Changed wireless settings. Now Internet is extremely slow

[gusmahler]

I have a 2010 Mac Pro. It's been running fine for years. I have a Belkin wireless router that I did some maintenance on. I updated the firmware and changed some wireless settings (including the SSID and the password).

Now, the Internet has slowed to a crawl on the Mac Pro. But it's fine for the other computers on my network. I just ran a speed test on my laptop (not a Mac) and I got 26.43 Mbps. (The computers were in the same room when I ran the test). On the Mac Pro, I get 0.90 Mbps. Before I updated the router, they were about the same.

What can I troubleshoot?

 

[MacVidCards]

If you hold option when you click on the airport icon on top you will see how it is connecting

 

[gusmahler]

Changing the channel from 11 to 1 solved the most serious of the problems--it's now faster than dial-up.

The problem now is that the speed just changes so often. My laptop is solidly 30 Mbps, no matter when I run it or in what room.

I just ran speedtest on the Mac Pro. On three consecutive times running it, I got .9 Mbps, 3 Mbps, and 30 Mbps.

 

[glenthompson]

Can you hardwire the Mac Pro to the router? Since it probably doesn't move around much why use wireless? That will give you much better speed.

 

[gusmahler]

Woke up this morning, turned on the computer, wireless is working fine. I put the computer to sleep as I go out to do some errands.

Come back and WiFi doesn't work at all. It tells me "No Hardware detected."

I suppose the easiest solution is to buy an $8 USB WiFi adapter. It's possible that faulty hardware was causing the intermittent connection problems.

Wiring is not an option. My wife would kill me if I ran an Ethernet cable from the living room to the computer room.

EDIT: I opened up the computer, blew some compressed air to clean out the dust and wifi works again. I'll probably still buy a WiFi adapter just in case.

 

[InuNacho]

Be wary of wifi USB adaptors. I bought a Newertech one and it uses the Ralink chipset and software, it's pretty buggy. No sleep and accidentally pulling the stick out causes KPs.