Download speed very different on two different macs

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cam2000deluxe

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Wannabe Geek

#142718 21-Mar-2014 15:53

I have recently got VDSl through telecom. The newer Macbook pro consistently gets download speeds (on WiFi) of 40 Mbps or more. The older (2007) white macbook can only reach around 20 sometimes a lot less, tested on cabled and wireless connections with speedtest. Upload speeds are basically the same on each (9-10 Mbps).

What gives what could be causing the older macbook to be so slow? I just have the telecom std VDSL technicolour modem...

Thanks!

hio77

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#1010680 21-Mar-2014 16:06

older mac doesnt have N/5Ghz?

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Sideface

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#1010683 21-Mar-2014 16:12

They probably have the same speeds on ethernet.

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trig42

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#1010688 21-Mar-2014 16:19

cam2000deluxe: I have recently got VDSl through telecom. The newer Macbook pro consistently gets download speeds (on WiFi) of 40 Mbps or more. The older (2007) white macbook can only reach around 20 sometimes a lot less, tested on cabled and wireless connections with speedtest. Upload speeds are basically the same on each (9-10 Mbps).

What gives what could be causing the older macbook to be so slow? I just have the telecom std VDSL technicolour modem...

Thanks!

I don't know what it is, but if you get the same results with both wired and wireless connections, it has to be the OS.

Can you boot Macs to a Linux Live CD? That would discount the Operating System.

RunningMan

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#1010691 21-Mar-2014 16:21

Different version of flash installed?

Buzz Bumble

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#1010693 21-Mar-2014 16:22

It's almost certainly because the new MacBook Pro will have newer / faster technology (chips, antennas, ports, etc.) than the old MacBook. Different versions of the Mac OS X may also be some of the cause.

For the wirelss connection it could also be minor issues with the antenna - I have a vague recollection of reading that the old white polycarbonite laptops did reportedly block the signal to some degree.

cam2000deluxe

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1010748 21-Mar-2014 17:56

The new one runs Mavericks, the older one Lion. I doubt it is OS related. The only port involved is the ethernet port, the crappy telecom modem is 100Mbps, the cable is 5e. How much CPU or RAM resource does an ethernet connection need? Still seems a mystery to me.

Could it be a modem setting, duplex/half duplex issue?, or computer setting?

Thanks for all the replies...

hio77

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#1010751 21-Mar-2014 18:08

cam2000deluxe: The new one runs Mavericks, the older one Lion. I doubt it is OS related. The only port involved is the ethernet port, the crappy telecom modem is 100Mbps, the cable is 5e. How much CPU or RAM resource does an ethernet connection need? Still seems a mystery to me.

Could it be a modem setting, duplex/half duplex issue?, or computer setting?

Thanks for all the replies...

the two operating systems might have slightly different handles on the TCP/IP stack, which could very well be the cause of it.

although more true with a tuned stack, a change of kernel can make a HUGE difference.

if the older machine is struggling with flash though, it is possible.

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RunningMan

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#1010761 21-Mar-2014 18:36

Open activity monitor while you are doing a speedtest and check what the CPU and memory usage is.

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#1010772 21-Mar-2014 18:56

If you have the Huawei modem you should get 260+ Mbps?

resurrect

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#1011616 24-Mar-2014 09:45

the old mac, is pre 802.11n, so it'll be operating at the 54Mb/s half duplex so around 20Mb/s sounds about right, the newer one should be running at about 140Mb/s half duplex so the limiting factor would be your DSL speed. (VDSL2 is ment to be able to do upto 300Mb down and 100Mb up)

RunningMan

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#1011874 24-Mar-2014 15:49

resurrect: the old mac, is pre 802.11n, so it'll be operating at the 54Mb/s half duplex so around 20Mb/s sounds about right, the newer one should be running at about 140Mb/s half duplex so the limiting factor would be your DSL speed. (VDSL2 is ment to be able to do upto 300Mb down and 100Mb up)

Not correct - 2007 models support a/b/g/n. Also, the OP tried testing via ethernet (which is 1000baseT on these models) and had the same result.

cam2000deluxe

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1012100 24-Mar-2014 22:05

I have since had a few tests with the old machine above 40Mbps. The flash plugin uses over 100% cpu amongst the different processes according to activity monitor, but that doesn't preclude a fast result clearly.

I guess the mystery now is the large variability, rather than what is possible speed wise...

hio77

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#1012104 24-Mar-2014 22:15

cam2000deluxe: I have since had a few tests with the old machine above 40Mbps. The flash plugin uses over 100% cpu amongst the different processes according to activity monitor, but that doesn't preclude a fast result clearly.

I guess the mystery now is the large variability, rather than what is possible speed wise...

since its a mac, i would assume the "curl" command is available.

try in your terminal 'curl "http://zeus.jetstream.co.nz/450M.bin" -O "speedtest"' and see how thats looking, should be alot less overhead than running flash and possibly a fair bit faster.

agh. not wget, its curl on mac.

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