Poor 802.11g file transfer performance

I know this is the kind of question that gets shotgun, "that's what worked for me" answers, but I thought I'd ask, just in case there's a clear problem I'm missing.
I have an Airport Extreme (purchased in June) and an older Mac mini. The mini must connect to my router with 802.11g; the router is in dual-band mode. I was seeing very slow network performance, so I did some tests.
Copying a 128MB file via Finder (to either a USB disk or an 802.11n machine): between 790 and 1400 s (0.8-1.4 Mbps)
Copying a 128MB file via scp (to an 802.11n machine): between 540 and 640 s (1.7-2.0 Mbps)
(1 Mbps = 1,000,000 bits per second)
Bottom line, I'm typically falling between 1 and 2 Mbps. This surprises (and frustrates) me, since 802.11g has a 54 Mbps maximum; I'd expect 8-16 Mbps to be typical. So things like Time Machine backups and Apple TV syncing are more than 4 times slower than they ought to be.
Any idea what could be going wrong? What I know:
- The second leg of the file transfer doesn't seem to matter. Results are consistent copying to either a USB drive (on the router) or another machine.
- The protocol isn't particularly relevant -- scp is faster, but not nearly fast enough.
- Copying using only 802.11n is reasonably fast (I think): around 30 Mbps.
- Wireless signal is always strong, at least as reported by the OS X status bar.
Suggestions on how to fix or at least better diagnose this would be appreciated.

Ran another test via Finder: 210 s (5.1 Mbps)
That's much more on par with what I'd expect (although it still seems a bit slow -- is this typical performance?) The difference is that an Apple TV sync was running in the background during the other tests. (The sync was running at such a slow rate that I didn't think it would have a major impact.)
I'm still worried about performance, though: why was the background Apple TV sync so slow in the first place? It was copying pictures, and while it's hard to get an accurate measure, my estimate was that it was doing around 1 Mbps on its own, before I was using the network for anything else.

Similar Messages

AirPort Extreme (802.11n) File Transfer Speeds Over Ethernet

I tested the transfer time for a 1.33GB file from one computer to another under four conditions. Both computers support gigabit Ethernet, and all cabling is Category 6.
Condition 1: Both computers were directly connected to a pre-gigabit AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11.n)
The transfer time was 128 seconds.
Condition 2: Both computers were directly connected to an 8-port D-Link DGS-2208 gigabit switch, which in turn was connected to a pre-gigabit AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11.n)
The transfer time was 72 seconds.
Condition 3: Both computers were directly connected to an 8-port D-Link DGS-2208 gigabit switch, which in turn was connected to a gigabit AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11.n)
The transfer time was 55 seconds.
Condition 4: Both computers were directly connected to a gigabit AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11.n)
The transfer time was 28 seconds.
Tentative Conclusions: Using a gigabit switch as the parallel connecting device when the router is pre- or non-gigabit is helpful. Using a gigabit switch as the connecting device when the router is also gigabit is hurtful with respect to transfer time.
I would appreciate any comments.

I re-ran the tests several times, taking care to "pre-warm" the connections by rebooting the router (and the switch when applicable) and making one false start, stopping the first transfer and then starting the timed transfer.
The transfer times when no switch was involved were virtually the same as I reported earlier, with the gigabit router significantly outperforming the pre-gigabit AEBS (it was 5.73 times slower). Interestingly, the transfers via the gigabit switch were virtually as fast as a pure transfer using only the gigabit router.
And there was no difference in the gigabit switch-employed transfer times regardless of whether a pre-gigabit or gigabit router was used. Here is my revised conclusion:
Using a gigabit switch with Apple's pre-gigabit 802.11n router overcomes the slowness associated with a pre-gigabit router provided that pre-warming techniques are employed.

New to MacBook - slow LAN file transfer problem

My new MacBook is painfully slow when wifi-ing to my house LAN.
I turned in my old G4 iBook for a MacBook (2GHz C2D, 2GB, 10.4.9, all updates). I have a LAN that consists of a wired 1G Ethernet backbone (a Mini and a Powermac G5 are wired in) and a Snow AEB that provides 802.11g wifi access to the LAN. The wired LAN connects to a D-Link GB Ethernet switch so the wired systems can exchange files fast. The switch connects to a D-Link EBR2310 router that connects to a cable modem to ComCast. The router has the latest firmware (1.05, it's an 'A' version router).
The Mini, G5, and MB are static IPs on the LAN. The D-Link router passes out DHCP addresses >100, with addresses <101 reserved for static LAN IPs. I use static IPs for network reliability when recovering from power outages and other unforeseen glitches. The LAN has worked very well in this configuration, with fast file transfers among machines and good stability.
With my old 802.11g G4 iBook, I was able to watch DVDs that are stored on an external FW drive connected to the Mini. No stalls, no pauses, no dropouts - MenuMeters showed an average throughput of about 700KBytes/sec on the iBook when viewing a DVD. I used both VLC and DVD Player with good results.
With my new MacBook, I can't view my DVD files. 802.11g network transfer rates to the MB (indicated by MenuMeters and by Activity Monitor) vary rapidly from a high of about 1.1 MBytes/sec to 20 KBytes/sec. Movies stall, skip, etc.
Simple file copies from one system to another are also much slower with the MacBook - an average of ~100KBytes/sec vs. ~ 1.5 MBytes/sec with my old iBook. In short, the MacBook is dog-slow in file transfers from the other machines compared with my old iBook when using the wifi connection, with no change to the network infrastructure in going from the old laptop to the new. I would like to fix this.
My AEB is set up in bridge mode (simple access point) with WPA2 security. All three Macs are completely current with latest updates, as is the Snow AEB. The MB has 4 bars of signal strength. Slow file transfer problem does not change when moving the MB to or from the AEB.
Curiously, when I download a large file (like the Intel 10.4.9 combo update), the MB shows a steady ~800KBytes/sec download speed, with none of the speed variation it shows with file transfers from either the Mini or the G5. File transfers to/from the MB to either of the other Macs are very slow.
Both the Mini and the G5 have Airport cards: when I switch them from wired Ethernet LAN to wifi LAN, they transfer files between each other at ~ 2MBytes/sec - about what you'd expect from an 802.11g protocol. So the slow file transfer doesn't seem to be due to the AEB, it seems to be specific to the MacBook. When I connect the MB using its hardware Ethernet port, files transfer just as fast as the other systems.
I have tried these measures, without effect on the problem:
- power off/restart of every component in the system;
- changing the AEB to an open network mode;
- changing the MB from static IP to DHCP;
- toggling IPv6 on/off;
- running no applications other than Finder on all systems;
Activity Monitor on the MB doesn't show anything sucking up CPU cycles during file transfers. I have plenty of RAM. The only thing I've changed in the network is the swap of the iBook for the MacBook.
Can anyone suggest what else I can try to make acquisition of this nice shiny MacBook a step forward, rather than a step back? Thank you!
G5 DP 1.8, Mini CD1.83 GHz, MacBook C2D,2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)
G5 DP 1.8, Mini 1.83 GHz, G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)
G5 DP 1.8, Mini 1.83 GHz, G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi,
Did you want to use the Live Migrations for that?
We recommend that you configure separate dedicated networks with gigabit or faster speed for live migration traffic and cluster communication, and these networks should be separate from the network used by the management operating system, and from the network
used by the virtual machines.
For more and detail information, please refer to:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428137(WS.10).aspx
Regards.
Vivian Wang

E900 - Poor 802.11b Performance and set up tool

I've been a long time NetGear user and networker but after my second NetGear wireless router gave up the ghost I decided that it was time for a change to another manufacturer. Cisco is the biggest game in town, and now that they own Linksys I thought maybe they were worth a try. The E900 got pretty good reviews here on Amazon and it was available for $40 at WalMart, so I thought "Why not?"
I used the CD to run the Setup program, which seemed to work OK on my MacBook. But it's not at all clear as to what settings are being configured, so I went into the web interface to see what was going on. The interface isn't as clear or well organized as the NetGear one, and help is displayed in a separate web page which makes it challenging to read about the settings while viewing the configuration interface. That can be worked around by opening two web browsers, but that's not the biggest problem.
The Setup program and the web interface don't interact well, and somehow the Setup program software got corrupted so that the Macbook hung and would no longer boot from the internal hard drive on which the Cisco tools were installed. It took removing the Cisco directory from the /System/Application Support director on the MacBook to restore booting. I won't be using the Cisco tools anymore. As an added bonus, using the web interface I can set a WPA passphrase that is separate and distinct from the router login password, something that doesn't seem possible using the Cisco tool.
Once over these hurdles, the problems continue. I use an old PowerBook G4 in a spare bedroom that has an internal 802.11b wireless interface, and while the signal to it is strong, it has problems using the channel. Some URLs work fine, but any secure (https) connections timeout without connecting. Some regular (http) connections, such as google.com, won't load, either. Installing an 802.11g card in the laptop don't improve matters at all. The wireless interface in the iPhone 4S seems to work just fine, so I'm guessing it's something to do with older technology in the G4 that Linksys has decided to no longer support. I wasted most of a morning trying to get this to work but was unsuccessful. And without reliable wireless performance, what's the point of having a wireless router? This one goes back to WalMart, and I'll keep shopping for something better.

Linksys/Cisco E900 router has been launched recently. The Cisco Connect software is a step-by-step setup wizard that will have your computer connected wirelessly in minutes. Cisco Connect offers powerful tools for managing your wireless network such as Security Settings, Guest Access, Parental Controls and Advanced Settings. Installation of the Cisco Connect software is through the Setup CD included with every Linksys Wireless-N E- series router. Once installed, software and firmware updates would be a breeze with its automatic upgrade detect feature. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is bit different from other router’s Interface.
But yes, if the Cisco Connect software gets corrupted from the computer then in that case to reinstall the Cisco Connect you need to uninstall the existing one. You have an added advantage of using WPA2/WPA mixed-mode which supports two encryption methods at the same time: WPA2-Personal with AES encryption and WPA-Personal with TKIP encryption, with a shared dynamic encryption key.
If you are facing problems with some of your websites which does not loads up. Then this issue could be caused by any of the below possibilities.
Web site down or other web page error.
Malware or other security settings blocking address.
Your IP address is blocked by the web site.
Issue with DNS servers or ISP.
Else here is the link encountering difficulties accessing some websites when connected to a router: http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?pid=93&login=1&vw=1&app=search&articleid=3982&userrole=Linksy...

48Mbps yet 66 SNR with 802.11g clients

i have been monitoring my wireless connection around the house trying to get a feel for signal strength using netstumbler and am baffled why my WRT100 only shows 48Mbps when it should be 54Mbps.
the signal noise ratio is 66 which seems really good.
my router (wrt100) is configure for default, i have changed nothing except to setup security on the device.
and i have 802.11g cards on the workstations.

1. How do you run Netstumbler on the WRT?
2. Forget about the "speed" the wireless driver in your computer shows you. It is pretty much irrelevant. The number shown is some mathematical function related to the signal strength of the beacon signal received. There are more implementations for this function then you can think off. Everyone does it differently.
You only know how fast you can transfer if you move really data through the channel. A 54 Mbit/s shown won't help you if 10 other access points close by fill up the same channel.
A 48 Mbit/s or less shown won't bother you if you are in an environment with no interference and once you start moving some data you get optimum rates.
If you want to know which data rate you have at some place at some time transfer data, e.g. copy some larger files from a computer wired to the router to a wireless computer. Make sure the wireless computer is on AC to prevent power saving settings interfering with performance.

Time Capsule slow as 802.11g WAP

I've been having trouble with my wireless network since I received my 1TB Time Capsule. AppleTV quit syncing, .Mac Sync hung repeatedly, and Printing via the Time Capsule stutters. I only have 802.11g hosts on my network, so 802.11n performance isn't something I'm evaluating.
The goal of this testing is to assess the Time Capsule as a network access point for 802.11g hosts. Disk read/write is not part of this experiment. Each of the measurements below are results from the exact same test -- measure internet upload and download performance to a test server on the speedtest.net network.
My topology is as follows:
SBC DSL -> 2Wire modem -> TimeCapsule
For the tests below, I connected my MacBook Pro to each device, wirelessly via 802.11g and direct connect via Ethernet and ran the test from speedtest.net. Since I have a 3Mb connection, the speed of my ethernet is irrelevant. The results of the testing is below and the results show that using the Time Capsule as an 802.11g hub is slow, in fact 75% slower.
Internet Performance (3Mb service)
network performance -- connecting via
*660k dl/430 ul -- TimeCapsule (802.11g - single base station, or as WDS main)*
2546k dl/429 ul -- TimeCapsule (Ethernet Hard Wired)
2547 dl/432 ul -- 2Wire 802.11g
2546 dl/431 ul -- 2Wire (Ethernet Hard Wired)
My conclusion, based on this testing and from several posts in this discussion board is that the Time Capsule exhibits poor performance for hosts connecting via 802.11g.
Is there some setup thing I'm missing?
Message was edited by: JustStone

JustinK101 wrote: I suppose I could plug my MacBook into the TC via a gigbit cable and see the speed then, but the whole point was to do wireless backups.
The initial backup should have been wired. Future incremental backups would not be this large and wireless backups should be okay.

Extremely slow file transfer speed

Hello,
Has anyone else had problems transferring files between computers over a 802.11g network? Recently, I found that transferring files via wireless has become incredibly slow. This morning it took about 10 min to transfer a 25MB file from my MacMini to my MacBook Pro. This was not the case several weeks ago.
In terms of updates, neither have the notorious Airport Extreme 2007-001 update installed. Though, I did have to reinstall OS X on the Mini to roll it back. The MacBook Pro does have the Security Update 2007-001 installed where as the Mini does not.
Specs:
Wireless Router: Linksys WRT54GSv4
MacBookPro - 2GHz Core Duo
MacMini - late 2006 - 1.66GHz Core Duo
Thanks

Golybs wrote:
is there a way to find out why "a file is in use" / what process is using it, and kill that process?
Yes. Launch the Terminal utility and enter this command:
sudo lsof | grep "sometext"
That character after "lsof" is a "vertical bar", which should be on the far right of the row with "P". The first character of "lsof" is a lower-case letter "L". The text "sometext" should be replaced with at least part of the name of the file that seems to be locked. The quotes aren't necessary unless there's a space (or one of a few other odd characters) in the text you put in the command. After you type the text, press <return>. You'll be prompted for your administrative password.
If the culprit turns out to be Finder, try clicking on the Finder icon on the Dock while you hold down an "option" key, then choose "Relaunch".
how can I find out if some process is accessing the Time Capsule hard drive, keeping it busy and making the transfers slow?
That's a little harder. You could launch Activity Monitor and click on the "Network" tab in the lower part of the window. I'd also check the quality of the signal to the Time Capsule
If you have an Apple AirPort base station, I'd use the advice in this thread to investigate the signal and noise levels that each Mac sees, as described in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2347845&start=1

TC - Painfully Slow for file transfer. How to solve it (PC + MAC) ?

I have a dell laptop and a mac book air, both connected to my TC. Transferring files is a joke. I am a novei mac user. How can this slowness issue be fixed for both the pc and mac? As I am writing this, i am currently doing a software update on my macbook air, getting 10.5.3 now. Does this solve it?

Similar problem here.
iMac using 802.11n to connect to time capsule. Time capsule configured to use 802.11n (b/g compat), and WPA/WPA2 security.
Typical transfer rate (file transfer from imac to tc) of about 2Mbps. After reboot of the TC, speed can sometimes hit 6Mbps.
I have played with the security settings. After a softboot with new config:
- no security, 802.11n mode: 12Mbps throughput
- WEP security, 802.11n mode: 8Mbps
- WPA/WPA2 security, 802.11n mode: 6Mbps
Enabling interference robustness seems to have little or no effect.
All of these speeds are significantly lower than what I'd expect.
No other devices were on the wireless network during the testing.
I've read that alot of others are having similar issues. I suspect that most of these devices are running extremely slowly, but most people aren't bothering to check throughput.
Would love to know if there is a real fix out there. 802.11n should be much much faster than this. If I could reconfigure the TC to use 802.11g, I would.

Is 802.11b/g faster then 802.11g

The wireless network I have at my house has two Powerbook G4s (Both with Airport Extreme Cards) connected to it and I am wondering if Switching to 802.11g is faster then 802.11b/g. I dont have any computers connecting that need 802.11b.
Thnx

OK, Just to give you an idea about the difference between the 2.
If you are accessing the internet and downloading things and only have a DSL connection or just ordinary dial up then you may just as well set your Macs to 'b'. Signal/Bandwidth strength is greater with 'b'. Most dial up is '56k' and mmost DSL is 512 to 2mbs. So just using 11b is more than plenty. But if you have DSL from 8 up to 24meg speeds then 'g' is what you should use. But remember that the '54' speed is only the transfer / communication speed between 2 points. You can transfer a large file say a CD of music from one iTunes on one Mac to another Mac (example) and use 11g. You could of course double this by using a ethernet connection between the 2 Macs at 100mbps or even Firewire at 400 ot 800.
So in a nutshell use 'g' if you are transfering large data file and need to minimize time. But then of course you will do what suits your environment best.
Cheers

File transfer EXTREMELY slow over wireless connection

Hi there,
I have recently been transfering some files from my TiVo to my iMac via a wireless connection. I don't know if the files are going through my router first, and then coming to my iMac or what, but the transfer rate is really slow; about 50 - 100 KBps. That's Bytes, not bits. I know that 802.11g is 54 mbps, which translates to about 7 MBps, but I'm getting about 1/70th that speed.
I recently moved my computer to a part of my house that has better wireless reception. I have an AirPort extreme card that is 802.11g compatible, an 802.11g Linksys wireless router, and a D-Link 802.11g wireless USB adapter hooked up to my TiVo. 2 dashboard widgets that I have tell me that the connection strength to my iMac is excellent (>75%), and that the speed is full (54 mbps). My iMac discovered the TiVo with the "Bonjour" technology built into Mac OS X. It doesn't make any sense to me. Even if the files are going through the router, everything is operating at 7 MBps, so why am i getting 50-100 MBps? Any help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Trevor

Here's what I did:
I moved my computer to a place where I could connect to my wireless router through an ethernet cable. I tried to transfer files from the TiVo again using the same application, and the download speed was no faster. I tried having both Airport and Ethernet on, and it was slower. I tried just Airport, and it was no faster than before. So I found a new way to download the shows using Safari and Bonjour. I tried, and it was downloading at (according to the downloads window)... 0B/s. I thought "Great". I can't even download it at all this way. So in desparation, I moved my computer right next to the USB device that the signal is coming from, and I get the same download speeds using the application. I try with Safari, and this time it actually starts downloading faster than 0B/s. The top speed I've seen it at is what it's hovering at right now: 129 KB/s. Now here comes the interesting part:
My internet connection (loading webpages with Safari) was lightning quick everywhere my computer was. That indicates that the issue is with the USB device on the TiVo, and not my router or mac. I looked for an ethernet pot in the back of my TiVo, but I could not find one. I found a phone jack (for connecting to the TiVo service via the phone), and my iMac has a phone jack too, but then I realized that the application I was using and Safari needed to use either the Ethernet port, or AirPort, so that wouldn't have worked. I guess that the TiVo cannot process and export the info at faster than 100-150 KBps. Oh well.
Trevor

Re: Time Capsule & 802.11g

Has anybody used a Time Capsule over 802.11g? How is the performance? Thanks.

The goal of this testing is to ***** the Time Capsule as a network access point, not a network disk. Disk read/write is not part of this experiment. Each of the measurements above (repeated w/ typo fixed so you don't have to scroll) are results from the exact same test -- testing internet upload and download performance to a test server on the speedtest.net network.
My topology is as follows:
SBC DSL -> 2Wire modem -> TimeCapsule
For the tests below, I connected my MacBook Pro to each device, wirelessly via 802.11g and direct connect via Ethernet and ran the test from speedtest.net. Since I have a 3Mb connection, the speed of my ethernet is irrelevant. The results of the testing is below and the results show that using the Time Capsule as an 802.11g hub is slow, in fact 75% slower.
Internet Performance (3Mb service)
network performance -- connecting via
*660k dl/430 ul -- TimeCapsule (802.11g - single base station, or as WDS main)*
2546k dl/429 ul -- TimeCapsule (Ethernet Hard Wired)
2547 dl/432 ul -- 2Wire 802.11g
2546 dl/431 ul -- 2Wire (Ethernet Hard Wired)
My conclusion, based on this testing and from several posts in this discussion board is that the Time Capsule exhibits poor performance for hosts connecting via 802.11g.

MBP (mid-2009) freezing, slow installations and file transfer

I bought the latest MacBook Pro model and installed Snow Leopard on a cleanly formatted hard drive. I have tried migrating via ethernet and FireWire from my iMac, but the migrations failed either due to freezing (via FireWire after roughly 24 hours of file transfer) or by an error message (ethernet with Migration Assistant).
Only through a Time Machine backup was I able to transfer my account files to the MBP, which again totaled at over 20 hours of transferring. The system was a mess, clogged constantly by freezing and spinning beach balls of death for durations lasting around 10-20 seconds during which music would clip after 5-10 seconds of everything not responding, this being accentuated especially during installations. I decided to format and try anew.
Now I've formatted the hard drive, installed Snow Leopard and will transfer my files manually onto a clean account. Installations take a long time although SL installation is within 30 minutes, iLife took 1.5 hours to install 5 GB. During the installation Safari stopped responding, as did the entire system, and the spinning beach ball would keep spinning. Watching a 480p trailer in Quicktime made the entire computer freeze up (no video/audio) for 10 seconds halfway. Transferring 136 GB (my Music folder) will take around 15 hours according to the estimate after 10 minutes of transferring.
I've sold my iMac now and all I have are the files on my external hard drive. I want to get them onto my MBP ASAP but the slowness is preventing me from doing what needs to be done and it's very frustrating. When I try to boot into Hardware Testing by holding D down the computer doesn't do it no matter what (Application DVD in or not, plugged into power or not). I've tried resetting PRAM but I get the same inaction.
Any ideas?
Edit: I've done Disk Utility to no avail, it finds nothing wrong.

Installed, still getting freezes with spinning beach balls. Transfer says it would take 1 hour opposed to that 15 hours, but it stops transferring after X amount of gigabytes (from 0.5 to 5), not do anything for a while and then continue, stretching the estimate to over 2 hours after some time. I don't know if this is just with the hard drive.
The freeze-ups are frustrating as **** and make for a very poor experience. Any ideas to get to the bottom of this? I still haven't been able to boot into the Hardware Test no matter how much I try.

Airport Drives Me CRAZY! New 802.11n Network Slower Than Old 802.11g/b

I've been using Macs since 1988 and consider myself an advanced user. However, every time I setup a new Airport wireless network or re-configure an existing one, I feel like a helpless newbie trying to figure out how to open a folder on my desktop. No matter how many times I read the manual or the help files or these forums, I can never grasp what seems like it should be a simple path from A to B to C.
Anyway, here's my current situation: I've been successfully (I think) running a 6 year old AP Extreme Base Station [AE] (in my home office addition) and 2 Airport Expresses [AX] (one AX roughly 15 feet from the base station--through sheetrock, and the second AX roughly 30 feet from the first AX--through sheetrock and some wooden stairs. (so roughly 45 feet from AE to 2nd AX). It wasn't the speediest thing going but it did the trick with older Macs.
I recently bought a MacBook Pro which supports 802.11n. I most often use this laptop at the point in the house furthest away from the AE (Base Station) The AE (Base Station) is in my home office connected to my MacPro desktop (see #1 below). In addition, the family iMac is also in that room furthest from the AE. Using the new MacBook Pro with the old 802.11/g/b network turned out to be painfully slow. I was experiencing the same slow network connection my family has complained about for years with their older Macs and 802.11g/b.
I decided it was time to upgrade the whole network, if only to speed up my MacBook Pro connection. Bought new 802.11n Airport Extreme (MC340LL/A) and 2 new 802.11n Airport Expresses (MB321LL/A). Setup did not go smoothly. Again, my normally competent Mac persona was reduced to a babbling three-year-old. Had three different Apple techs on the phone trying to help me through it. Got different, contradictory instructions from the last two. Finally got all three units working, only to find that not only does my MacBook Pro seem even more sluggish than when connected to the old 802.11g/b network, but my wife tells me web pages are taking at least twice as long to load as with the old network.
As concisely as I can lay this out:
*1. Airport Extreme (Base Station)*
Connected via Ethernet from its WAN port to my Comcast cable modem. One Ethernet (LAN) port on that AE is then connected via Ethernet to my Netgear 8-port Ethernet switch. Ethernet from switch to Ethernet port 1 on my MacPro. (MacPro does NOT have an Airport card because I forgot to order one. Also I confirmed that this setup was functional by connecting to the AE wirelessly with my MacBook Pro showing the name I'd given the new network prior to adding the two AX's to the mix).
Some Airport Extreme settings of note (all accessed via "Manual Setup" button):
Airport Tab > Summary
Version 7.5.1
Wireless Mode: Create a wireless network
Channel: 149 (Automatic), 1 (Automatic)
Wireless Clients: 3
Airport Tab > Base Station:
Allow Setup over WAN: Unchecked
Airport Tab > Wireless:
Allow this network to be extended: Checked
Airport Tab > Guest Network:
Nothing checked
Airport Tab > Access Control:
MAC Address Access Control: Not Enabled
Internet Tab > Internet Connection:
Connect Using: Ethernet
Ethernet WAN Port: Automatic (Default)
Connection Sharing: Share a public IP address [Think this one is probably wrong]
Internet Tab > TCP/IP:
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
Internet Tab > DHCP:
Shows Beginning & Ending Address
Internet Tab > NAT:
Enable default host at: Unchecked and blank field
Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol: Checked
Internet Tab > Advanced
Didn't touch anything here, so all at defaults
*2. Airport Express #1: Living Room Express (Closest to AE (Base Station)*
Airport Tab > Summary
Version 7.4.2
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Connect using: Wireless Network
Channel: 1 (Automatic)
Wireless Clients: 1
Airport Tab > Base Station:
Allow Setup over the Internet using Bonjour: Unchecked
Airport Tab > Wireless:
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Allow wireless clients: checked
Airport Tab > Access Control:
MAC Address Access Control: Not Enabled
Internet Tab > Internet Connection:
Connect using: Greyed-out, not selectable
Connection sharing: Greyed-out, not selectable
Internet Tab > TCP/IP:
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
Shows IP Address
Internet Tab > Advanced
Didn't touch anything here, so all at defaults
*3. Airport Express #2: Dining Room Express (Furthest from AE (Base Station)*
Airport Tab > Summary
Version 7.4.2
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Connect using: Wireless Network
Channel: 1 (Automatic)
Wireless Clients: 2
Airport Tab > Base Station:
Allow Setup over the Internet using Bonjour: Unchecked
Airport Tab > Wireless:
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Allow wireless clients: checked
Airport Tab > Access Control:
MAC Address Access Control: Not Enabled
Internet Tab > Internet Connection:
Connect using: Greyed-out, not selectable
Connection sharing: Greyed-out, not selectable
Internet Tab > TCP/IP:
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
Shows IP Address
Internet Tab > Advanced
Didn't touch anything here, so all at defaults
SETUP/GOALS:
With Airport Extreme (Base Station) as the starting point, have the two Airport Express units with the strongest, fastest signal possible, provide Internet access (and file sharing, iTunes speakers capability) to three Macs (one older iMac, one older PowerBook and my new MacBookPro). Again, I believe my new MacBook Pro is the only one with 802.11n support, so I don't expect the other Macs to take advantage of the speed boost offered by the three new 802.11n devices.
+Any and all help with this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!+

{quote}With the AirPort Extreme, in the AirPort panel, Wireless tab, click on the button for "Wireless Network Options", check the box for "5 GHz Network Name", and enter a different network name. (That can be trivially different, such as the name of the main network suffixed with an underscore and the digit 5.) Once configured that way, connect your "N" gear to each network in turn to see if one is any better than the other. (If you're wondering what effect this would have, it allows segregating your "N" gear from the older gear to prevent the older gear from slowing down your network. However, distance and interference from things like walls may negate any advantage.){quote}
William: I was gone most of yesterday, but had a chance to implement your recommendations today. I added the 5 GHz network as you suggested, but in order to connect to that at all with my 802.n11 MacBokk Pro, I need to be within a few feet of the AE (base station). If I try to access that network even from the next room (well within reach of both the AE and the livingroom AX, I get one bar and "failure to connect" messages just trying to logon to that network.
However, I did some experimenting that (as of right now, anyway) resulted in much faster network access, not only from my MacBook, but also from the older iMac which is the furthest Mac from the AE. According to my wife, that iMac is "loading web pages faster than I've ever seen them!"
Here's what I did:
1. Moved all three units to places where it seemed they would have the least amount of interference with the clearest path from unit to unit, also raising the height of both AXs from about 2-3 feet from the floor to about 5-6 feet from the floor.
2. Changed one setting on the AE (base station): Wireless Tab > Wireless Network Options > Multicast Rate ---> Changed this from Low to High.
I have a feeling the location shifts made the real difference, but I will try changing the multicast rate back to "Low" just to see what happens.
Paul

Time to upgrade to 802.11g???

Any views would be appreciated - I'm running a 802.11b wireless router with an iMac and PB connected. Basically, is it worth investing in 802.11g (AirPort Extreme Base Station)?
Thanks

There are so many factors to consider when creating a wireless network. 802.11b advertised throughput is 11mbps and 802.11g is 54mbps. But the actual throughput for these is typically 4-7mbps and 22-27mbps respectively.
With security encryption like WPA, there is additional overhead that lowers throughput.
Other important things to consider/remember is that the radio in the AEBS handles one data packet per user at a time. So, if you and a friend were both downloading a file, the radio is not simultaneously sending the two of you data; it sends packets to each of you one at a time. The more users using your wireless connection, the slower it will seem.
Finally, it all comes down to Internet link you have. How much bandwidth does your ISP provide? Your ISP may support less bandwidth than the AEBS is capable of, therefore making the ISP your limitation.
Sorry - no clear answer. I have an AEBS (802.11g) and it's nice...if that helps.
Various Macs and PC's Mac OS X (10.4)
Various Macs and PC's Mac OS X (10.4)

When upgrading to OSX Yosemite do all my programs and files transfer over such as Office for mac, saved documents from word,excel,pics,pdf files,etc.etc...

Will all my files transfer over (or stay) automatically right after upgrading to Yosemite or do I have to backup every single desired program or document? Question is do I HAVE to please if you can answer if its mandatory or not. Not looking for recommendations that I SHOULD back up or anything like that just want to know if it is mandatory to perform a backup to be able to keep or transfer all my current programs and apps and documents currently on my MB Pro Retina.

Yes, upgrading to Yosemite will not touch your 3rd party apps or files in the Home folder.
Although not mandatory you should have a a backup of your hard drive regardless if you upgrade to Yosemite or not. To not have a backup is just playing Russian roulette as there are only two types of hard drives; those that have failed and those that will.

Poor 802.11g file transfer performance

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