Slow Airport??

[jeremy012]

So I finally had the chance to compare the download speed of airport on my brand new Macbook Pro to several other laptops using http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/. The results are not very good:

1) Macbook Pro- ~2000 KBPS
2) my Old Titanium Powerbook- ~3000 KBPS
3) my work dell D600- ~5000 KBPS

So what's the deal? Do I potentially have a defective airport card on my Macbook Pro, or does it just perform worse than the others? In other words, can I take this to an apple store and get the airport card replaced, or is this what I should expect? Thanks for your help!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

How many times did you test your machines? I find those online speed testers to be kinda bad references.
Does the machine feel slower?

 

[jeremy012]

Yeah, those are rough averages after running the tests a number of times. I noticed the problem when playing online poker, as I kept getting "slow connection" warnings which prevented me from playing. I had not once seen that on my Powerbook.

 

[steamboat26]

On a similar note, someone reccomended that the best way to increase airport speed is to change the network to b instead of b&g or just g. How would i go about changing it to b?

 

[mad jew]

At faster connection speeds, those testers usually just test your computer's Java speeds as opposed to actual throughput speed. This is why you should download a largish file from a close-by server to test the speed of fast connections rather than use an online tester.

Changing the speed to 802.11B will most likely have the opposite effect. It'll limit the maximum theoretical speed to 11Mbps rather than 802.11G's 54Mbps. Nevertheless, you can change it in AirPort Admin Utility using the Mode dropdown list at the bottom of the AirPort pane. I wouldn't do this though.

Often interference can play a role in slowing down a wireless network's speed. Maybe try changing the broadcast channel in the menu just above the Mode menu.