
Wifi performance and the new iPad - fields
http://workstuff.tumblr.com/post/36557748875/wifi-performance-and-the-new-ipad-counterintuitive
======
calinet6
Read to the end of the article, folks.

This is what happened: he tweaked settings galore, hoping to squeeze out more
performance somehow. Nerds tend to do this; it's natural.

However by removing the automatic settings and forcing it into one or more
configurations that may have been suboptimal, performance actually decreased.

When he returned the settings to "fully automatic" everything was fine and
dandy and maximal.

Moral of the story (and I quote): "Resist the urge to tinker with these
settings."

You can basically ignore everything except that last line—and if you're
familiar with the excellent AirPort Extreme, you probably already knew that.

~~~
smackfu
The problem is that there is no particular reason those configurations are
suboptimal, except the empirical "it makes the router run slower." Enforcing
802.11n for instance. If settings that should be good choices end up having
side effects, that's not a great design of the Airport Extreme.

~~~
calinet6
Agreed, the settings should be more useful in general.

However, it's possible that the flexibility of the settings toward other cases
(like using the router with older hardware, or less compatible or buggy
devices) necessitate their presence and complexity. Seems likely to me that
each of these settings has been placed due to a specific support case with the
plethora of device data and testing cases that they must have from years of
customer support.

I think, then, that the settings are not for the maximal optimal case, and the
misunderstanding here is that the router is somehow not initialized for
maximum performance. This may be true for other router brands, but in my
experience, is not true for Apple.

~~~
smackfu
In general, I agree that messing with random settings is not a great idea. But
these particular settings are some that I would feel pretty confident messing
with. Like setting a different 5Ghz network name is done for a particular
reason, because you want to be able to choose 5Ghz or 2.4GHz for the
connection, and you don't want it to switch back and forth as it wishes.

~~~
fields
It seems that the autoswitching has gotten good enough to trust that it's
making better decisions than you are about whether the 5GHz network is
superior.

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weiran
I don't get this behaviour with my (latest-gen) Airport Extreme. I have a
separate 5GHz network and get consistently 360Mbps to 450Mbps connection to
it. Are you sure your Airport isn't faulty?

Changing it to a single name for both networks leaves my iMac always connected
via 2.4GHz and no obvious way to switch to 5GHz.

~~~
fields
Are you sure? I don't have an iMac, but I've tested with two MBPs. They will
always use the 5GHz network if it's available. This may have something to do
with how good your connection to the airport is - does your signal quality say
Excellent?

I can't say that this configuration change will help for everybody - I'm just
reporting what I'm seeing.

~~~
dade_
I found that my aTV, MBP (Lion) and iPad 2 were always connecting to the 2.4
Ghz network with my dual band Airport extreme as well. Setting them
separately, I have forced it to 5Ghz. I live in a condo building so 5Ghz has
far less interference, so I don't understand the reason for the behaviour.

~~~
agent86
Try this on the MBP:

* Connect to the 2.4Ghz network

* Hold "Option" and click the wifi icon in the top menu

* Note the "Transmit Rate"

* Repeat this for the 5Ghz network

When I first setup my Time Capsule I noticed that my Mac often times was
attaching to the 2.4Ghz network. At that point I separated the networks and
did the above.

Low and behold, each time the Mac picked the 2.4Ghz network it did so because
it had a higher transmit rate than the 5Ghz one in a given location.

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eddieroger
I'd like to know a little more about the network setup. Are the Expresses
bridging via Ethernet, or acting as repeaters? I don't know if that could be
part of what he's seeing, but I'm still interested.

~~~
fields
This airport extreme is connected directly to outside (cable modem). There are
several airport expresses extending the network (I have no idea how to tell if
the client devices are connected directly to them, and I'm not sure it
matters). There is a second airport extreme bridged to that one, which is
running a dedicated 802.11g network to keep those devices off the same network
as the faster devices.

~~~
sounds
I'd really like to know if the situation changes if you:

1\. Disable your other airport expresses and the 2nd airport extreme

2\. Place your iPad as close to the airport extreme as is reasonably possible
(the one connected to the cable modem... just to try to get the max speed – it
would be interesting to see what the speed dropoff with distance is in a
second, separate test)

3\. Try the different options again (especially connecting on 5ghz using a
different SSID with the airport extreme's 5ghz network set to n-only)

It's not just the wifi interference (which shouldn't be a problem, but could
you also post how many other wifi SSIDs are visible from your iPad?) – but
multiple airport expresses mixed with an airport extreme falls outside the
realm of what 99% of users do (I think it could be a bug when the airports
interact).

As other posters have said, this kind of performance drop is abnormal.

~~~
fields
I will run some other tests when I get a chance. I've done #2, with no effect.

I don't think the Airport Expresses have anything to do with it - I've had
some reports of other people being able to replicate my results without that.

~~~
stock_toaster
Have you tried using specific channels (choosing channels with less
interference from other access points in your area -- i use wifi-explorer) for
5ghz and 2.4ghz, instead of leaving them at automatic?

~~~
fields
I have not in this case, but I've found in the past that the appropriate
channels tend to shift with other usage in the area, and leaving it on
automatic allows it to compensate for that, while hardcoding a channel can
work for a while and then stop being the best.

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svachalek
When it comes to any mass-market consumer product, 99% of the users (I'm
exaggerating, no, probably not) will leave all settings at the default.
Therefore the default settings have orders of magnitude more real-world
testing than all non-default setting combinations COMBINED. Nearly any mature
product is therefore bound to behave dramatically better on its default
settings than in any other configuration in sheer defiance of what "should"
happen.

~~~
fields
That really depends. It's completely untrue for, say, TVs:

[http://prolost.com/blog/2011/3/28/your-new-tv-ruins-
movies.h...](http://prolost.com/blog/2011/3/28/your-new-tv-ruins-movies.html)

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jeffehobbs
100% true. For this device, just roll with the defaults.

