Internet very very slow on Mac - Wireless

gibson

I've been having trouble with my Mac for a while now with the wireless connection. My brothers windows laptop runs prefect on NTL/UPC wireless connection but anytime I try use my Mac the internet either takes ages just load 1 page or it wont load it at all and just says its timed out.

The connection is there and the signal says full and if I plug my Mac into my broadband modem instead of my PC, the Mac flies along no problem.

The other weird thing is that the internet on the Mac may work every now and then and might actually be ok but again not as quick as the Windows laptop.

I've googled a few solutions but still cant seem to get it to work. Anyone any ideas, anyone experience this themselves?

who_ru

i'm having similar difficulties although they have only recently surfaced. i am on a upc wireless connection with a sysco router.

my problem is also slowness to load a page. for example if i'm on daft, the page will load slowly with the endless 'spinning wheel' on display.

i've tried clearing the cache, etc but the spinning wheel always resurfaces, regardless if using firefox or safari - it's noticeably slower with firefox - even carrying out a command can take a while - or typing a query into google, i hit the keys typing the word but there is a delay of a few secs before the word appears.

macbook is 2 years old - 2 gig ram - 2.1 Ghz processor.

gibson

mine sounds pretty much the same as yours, meant to say it didnt matter what browser i used - firefox, safari, chrome. Mines not even a year old

Sad Professor

@who_ru

Your problem sounds like it might be software related. The spinning beach-ball, etc. Does it happen on every website? Check your plugins. In particular, try disabling Flash.

@gibson

These kind of wireless problems can be difficult to pin down as the problem could lie anywhere. But I would suggest the following:

- Go into "Set Service Order" (in the gear box) in Network prefs and make sure Airport is dragged to the top. I'm not sure if this is really an issue anymore, but in the past OS X often got confused about whether to use Ethernet or Airport for the internet if this wasn't set right.

- Try turning off IPv6 in Network > Airport > Advanced > TCP-IP. Some routers don't like it.

- Make sure all your network settings are right. Maybe even delete them and start again. Maybe try setting a manual IP.

eoin_mulhern

run a ping test to a site and see are you getting packet loss..and then as sad proffessor set up ip routing manually should solve the issue.

also if you have cordless phone/xbox conrollers etc close to your router you may need to move them

Freddie59

gibson wrote: »

I've been having trouble with my Mac for a while now with the wireless connection. My brothers windows laptop runs prefect on NTL/UPC wireless connection but anytime I try use my Mac the internet either takes ages just load 1 page or it wont load it at all and just says its timed out.

The connection is there and the signal says full and if I plug my Mac into my broadband modem instead of my PC, the Mac flies along no problem.

The other weird thing is that the internet on the Mac may work every now and then and might actually be ok but again not as quick as the Windows laptop.

I've googled a few solutions but still cant seem to get it to work. Anyone any ideas, anyone experience this themselves?

Yep. I've googled it intensively, and it appears (and I stand corrected here) that the REAR of the iMac (the Apple logo) is where it sees the wireless signal.

I have it located temporarily in another room, faced away from the router, and was getting this problem.

Relocated the router to a more central point. No joy. Faced the rear of the machine at the router. FULL SPEED.

Turn router back towards wall. Signal gone. Temporary solution? Pice of tinfoil stuck to wall facing logo on rear of iMac. Full speed.

When I move it to its permanent home it will face the router, so there SHOULD NOT be a problem.

Have a look at this: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/airport-networking-wireless-technology/83582-new-imac-wireless-connection-extremely-slow.html

eoin_mulhern

Freddie59 wrote: »

Yep. I've googled it intensively, and it appears (and I stand corrected here) that the REAR of the iMac (the Apple logo) is where it sees the wireless signal.

I have it located temporarily in another room, faced away from the router, and was getting this problem.

Relocated the router to a more central point. No joy. Faced the rear of the machine at the router. FULL SPEED.

Turn router back towards wall. Signal gone. Temporary solution? Pice of tinfoil stuck to wall facing logo on rear of iMac. Full speed.

When I move it to its permanent home it will face the router, so there SHOULD NOT be a problem.

Wow interesting read freedie it seems apple make a few mistakes with radio transmitting applications...

@OP- is it an imac or a macbook?

gibson

Freddie59 wrote: »

Yep. I've googled it intensively, and it appears (and I stand corrected here) that the REAR of the iMac (the Apple logo) is where it sees the wireless signal.

I have it located temporarily in another room, faced away from the router, and was getting this problem.

Relocated the router to a more central point. No joy. Faced the rear of the machine at the router. FULL SPEED.

Turn router back towards wall. Signal gone. Temporary solution? Pice of tinfoil stuck to wall facing logo on rear of iMac. Full speed.

When I move it to its permanent home it will face the router, so there SHOULD NOT be a problem.

Have a look at this: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/airport-networking-wireless-technology/83582-new-imac-wireless-connection-extremely-slow.html

Ill try it but isnt that completely defeating the purpose of wireless? Like my router is upstairs and i wouldnt always use my mac upstairs

There were a few technical solutions people posted here so let me see if I understand them!

run a ping test to a site and see are you getting packet loss..and then as sad proffessor set up ip routing manually should solve the issue.

in terminal config do you just type ping www.google.com ? if that does have packets lost what does that tell me? To set up ip routing manually - I think i actually tried this. The connection was called "Automatic" I set one up called Home and the settings were the same, is that what you meant?

I'll try the solutions and let you know how I get on....thanks for all the help guys....now where did I put that tinfoil

Freddie59

eoin_mulhern wrote: »

Wow interesting read freedie it seems apple make a few mistakes with radio transmitting applications...

@OP- is it an imac or a macbook?

An imac Eoin. Same as THIS

My first intention was a MacBook Pro, but for a few dollars more I got the imac.

Freddie59

gibson wrote: »

Ill try it but isnt that completely defeating the purpose of wireless? Like my router is upstairs and i wouldnt always use my mac upstairs

Kinda mad alright. Given the cost these problems should not exist. At all.

gibson

Freddie59 wrote: »

Kinda mad alright. Given the cost these problems should not exist. At all.

so you werent trying this with a laptop then were u? the imac is the big computer version isnt it?

Ive actually just found another clue! It says on the airport status - Airport has a self assigned IP address and may not be able
to connect to the internet. I cant remember what it said previously but how do I change it to make it right?

I read that link that was provided and changed my DNS settings to
primary - 89.101.160.4
2nd - 89.101.160.5 which are apparently the settings for NTL. I tried to find these by logging on my router but all it says is automatically obtained by the ISP

Freddie59

gibson wrote: »

so you werent trying this with a laptop then were u? the imac is the big computer version isnt it?

My apologies kimosabe.:) I presumed when you mentioned Mac you were talking about the desktop. Usually people say Mac Book xx etc.

gibson

Cant actually get anything displaying now

It has a connection but when I try to load an internet page its just says cannot find host or something like that

Sad Professor

Preferences > Network > Airport > Advanced > TCP-IP

Is it set to use DHCP?

gibson

Sad Professor wrote: »

Preferences > Network > Airport > Advanced > TCP-IP

Is it set to use DHCP?

ye it says Configure IPv4: and drop down list has Using DHCP selected

edit: hmmm i cant explain it but it seems to be working perfect now :-s ill see how long it lasts though!

Sad Professor

Do you have any other wireless devices in the house?

Freddie59

Freddie59 wrote: »

Yep. I've googled it intensively, and it appears (and I stand corrected here) that the REAR of the iMac (the Apple logo) is where it sees the wireless signal.

I have it located temporarily in another room, faced away from the router, and was getting this problem.

Relocated the router to a more central point. No joy. Faced the rear of the machine at the router. FULL SPEED.

Turn router back towards wall. Signal gone. Temporary solution? Pice of tinfoil stuck to wall facing logo on rear of iMac. Full speed.

When I move it to its permanent home it will face the router, so there SHOULD NOT be a problem.

Have a look at this: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/airport-networking-wireless-technology/83582-new-imac-wireless-connection-extremely-slow.html

Update on this:

Worked perfectly for two days, then became very intermittent again. Would let me into speed test sites (after several minutes) and would indicate full speed. It's now about six feet away from the router (other side of a concrete wall - facing it) and the wireless problem is still the same.

The peculiar thing is that it would allow you to search for anything through google and the search results were instantaneous. But try accessing any of the results...........:rolleyes:

I've hard wired it to the router now (a little inconvenient) and everything is 100%. IE8 running in Windows 7 (through Parallels) would very rarely work, and when it did, the same problem arose.

I will be contacting Apple, but it is, apparently, widespread. ok - i'm fine, but hard wiring is not a solution for everyone.

Sad Professor

Freddie, does Airport show full signal throughout these problems? And do you have other wireless computers connected to the router without any issue?