Internet speed

Question

Internet speed

My Internet company claims I should be getting download speeds of up to 400 mbps, but I'm only getting 302.91 mbps. (which is the highest it's gotten)

The tech they sent to our house thinks it has to do with the age of my Mac and how much speed it can handle. We both tested our smartphones to compare, and my iPhone 8 via wifi is getting a whopping 455.26 mbps.

My current set up has an ethernet cable going from their router, through an apple base station (used for wifi and time machine backups on my laptop) and then into my tower.

We tried bypassing the base station and it didn't make a difference. We tested wifi connection with both the base station and their supplied wifi router, also with no difference. The iPhone test was with the base station wifi, so that doesn't seem to be the issue.

My computer is a Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

2.8 GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon

8 GB of Ram.

OS High Sierra (10.13.6 - which is the highest this machine will accept)

(old but still ticking)

My Laptop is an older model as well:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

16 GB of Ram.

OS Catalina (10.15.7)

Download speed on the laptop via wifi is only 136.13 mbps. I expect wifi to be slower, but compared to my iPhone this is crawling.

Are my computers just too old to handle this type of internet speed? I mean, they work, just not with the performance I'm paying for. I've started to think it's time to make the leap and invest in newer machines, but of course: $.

Are there settings I can adjust to help boost the speed?

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 12, 2021 2:00 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobHarris

Level 9

54,917 points

Jan 25, 2021 4:36 PM in response to Paul Trautwein1

Are you sure your Ethernet cable is good quality? Can you try a different cable. Maybe a known good quality cable, and shorter so the distance is not very far. This is an experiment to see if your Ethernet cable is good.

Cut out the Airport Extreme base station, and connect directly to the broadband modem WITH A DIFFERENT Ethernet cable. When you change the device connected to the broadband modem, you will need to power cycle the modem so it will talk to the current device. This will eliminate the Airport Extreme as a bottle neck.

Do you have anti-virus software installed on your Mac. At work, they make use install McAfee on the company Macs. The McAfee firewall significantly slows downloads, whether a large file, or images to populate a web page.

If you have a 3rd party Anti-Virus package with its own firewall, it is possible that is significantly affecting your networking performance.

Boot into Safe mode, and try the test? Safe mode should avoid loading any 3rd party software that might interfere

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac

Are you using the Build-in Apple Ethernet port, or do you have some 3rd party Ethernet adapter?

With respect to WiFi, is your Mac connecting via 2.4GHz or 5GHz? Is it using 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac. You should be able to figure that out by Option-Click the WiFi icon in the menu bar, and look at the "PHY Mode"

With WiFi, how far away from the WiFi base station was the Mac. If there is any distance, or walls, floors, etc... between the 2, that will affect WiFi transfer speeds. Especially metal and water.

With WiFi, do you have USB3 devices sitting next to your Mac. A poorly shielded USB3 device or USB3 cable, or worse using a USB2 cable with a USB3 device can generate interference in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. When testing WiFi make sure all devices are unplugged from your Mac.

Try Disabling IPv6. System Preferences -> Network -> Select the interface (WiFi or Ethernet) in the left column -> Advanced -> TCP/IP tab -> Configure IPv6 -> Link-local only.

While IPv6 has been around for years, the world has been slow to implement IPv6, and not every home networking device has a robust IPv6 implementation, plus you do not know how well your ISP's gear handles IPv6.

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Answer 2

Feb 6, 2021 11:57 AM in response to Paul Trautwein1

Here's a follow up for anyone still interested.

Since my last post, the Mac Pro died on me. Probably due to synchronicity, that I was asking about it's age, and it just didn't like that, or because it's over 10 years old, and it's time had come.

I replaced it with a new Mac Mini with the M1 chip. And one of the first things I did was check the speed and it's substantially better than before:

DLS: 479.76

ULS: 23.37

And this is with a WiFi connection since I don't have a hub to use a direct Ethernet connection yet. This is better than what I was hoping for.

Thanks again for all the advice and time.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

244,841 points

Jan 12, 2021 4:25 PM in response to Paul Trautwein1

Make 2 New Locations, one for Wifi, one for Ethernet...

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

Sys Prefs>Network>highlight the Interface you're using>Advanced>TCP/IP>Configure IPv4: Using DHCP.

If using Wifi, instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

System Preferences>Network>choose interface>Advanced>Proxies Tab, make sure none are set, like for HTTP & HTTPS.

System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

1.1.1.1

9.9.9.9

Apply.-

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Answer 4

Jan 12, 2021 5:22 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BDAqua,

I've followed your instructions and here's what I did:

Set up two new "Locations."

Choose my new "Ethernet" location and my "WiFi" network for each location and went into the Advanced settings and added all four of the DNS Servers as you recommended. Nothing checked in the Proxies.

The results weren't as good. At least with the Ethernet. Just 268.42 mbps. Down from 302.91 mbps earlier today. However. it could be because it's later in the day, and we have another laptop using WiFi in a different part of the house.

The WiFi connection was better than earlier, but nowhere near as good as my iPhone. Results 211.59 mbps.

Any other ideas? Thanks for your help.

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Answer 5

Jan 24, 2021 5:27 PM in response to Paul Trautwein1

Okay - not responses in a while - so I maybe I can reactivate this.

Alas, none of the suggestions above did anything to help.

My original hypothesis: Are my computers just too old to handle this type of internet speed?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

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Answer 6

Jan 25, 2021 6:55 PM in response to BobHarris

Thanks BobHarris.

Tests on the Tower - Ethernet connection.

I swapped out the cable. The older cable was much longer and much older. Here are some new speed results:

Original: dls-138.35/uls-9.8 mbps Pretty bad - worse than the other day.

Safemode: 116.42/6.8

New Cable - bypass Base Station: 307.77/8.5

New Cable - via the Base Station: 333.30/9.12

The following are tests on the Laptop and the WiFi.

WiFi is on the Laptop is using 802.11n

The "Configure iPv6" switched to Link-local only.

I tested it in three different locations around my house, and the only places I'll use it.

Location 1 - farthest from the Wifi: 10.68/11.11

Location 2 - midway the Wifi: 72.65/6.78

Location 2 - closer to the Wifi: 69.62/8.17

Location 3 - same room as the Wifi: 100.54/17.63

No USB devices connected.

It's better, but still not what I'm hoping for.

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Answer 7

BobHarris

Level 9

54,917 points

Jan 26, 2021 3:13 PM in response to Paul Trautwein1

Google found this:

802.11n (Wi-Fi 4)

With the 802.11n standard, Wi-Fi became even faster and more reliable. It supported a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 300 Mbps (and could reach up to 450 Mbps when using three antennae).

I do not have any idea how many antennae your Airport base station has.

My experience with with WiFi speeds is that the practical data transfer rate is about half of what the bit rate is.

The faster WiFi speeds are with 802.11ac. There is a good chance your iPhone is much newer and maybe supports 802.11ac protocols.

The Ethernet speeds are not terrible.

The question is are you comparing Grapes to Grape Fruit. That is to say, is the measurement method used for the Mac, the same as the iPhone.

I assume you are using an Internet speed test, but is it by the same vendor? Is it going to the same test server? If there are differences in software and test server destinations, that might explain some of the iPhone vs Mac differences.

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Answer 8

Jan 27, 2021 5:25 PM in response to BobHarris

Yes, the Ethernet speeds are not terrible, and they are much better than what I was getting before the new modem. They just aren't what Spectrum says they should be.

Yes, the iPhone is much newer than the MacBook Pro. So my guess at the older equipment causing slowdown makes sense when I consider the 802.11n vs. 802.11ac differences you mentioned.

To test I'm using "speedtext.net" for all three devices which is what Spectrum recommended. They have it embedded on their site when I login, but I was going directly to the website.

I think I may have hit the ceiling for my particular devices.

I appreciate all the inquiries and suggestions.

Thanks again.

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