Airport Express halves speed randomly

I have two Airport Express base stations. One is connected to my cable modem via ethernet. The other is set a few rooms closer and set to WDS Remote. Things have worked very well for months, but recently speeds have been coming in halved. Usually I get around 600kbps from good sites like Apple, but then suddenly it will drop to 300 - 150 kbps. It's not a problem with the ISP, I reset and reconfigured the base stations and it comes in regular speed again. But within 30 minutes it slows down. Sometimes even just a quick manual switch from remote to relay in the Airport utility bumps it back up, but for some reason within a half hour it slows down again. After it slows down it never gains back full speed. Any suggestions? The two Expresses are about 40 - 50 feet apart. They aren't very far, but between several walls, and where my laptop is it gets a weak signal.
Anyone else have this experience?

Well, assuming your Express is working normally, something is affecting things and I'm not sure what it is. If my internet connection is 10 Mbps close to the router, it's around 8-9 Mbps about 35-40 feet away if I check on my laptop. If I plug in an AirPort Express to extend at this same location, I get 8-9 Mbps extended at least another 25-30 feet further past the AirPort Express. You should be getting similar performance.
Don't discount the effects of cordless phones. I few years ago, I was suffering from intermittent slow speeds in the "extended area" of the house and sometimes the connection would get very slow. I could not find out what was causing the issue until one day by accident as I was on my laptop, I noticed my neighbor...across the street...coming out of his house talking on his cordless phone when my wireless slowed to a crawl. I would have probably never discovered the cause of the slowdowns except by accident. And the area near my main router was never affected. So, I can state for certain that interference can do some strange things.
A wireless security system at the neighbors can do the same thing and I've had to put up with that as well. Cordless phones and wireless security systems will not show up on utilities that scan for wireless networks, so you really cannot identify them aa a source easily.
Unless you are lucky enough to live in an area with no other houses around for 300 feet in any direction, you are probably picking up some form of interference. It is everywhere.
Bottom line here. You either have a defective Express (it will likely test perfect at the Apple store as mine did), or something is interfering with the signal. Please post back on your findings.

Similar Messages

Airport Express Max Speed 65Mbps =(

I recently purchased a wireless N draft airport express and no matter how close I am to the airport the speed of the network is 65Mbps. At first i thought it was my computer but i recently visited a friend and my speed went up to about 150Mbps. He has a Linksys Router. Any ideas?

Hi,
Had the same problem. But when I changed the transmission freq. from 20 to 40Mhz (or both depending on router) on the router you should be able to reach app. 130-150 Mbps.
Jan

WD Mycloud + Airport express - Slow Speeds

I have a WD Mycloud connected to an airport express, will port forwarding increase my download speed?
If so, how do you port forward the express?

No. Its performance will be limited to the connection method used. If it is connected wirelessly, it will be subject to the vagaries of wireless communication.
All network attached storage devices will perform slowly compared to a device directly connected to, or installed within, a Mac Pro.

Airport Express Slow Speed w/ Ethernet

I recently purchased an Airport Express "N" router to serve as my primary wireless network.
I have Verizon Fios, at 50Mbps down / 20 Mbps Up. These are the exact speeds I get over Ethernet.
I connected Ethernet to the Airport Express, set it up as its own WiFi network.
It was slow, but then I checked and it needed a firmware update, so I ran that, now its much faster...
A few back to back speed tests from my MBP yielded an average of 35 Mbps down.
What I want to know is, why is it not the full 50 Mbps? I thought the AE "N" was capable of hundreds of Mbps.
-Could it be that I'm getting interference from both wireless networks active and broadcasting from only about 3 feet apart? (unlikely IMO)
-Might I need to turn off wireless in the Verizon unit?
-Are the claims of actual WiFi speeds of 802.11 N just B.S.?

First, wireless is always going to be slower than Ethernet due to loss in the conversion process to wireless. Usually this is around 15-20% or so.
The further away that you move from the wireless router, or if you have any obstructions like walls in the signal path, the more the bandwidth will drop away. No way to escape that.
-Could it be that I'm getting interference from both wireless networks active and broadcasting from only about 3 feet apart?
Very likely, in my experience...along with cordless phones, BlueTooth devices, etc.
-Are the claims of actual WiFi speeds of 802.11 N just B.S.?
In what regard? The speed on your "private" network will always be much higher than the speed of your Internet connection.
Try this test:
Locate your MacBook relatively close to the AirPort Express
Hold down the option key while you click on the fan shaped AirPort icon at the top of the screen
Look for the Transmit Rate
What number do you see?

Airport Express disconnects randomly

My Airport Express disconnects me randomly, without any reason, and it even disappears for some time from the available networks. I was wondering if anyone had a fix for that.

I just wanted to echo the problem. I also have occasional disappearances of the AirPort Express, completely without reason. I'll be using the internet, or not...listening to music, or not...and poof, all signal bars are gone, no more connection between the computer and the AE. The LED on the AE stays green, indicating no problem.
I do a soft reset on the AE. Still not appearing. I shutdown, wait, and restart the computer. Nothing. I have to do a hard reset on the unit to get it to be "seen" by the computer again, and set up the AE and my wireless network from scratch. Annoying and frustrating.
This tends to happen about once or twice a week.
I guess it wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't have to re-enter all the Airport Express settings/passwords each and every time.
Any ideas?

Internet speed slows down when connected via airport express

Internet speed slows down when connecting via airport express. When connecting directly via the timecapsulethe internet speed is ok, when connecting via the airport express the speed slows down.What can I do to change that? Any suggestions?

Turn off the AirPort Express completely as a test, and move your computer very close to the location of the Express.
As I said before, the Express can only extend the bandwidth (speed) that it receives from the Time Capsule, so the speed that you see there with the Express powered off will be the fastest speed of which the Express is capable.
The Express will make the signal go further when it extends....but it will not make the signal go faster.
A good location for a device that extends wirelessly is a point that is about half the distance from the Time Capsule and the general area that needs more wireless coverage.
If you locate the AirPort Express too far from the Time Capsule or there are more than a couple of walls in the signal path, the signal will be very slow by the time that it reaches the Express....and the Express simply extends a signal that has already slowed down significantly.
If you already have the Express located about half the distance between the Time Capsule and general area that needs more wireless coverage, how many walls, ceilings or other obstructions are there in the signal path between the Time Capsule, the AirPort Express and the area that needs more coverage?
Often, due to obstructions, it is just not possible to achieve good performance when you try to extend a network wirelessly. The solution is connect the AirPort Express to the Time Capsule using a wired Ethernet connection.
There is virtually no signal loss with this type of connection, so the Express can be located exactly where it is needed and it will produce a much faster wireless signal in this type of setup.

AirPort Express random disconnects

Everyday 1-2 times AirPort Express disconnects at random time,
Here are the logs I took in 3 different days:
http://d.pr/hOBd
http://d.pr/sgWg
http://d.pr/QYpU
There are MacBook Pro, an iPhone and a HP laptop using the network. Ethernet cable directly plugged into AirPort Express and connected to internet via PPPoE.

The article states:
"Direct Satellite Service (DSS) RF leakage: The coax cable that came with certain types of satellite dishes may cause interference. Obtain newer cables if you suspect RF leakage."
Could a coax cable running from a TV to the jack cause interference if it's about 3 inches above the AE?

Streaming to airport express speakers stops....

Ok this is the current situation.
I got a Macbook air with the latest OSX version
A 500 Gb Time capsule with the latest firmware up to date
A Airport Express (with speed N available) also with the latest firmware up to date
The Airport express and the Time capsule are in the same wireless network.
Latest version of Itunes available
The Itunes library is stored on the Time capsule (128GB MCA drive is a bit small)
problem is RANDOM
When i'm playing music trough my speakers connected to the airport express, randomly the sound stops but itunes continues to play the song.
or it happens when itunes switches to the next song and starts playing but there is no sound coming out of the speakers
The only solution i found thus-far is press pauze and press play again, this way the music start playing again trough the speakers. but i find this unacceptable.
sometimes there is no problem for a whole day and sometimes it happens after a random number of songs. And the problem does not only happen when Time machine is backing up the drive.
anyone here had the same problem. or could solve it?

I have this problem as well. I do IT for a living, have been for the past 10yrs. Through my troubleshooting steps, here is what I've observed:
- Itunes stops streaming to airport but continues to play in itunes
- unplug airport, it reconnects, but only briefly and audio drops off again
- update itunes to newest version and all works well. I can stream for hours uninterrupted.
- Open Itunes a few months later and "Itunes Version X is available, do you want to update"
- I select "not now" (I want to listen to my music, not wait for an update!)
- Issue presents itself again, streaming audio drops off.
- So I install the freakin itunes update to the newest version
- Streaming music works again, no issues
- Open Itunes a few months later and "Itunes Version X is available, do you want to update"
- I select "not now" (I want to listen to my music, not wait for an update!)
- Issue presents itself again, streaming audio drops off.
- So I install the freakin itunes update to the newest version
- Streaming music works again, no issues
I've gone through this at least 4 times. The airport always seems to act up whenever the newest version of iTunes/update is available. Not sure if other peripherals act up under the same circumstances and if its something done on purpose to force people to update, but it is annoying. It does make sense though to use as a mechanism to keep people updating their software, "oh its giving you an issue? Well have you updated to the newest version?" - all too natural. I'll let someone else rant about Apple's possible motive for possibly incorporating a feature like this...

Time Capsule + Airport Express = SLOW!

ok experts, here is the problem: I am using a Time Capsule as my base station and speakeasy.net tests show its getting 8mbps down and 2mbps up. When i extend my wireless network using an Airport Express the speed test results plummet to .5 mbps down and .3mbps up. when I'm in my bedroom where the airport express is, things are insanely slow. When I am in my office close to the Time Capsule, things are fast.
the Time Capsule is configured as 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible), Channell 11, and the wireless Mode is: Participate in a WDS network, with WPA 2 Personal security.
It seems to me the problem lies with the airport express. Any wonderful suggestions and sage advice?
thank you very much in advance. larry

"Extend a wireless network" and "participate in a WDS" are two completely different methods of expanding a wireless network arrangement.
Ideally, you will use the "extend" feature because this places much less of a bandwidth penalty on the wireless network compared to WDS. But, to use the "extend" setup, both of the Apple devices must be "n" capable. We know that the Time Capsule is an "n" capable device, but your Express may or may not be depending on what version you have.
Can you check the fine print on the side of your AirPort Express to see which model number you have? It will likely either be an A1084 or A1264. Please post on your findings.

Airport Express Connection Randomly Dropping Out

I've got a rather bizarre situation here. I'm using an AirPort Express with a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 laptop running on OS X 10.4.5. I've had it for slightly more than half a year, and it's always worked perfectly. Yesterday, without any apparent provocation of any kind, it randomly started malfunctioning. AirPort would find it and connect me to it, but then the AirPort menu icon (the four bars showing the strength of the connection) would randomly start flashing on and off at a very quick speed.
I've tried all of the different reset flavors (soft reset, factory default reset, and the one in between), and all of them have been equally ineffective. After one of the two more powerful resets, the signal will stay consistent for a couple of minutes and then begin to rapidly fade in and out again. I've tried to figure out if there are any new sources of interference in my room (going as far as to move the AE from the power strip with the other appliances to its own outlet across the room), but haven't been able to think of any. I haven't installed any new hardware for a couple of months, so I don't believe it's a hardware problem; the same goes for software. AirPort itself seems to be working fine, as does my ethernet cable; I really think that there's something going on with the AE itself. The bizarre thing is that even though the connection is rapidly flickering in and out, the unit's light remains a steady green all the way through.
If anyone has any insights or further questions about this predicament, please let me know.
Many thanks,
Matt
1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

If you connection signal strength bars start "flashing" it appears as if the AE may be going bad.
Do you have any issues connecting to other wireless networks? If not, it appears as if it's your AE.
Sorry I don't have better news for you.

Poor network speed with 1st generation time capsule and multiple airport express 5Ghz. My network speed slows to a crawl when not close to the time capsule. I get the range that I need, but the speed is painfully slow.

Hello,
I have a first generation time capsule running 802.11n (b/g compatable) and the airport expresse's are the newer 5ghz models. I have 3 airport express's and I have the range that I need. I can run the time capsule using 802.11n 5ghz, but I loose the range and can't connect to all of the airport express's. My computers and mobile devices run 802.11n. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase the network speed. Would the new airport extreme fix the problem?
Thank you

Unfortunately, you are experiencing one of the downsides to 5 GHz. That's because the higher frequency 5 GHz signals are much weaker than 2.4 GHz signals.
After all, you always have to give up something to gain something else. In the case of 5 GHz, you gain potential speed but in return, you must give up penetration power and distance capability.
In order to work well, 5 GHz signals need to almost have a line-of-sight relationship between devices. Unless you can achieve this, you will do much better to leave the Time Capsule running at the 802.11n (b/g compatible) 2.4 GHz Radio Mode and allow the Express devices to "extend" that network.
As for the location of the AirPort Express devices in an exended network, that is critical for best performance. That's because the Express can only "extend" the quality and bandwidth of the signal that it receives. Post back if you need a few more tips on how to find the best location for the AirPort Express devices.
Would the new airport extreme fix the problem?
Unfortunately, no.

Does Airport Express really communicate the same speed to both Mac and non-Mac devices?

Okay, so to fully understand my situation, here's a briefing: Our old Netgear router was not pushing nearly the speeds we were paying for (we pay for 30 and were getting 10-15 max, usually much less). I recently got an iMac which means that all of my devices are now Apple made, so I decided to get an Airport Express to hopefully improve our wireless speeds. I set it up with the modem going in the WAN port and the old router attached to the LAN port so that it could still act as an ethernet hub for the few hard-wired devices knocking around. I set up both a network and a guest network, with our original one still active through the Netgear router.
I get 45 Mbps from the new network on my iMac, but my roommate is only getting around 9. If he connects to the old one, he caps out at about 25. Is the wireless card in his PC just not capable of receiving more than that? He insists that since it's an Apple router it is not as compatable with non-Apple products. Interestingly, I get faster speeds on my iPhone from the guest network than I can from either the new or old main networks in our house.
I know this is a really long question, but has anyone had this same problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also: isn't the wireless speed of the old Netgear router still basically being pushed through the Airport Express, as it's the only thing connected directly to the modem? Are there any settings I can change to make everything run smoothly? If the PC, Android phones, etc can connect to the new network at the same speed as my Apple products, then we can eliminate the old network altogether if that will help.

I think I answered my own question. I found this on the web:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm
Seems to suggest that using this third party exe to format it instead of windows inbuilt one will allow for partitions greater than 32GB. So this looks the way to go. And the 2GB limit per file is just for FAT16 not FAT32 apparently, but even if it is I only have a few iso/video files bigger than 2 gig so will just use a splitter on them.
Hope this is useful to someone else

Is Wi Fi speed limited by old iMac and old Airport Express?

I got my sister an Apple TV for Christmas. Download times for movies or TV rentals is really slow.
She has Time Warner Road Runner Cable modem at their standard speed (not upgraded to "Turbo". My question is whether a new Airport Express or Extreme running at 802.11n would either speed up downloads or transfers from her newer MacBook to the Apple TV.
I guess my question is whether the desktop - an old Power PC and it's old Airport Card hinder the performance of either the rental or purchase downloads or connectivity between her MacBook, Apple TV & iPad. When I visit, I also get a pretty weak signal from the den in the back of the house to the family room up front. Could the "n" upgrade improve on any of these limitations? Not sure if the slow main computer is part of the problem.
Sorry I don't have more details on the internet speed or specifics on the system.

I guess my question is whether the desktop - an old Power PC and it's old Airport Card hinder the performance of either the rental or purchase downloads or connectivity between her MacBook, Apple TV & iPad.
Yes, the do. When you have non-"n" wireless clients on an "n" network, there will be bandwidth performance degradation anytime those non-"n" clients are active on the network. Typically, "n" clients only get around 70% of maximum bandwidth when non-"n" clients (computers, printers, Internet-ready TVs, or routers) are connected.
When I visit, I also get a pretty weak signal from the den in the back of the house to the family room up front. Could the "n" upgrade improve on any of these limitations?
Possibly. The newer "n" AirPorts do provide better range than the older models. Regardless, this will would only have minimum improvement over download speed. It should; however, improve streaming speed between the MacBook/iPad and the Apple TV.

Airport Express Wi-Fi speeds

Hello
I bought my Airport express for 1,5 year ago. However im getting rather frustrated regarding the Wi-Fi speeds!
As for now, my internet connection is equal to 100/100 Mbit. However im getting it upgraded to 250/100 Mbit in this month.
I started running some tests on my airport, but unfortunately im not able to get above 70mbit!! No matter how much i tweek my settings, thats the max juice i can get from it..
- The express is placed around 6 meters away from my imac. I have done channel scans in order to avoid interferance! But no luck!
Now the only thing i can do is to ask how fast the actual wi-fi is in my router? - I know that the ports can support 100mbit, and there is no problem when i connect my LAN cable in the express..
What is there left to do. the support didnt know the wi-fi speed on it?!
IF i buy the extreme base station, will it be able to support my coming connection? i know its wierd to ask for, but what are my opportunities? is it even possible to get wi-fi units that supports these kind of speeds?

However im getting it upgraded to 250/100 Mbit in this month.
On a very good day, the AirPort Express could handle 100 Mbps, but no more.
I started running some tests on my airport, but unfortunately im not able to get above 70mbit!
It is normal to have some loss when the signal is converted to wireless, then broadcast, then received by the computer and then converted back to a wired signal. 30% loss is a bit high, but 10-15% would be normal and expected.
Unless you are lucky enough to live in a very isolated area with no other wireless network around you, it is likely that your network will pick up some interference from other networks around you, cordless phones, and any number of other devices.....all of which can and will slow down the wireless signal.
IF you have a new Express.....the one with both a WAN port and LAN port, connect your Mac directly to the LAN port, turn off the wireless on the computer, and check to see what speeds that you get that way.
IF i buy the extreme base station, will it be able to support my coming connection?
The WAN and LAN ports on the AirPort Extreme support up to 1,000 Mbps, or Gigabit speeds.
i know its wierd to ask for, but what are my opportunities?
It is never possible to predict wireless performance, since there are so many variables involved....including interference from other networks in your neighborhood.
Buy from Apple, and you have 14 days to return the product....no questions asked....if you are not happy.

HT4628 Using an Airport Express and a second Airport Extreme to extend network; will proximity to AEX vs. AE make a real world difference in speed

I have set up an extended network (thanks go to Bob Timmons for his assistance) using an AE as a base station and a second AE and an Airport Express to extend the wireless signal. Comcast provides, so they say, 50 Mbps. The AEX is located in the bedroom where it is used more often and the AE is in the pantry (for occasional use in the garage.) Would I get better speed/signal strength if I switched the two devices; i. e., placed the Airport Extreme in the bedroom and the AEX in the pantry?

Thanks for your response. I set up the wireless network because running Cat-5 was cost prohibitive. My internet connection is very good for general purposes but I ask the question, somewhat academically, because Wi-Fi Explorer shows the Max Rate of the network devices as follows:
Airport Express (located in the bedroom): 144 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz
Airport Extreme (in the pantry): 217 [email protected] GHz
To reiterate, If these two changed locations would I get better speed/signal in the bedroom location? Does it even really matter since Comcast is "only" sending me 50 Mbps? Just a couple of questions to keep my mind active (and confused).

Airport Express halves speed randomly

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