regarding security, sidewalk snoopers being what they are.. If you have regular consistent spaces set aside for the stations then ethernet is much the preferred setup... that doesn't stop you from still using the wireless when you want to go outside and lounge on the hammock and google the world (just make sure you are tightly bound to the system and snoopers can be defeated...)

If you were to have a professional wiring job done it will add value to the house when/if you move... speak to a pro and get the fastest and best for today as within five years it will be the midrange system... they will also be much neater and tidy.. (helps with the rational to others...) doncha just love technology...

Cheers

Thanks, folks. I will rewire (I used to have all of the cables in place, behind furniture, and removed them when I put in the Airport system).

Simple rule of thumb: wired where you can. wireless where you can't.