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Intel iMac problem.

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MRU

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 23, 2005
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For some reason the internet connection on my new intel imac sucks ass.

My powermac G5, mac mini and imac G4 all connect at 1.65mbps on my 2mb internet connection over airport express... Not too bad at all...

However my intel imac only manages to reach speeds of around 300-600KBps over the same connection. Speed the machine takes to request a page is noticeably slower too...

Even the 2 pc's in both the office & studio connect via usb 54gd dongles to airport express to cable modem at 1.73mbps (slighlty more than the other macs)...

I've tried running the test with Safari and a Universal version of Firefox and the results are the same... 300-600KBps

Very dissapointed with this.. Anyone else noticed this too?
 
Just out of curiosity, how's the signal strength? Mine seems to be fine - getting 600KBps (or faster) [note: KB, not Kb]. 802.11g will go to slower speeds if the reception isn't optimal.

Edit: speeds are > 2MBps when copying locally, and I'm not right by a base station.
 
I haven't had any problems with network connectivity. Although, I don't use wireless on my iMac. From what I have heard though, most people have had much higher signals and better throughput with their Intel iMacs than they had with G5 iMacs via Airport or 802.11b/g
 
Airport strength is maxed out, the airport base station is only in the next room.
Mac mini was tested sat right next to it and still gets 1.65mbps average on isp speed test..

Edit: I'm just going to try connecting directly via ethernet to the cable modem and check speed and I'll post the result in a few moments..

RESULT Ok so I connected directly, ran the isp speed test and guess what. It reported 1.48mbps so it must be the Airport that is slowing down my connection...
Is there any way to fix this I wonder..
 
MacRumorUser said:
For some reason the internet connection on my new intel imac sucks ass.

My powermac G5, mac mini and imac G4 all connect at 1.65mbps on my 2mb internet connection over airport express... Not too bad at all...

However my intel imac only manages to reach speeds of around 300-600KBps over the same connection. Speed the machine takes to request a page is noticeably slower too...

Even the 2 pc's in both the office & studio connect via usb 54gd dongles to airport express to cable modem at 1.73mbps (slighlty more than the other macs)...

I've tried running the test with Safari and a Universal version of Firefox and the results are the same... 300-600KBps

Very dissapointed with this.. Anyone else noticed this too?
Click to expand...

My Intel iMac ended up being DOA due to a video/logic board problem, but when I had it I noticed this too. I even tried putting my iBook in the exact same spot. Both had full signal strength, but the iMac was painfully slow at actually pulling down info, while my iBook did just fine.

Let me know if you figure something out about it.
 
Still no real solution. I changed a few preferences on my Airport Express, such as multicast range and made it G wireless only. While they helped a little, there's still no doubt that it's far slower at pulling down info than any of my other machines....

I installed FrontRow on my macmini with the enabler, to test the movie trailers on my HDTV, and they stream perfectly from the net.

The iMac stutters...... So I'm thinking were going to see an Airport Update soon.. Fingers Crossed..
 
I'll test mine once it comes back but it did seem slower than the G5, same area same everything, just slower. I thought it was Safari but I didn't get that far as to try FF with it :rolleyes: Glad I bought AppleCare for it, but still a pain in the butt.
Did you run the HWT disc and see if it came up with anything?
 
Artful Dodger said:
Did you run the HWT disc and see if it came up with anything?
Click to expand...

Just done that as I never thought of it, but it's reporting everything is ok...
It simply must be an airport driver problem.. Well that's what I hope anyway..
 
Yeah he's just trolling....

But Josh, have you had any experience of this? Are you using airport?
 
Yes, I too have noticed that my iMac Core Duo's wireless performance is not always up to speed. Through trial and error I narrowed down the problem to the use of "TKIP" with my WRT54G router. After switching to "AES", wireless speed is now OK.

Just to be sure, I switched back to TKIP and, indeed, it was slow.

My laptop works fine with the same router using TKIP.

Also, I've ruled out interference, and in all cases the signal strength is at max.
 
Interesting. I'll mess around with my airport express basestation and see what I find...
 
Hmm, I seem to be having a similar problem with my Intel Mac's wireless connection. It was beginning to get frustrating, but web surfing just didn't seem snappy to me.

I tested the down/up load speed from dslreports.com a few times, and it showed my iMac was getting from 1/4-1/3 the speed of my Windows laptop. The iMac is about 18" from the wireless router (a Netgear) and I am getting a full strength signal.

After I turned off the iMac's airport and connected an ethernet cable, surfing and downloads are definitely much faster (it took 5 hours to download Adobe's CS2 310MB trial to the Mac compared to 1 1/2 on the PC) but now my iMac's clean lines are ruined with an ugly green cable running out the back.

I'm not sure why that would be - all I can think of is that encryption/decryption is slowing down the iMac's request/response turnaround. I use WPA encryption - I haven't tried turning encryption off.
 
plinden said:
I'm not sure why that would be - all I can think of is that encryption/decryption is slowing down the iMac's request/response turnaround. I use WPA encryption - I haven't tried turning encryption off.
Click to expand...

There are two flavors of WPA (AES and TKIP). The solution for me was WPA-AES.
 
Thankfully I'm not alone in this one and it's an obvious flaw.

I imagine an airport patch will fix this.. Just hope it sooner rather than later.

I tried setting up my airport express with wpa but whilst my macs saw the network, the two pc's we have (for accounting in the office and wave editing/mastering in the studio) would not join.... So had to go back..

At least that way of the 7 computers in the house/studio, 6 of them connect at a decent speed..
 
I'm sorry some of you are having problems, but my Intel iMac actually connects to our Linksys wireless router better than my Windoze laptop does. Hopefully it is an issue with the airports that can be fixed with a firmware upgrade or something.
 
That's Funny

I have ran the dslreport.com on 3 different macs my iMac intel 20", my PowerBook 1.5 G4, and my ibook 700 G3.

the results was about

1 Mbit for the iMac
375 Kbits for the PowerBook
1 Mbit for the iBook

I am run WPA on my Apple Base Station Extreme. But one difference is the version of software on my basestation. I am running 5.51 instead of 5.6 because I found a fault with the PPP in 5.6, so I have to go back to using the older version. Clearly I fine that my iMac is performing the best. The resaon why my Powerbook sucks, is that the signal strength sucks, and that is a design flaw in the powerbook itself.
 
brettbolt said:
There are two flavors of WPA (AES and TKIP). The solution for me was WPA-AES.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's definitely the encryption that's causing the problem with me. Turning it off totally gave me full speed access.

Unfortunately my netgear router doesn't give the option to change the WPA to AES, so I'll have to stick with the cable until Apple sort this out.

Actually, it's a relief to find that this is the reason for the slow internet connection. I was starting to get worried it was something intrinsic to OS X, and was beginning to feel a touch of buyer's remorse.
 
plinden said:
Unfortunately my netgear router doesn't give the option to change the WPA to AES, so I'll have to stick with the cable until Apple sort this out.
Click to expand...
If they don't fix this, you could get a LinkSys WRT54G (like I have). It has WPA-AES mode which works at full speed in my tests here with a 20" iMac Core Duo.
 
Just wanted to mention that when I had the problem I too was using WPA.

My router only supports WPA, sadly (old 802.11.b). I needed to upgrade anyway I suppose, but I'd much rather we just see a patch on this.
 
I've fiddled with my airport express settings but to not much avail.. So iritating.. My 1 and only complaint about the imac so far...
 
Net speed

I recently purchased the 20 inch Intel Imac w/ 2G ram and 256 mg Vram. I use a Airport Extreme to connect wirelessly to the internet. I've noticed no problem with speed. I do use encryption . . . WPA. Same settings I've used with my G4 and my Dell laptop. All of my machines rate the same speed with my provider, "Charter" cable modem . . . nearly 2 to 2.5 meg download. Speed does fluctuate ocassionally, but this is to be expected being that I live in a large apartment complex and I'm certain there are others nearby using Charter cable modems. I have no gripes with my new Imac's performance. BTW, I did not (as some have suggested in other posts in this forum) format the drive. I guess I've been lucky thus far . . . knock on wood! :D
 
ALaPPleCOREuser said:
I recently purchased the 20 inch Intel Imac w/ 2G ram and 256 mg Vram. I use a Airport Extreme to connect wirelessly to the internet. I've noticed no problem with speed. I do use encryption . . . WPA. Same settings I've used with my G4 and my Dell laptop. All of my machines rate the same speed with my provider, "Charter" cable modem . . . nearly 2 to 2.5 meg download. Speed does fluctuate ocassionally, but this is to be expected being that I live in a large apartment complex and I'm certain there are others nearby using Charter cable modems. I have no gripes with my new Imac's performance. BTW, I did not (as some have suggested in other posts in this forum) format the drive. I guess I've been lucky thus far . . . knock on wood! :D
Click to expand...

WPA security does boost peformance alright. I turned it on and noticed my connection speed went back to normal. I'm guessing there is still a bug that has to be sorted out though within Airport itself.

This hopefully as I say will get fixed in an update soonish :)
 
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