Long-time reader, first-time poster -- I looked around a bit at other threads but didn't see this specific issue elsewhere.
I recently made the jump to Comcast cable internet when AT&T DSL wasn't delivering on its promised speed. Comcast is faster... sort of. I've got a 2008 MacBook and a 2009 24" iMac, both on a Netgear WNR-1000 router provided by Comcast. My roommate also has 2009 MacBook Pro and a Sony desktop running Win 7 on the same network.
The roommate gets fantastic speeds on his machines, 15-20 Mbps, which is no surprise seeing as his room is closer to the router. My MacBook will also pull 20 Mbps, especially if I'm near the router, but also often in my own room, which is farthest from the router -- two walls away. If nothing else, it'll get at least 10-15 Mbps. But my poor iMac, which sits in my room, tops out at 10 Mbps on a good day, and 3-5 Mbps most others. Sometimes I'll have the MacBook right next to the iMac, and the MacBook will hit high speeds while the iMac will drag. The router also seems to drop both machines every now and then, particularly the iMac, and I'll have to turn AirPort off and then on again to resume what I was doing.
This was never an issue before -- admittedly the previous router did sit a bit closer to the iMac, but not by much. I'm wondering how much this has to do with the iMac itself (could Bluetooth interfere? I've got a wireless mouse), and how much it has to do with the router. I've read on these forums that setting the wi-fi channel to 11 can help, but so far it has not. I've played around with b/g/n vs. g/n vs. just n, but it doesn't seem to do much.
Do I simply have a dud router? Are there techniques I'm missing for making so many computers play nice on the same wireless network? Settings I should have enabled? I'd thought the entire point of a router was to get numerous machines online at once, but this seems to be a monumental struggle right now.
And yeah, I did think of moving the router nearer to my room, but given the location of the cable hookup it's not all that feasible.
I recently made the jump to Comcast cable internet when AT&T DSL wasn't delivering on its promised speed. Comcast is faster... sort of. I've got a 2008 MacBook and a 2009 24" iMac, both on a Netgear WNR-1000 router provided by Comcast. My roommate also has 2009 MacBook Pro and a Sony desktop running Win 7 on the same network.
The roommate gets fantastic speeds on his machines, 15-20 Mbps, which is no surprise seeing as his room is closer to the router. My MacBook will also pull 20 Mbps, especially if I'm near the router, but also often in my own room, which is farthest from the router -- two walls away. If nothing else, it'll get at least 10-15 Mbps. But my poor iMac, which sits in my room, tops out at 10 Mbps on a good day, and 3-5 Mbps most others. Sometimes I'll have the MacBook right next to the iMac, and the MacBook will hit high speeds while the iMac will drag. The router also seems to drop both machines every now and then, particularly the iMac, and I'll have to turn AirPort off and then on again to resume what I was doing.
This was never an issue before -- admittedly the previous router did sit a bit closer to the iMac, but not by much. I'm wondering how much this has to do with the iMac itself (could Bluetooth interfere? I've got a wireless mouse), and how much it has to do with the router. I've read on these forums that setting the wi-fi channel to 11 can help, but so far it has not. I've played around with b/g/n vs. g/n vs. just n, but it doesn't seem to do much.
Do I simply have a dud router? Are there techniques I'm missing for making so many computers play nice on the same wireless network? Settings I should have enabled? I'd thought the entire point of a router was to get numerous machines online at once, but this seems to be a monumental struggle right now.
And yeah, I did think of moving the router nearer to my room, but given the location of the cable hookup it's not all that feasible.