Three days to download updates; iPhoto, IMovie, Evernote

Question

Hi, I bought a MacBook air approx 3 months ago (a mid-2011model recently and within a month/6weeks the new one & Pro were out - not happy). OS is Lion. I have had trouble downloading updates since I got it. I tried, tried and tried again. Constantly losing Gbs of data to no avail. I tried wireless and Ethernet cable neither were any faster. My PCs seem to be updating just fine. I Finally had to leave the Mac running for three days to complete these three updates. This was a computer I was excited about getting. Fast, secure and extremely portable. I am severely disappointed. I've also found my iPad and iPhone running slowly as well (but not the PCs) when trying to download updates and apps. Actually it's mostly updates. Omn myipad, selecting to download all updates (5 at the most, can take all day and illhave run out of battery power by the end (this is an iPad 2 just under a year old).
I'm really regretting the switch. The Air was a step towards moving to Apple only computers. The downloading is appalling. Somebody could have told me to wait a month for wears & MacBook Pros. I got the top of the Range mac Air but only top for a month. I would have probably gone with a new mac book pro if I'd have known what was going on. The mac Air is useful as an expensive iPad back up system.
I'm sorry if any of this sounds aggressive in any way - its nit meant to. I do have to applaud your customer service employee Ryan at Charlestown NSW for trying to help me with the iPad. It's no longer crashing or freezing just downloading extra extra extra slow!!
Please can you help me. I haven't used a mac since about 1992/1993. So a newbie again! Please help!
Cheers,
Mink

Answer 1

Like yourself, we are all users here helping other users. 
Venting frustration aside, if all your Apple devices are experiencing slow wireless/internet, have you tried it with only one on the network with no other devices attached/active on the network? Have you tried a different channel on the router (if it's assigned a channel to use). Are you using 802.11n 5Ghz networking or the slower 802.11g 2.4 Ghz network? Some wireless routers have the capability to run in both modes (simultaneous dual-band), and all your newer Apple devices can run at the faster 802.11n 5Ghz speeds.
Since you're experiencing slow internet performance on all your Apple devices, one common element is the wireless service, which is why I'm poking there.