Wifi Latency Question

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tdgeek

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#173330 19-May-2015 20:53

Not a search for a problem fix, more of a question of interest.

My Spark Fibre is on a 200/20 plan. Speed tests on my rMBP, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, and gaming rig PC are all very consistent, all at 205/22 and the PC uses a DLink DW131 teeny wifi adapter, and shows 53/22 so I take that as fine as its N not AC, the Apple stuff are all AC on 5GHz

But they all have latency at 2 to 4 ms, including the PC. The Apple stuff is line of sight 3 metres from the AEBS. the PC just around the corner. BUT the rMBP, supposedly the fastest of the Apple gear always has latency around 25ms, why would this be? I even held it up, where I would hold the phone and iPad, still the same.

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#1308009 19-May-2015 21:09

Pinging the router from your rMBP (whatever that is - what's the r before macbook pro?) takes 25ms? That's time for it to get almost to Australia and back! So the apple has higher latency and higher throughput?

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#1308018 19-May-2015 21:10

just along those lines, my laptops have horrible latency when inssider is open on them. maybe its something running on the device causing the latency

tdgeek

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#1308025 19-May-2015 21:29

timmmay: Pinging the router from your rMBP (whatever that is - what's the r before macbook pro?) takes 25ms? That's time for it to get almost to Australia and back! So the apple has higher latency and higher throughput?

rMBP is Retina Macbook Pro, this one is late 2013, i7 quad, 8GB, 512SSL
Won't the ping be to the speediest location?

Aredwood

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#1308103 20-May-2015 02:32

The ping results in the normal speed test. Is timed from downloading a small jpeg from the speed test server. instead of an ICMP ping. It is done this way so the test can still work through a corporate firewall. You probably have a virus scanner program that is checking the JPEGs and slowing things down.

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#1308122 20-May-2015 07:42

You'd best tell us exactly how you're measuring latency, and give us the raw results.

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#1308126 20-May-2015 07:51

I also have an MBP plus an older AEBS (I think it's the 4th 802.11n model) and it adds 1-3 ms. It is most certainly not normal for it to increase by 25!

Testing by pinging Geekzone.

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tdgeek

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#1308160 20-May-2015 08:57

Aredwood: The ping results in the normal speed test. Is timed from downloading a small jpeg from the speed test server. instead of an ICMP ping. It is done this way so the test can still work through a corporate firewall. You probably have a virus scanner program that is checking the JPEGs and slowing things down.

Good point, but I don't have any third party AV on the Macbook, just whatever Apple may have in the background

Ping GZ from Macbook 45ms
From iPhone 6 Plus 1.1ms
From iPad Air, same iOS app 70ms.

Just realised the wife laptop is downloading will test later

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#1308161 20-May-2015 09:05

timmmay: You'd best tell us exactly how you're measuring latency, and give us the raw results.

The initial post was the latency from Ookla Speediest. All Apple devices at same location, all 5Ghz AC
All achieve a very similar speedtest at about 205/22 , the latency is very low and similar on the iPhone and iPad, but the Macbook is usually 25 to 29ms
The variable is the Mac or Yosemite, and Yosemite supposedly has wifi issues, googling points to the wifi driver.

Interestingly, this laptop boots to ready to use in 12 seconds, and the internet was useable exactly then, since two Yosemite updates, I need to wait maybe 5, maybe 8 seconds before its useable. Apple and wifi, not a match made in heaven. I could ask that they implement wifi to 100% of the Wifi Alliance standards, but.....

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#1308164 20-May-2015 09:06

GZ has cloudflare in front of it, it's hosted in Australia, so your ping time should be around 35ms. Your iphone is lying, it can't get to Australia and back in 1.1ms. It's pinging something else or not doing anything.

Ping your router from your laptop.

tdgeek

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#1308173 20-May-2015 09:12

timmmay: GZ has cloudflare in front of it, it's hosted in Australia, so your ping time should be around 35ms. Your iphone is lying, it can't get to Australia and back in 1.1ms. It's pinging something else or not doing anything.

Ping your router from your laptop.

Ping Huawei 659b Router 1.9 to 3.3ms typically mid 2's
Ping Apple Extreme Base Station connected to 659 by ethernet 2ms

Rechecked iPhone, same result, it is lying

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#1308187 20-May-2015 09:19

Everything seems fine to me.

Your thread and posts are ambiguous and lack detail. Difficult to provide effective help without appropriate information.

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#1308198 20-May-2015 09:29

Have you got WiFi disabled on your router?

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tdgeek

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#1308201 20-May-2015 09:34

timmmay: Everything seems fine to me.

Your thread and posts are ambiguous and lack detail. Difficult to provide effective help without appropriate information.

Fair enough. Simply put, all devices achieve max throughout on the Ookla test at 205/22, the iPad and iPhone are 2-3ms latency, the laptop is 25-30ms. Same location physically, same speediest. The variable is either the Macbook, or Yosemite. Even my PC which is double the distance from the AEBS at around 6 metres and not line of sight is 2ms, and on N wifi 2.4, not AC 5 as the others are.

tdgeek

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#1308202 20-May-2015 09:35

michaelmurfy: Have you got WiFi disabled on your router?

Yep. When wife has gone, I might enable that and unplug the AEBS

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#1308206 20-May-2015 09:43

tdgeek: Fair enough. Simply put, all devices achieve max throughout on the Ookla test at 205/22, the iPad and iPhone are 2-3ms latency, the laptop is 25-30ms. Same location physically, same speediest. The variable is either the Macbook, or Yosemite. Even my PC which is double the distance from the AEBS at around 6 metres and not line of sight is 2ms, and on N wifi 2.4, not AC 5 as the others are.

Latency in the 2ms range is generally only possible for services inside your home network or very, very close to you. For example from work I can get to trademe.co.nz in 1ms, but google.co.nz which is hosted somewhere in New Zealand is 11ms. It's possible that a speed test node inside your ISP network or very close to it could register that low.

You still haven't given sufficient information to diagnose the discrepancy. Your location and the detailed results of each speed test would be required - particularly the server. This is usually provided as a link you can easily post online by the speed test site.

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