think it or not , there was a time not long ago when surfing the net from your back porch call for a very , very long ethernet cable . These day Wi - Fi seems to be everywhere , with inkjet printers , digital camera , idiot box , and even refrigerators connecting to menage and office networks without the indigence for cables .
But for all of the gain made in Wi - Fi technology , much confusion remains about wireless web and the problem that can plague them . To assist shed light on up some of the confusion , we gathered a lean of vulgar impression about Wi - Fi speed and do about raise or disproving them using the tools available to us here in the Macworld lab .
‘The farther away from the router you are, the worse your signal strength will be.’
The humbled your signal durability , the lower the bandwidth you ’ll get over your web . To examine whether signal strong suit dropped the far away from the router we father , we assume a raw Apple Time Capsule , which use 802.11ac radio , and connected a MacBook Pro directly to its ethernet port to act as as a server .
Next , we connected an 8012.11ac - equipped 2013 MacBook Air ( with Wi - Fi update applied ) to the Time Capsule ’s closed mesh and ran AccessAgility ’s $ 5WiFiPerf . As the name imply , the utility measures wireless performance over a mesh . I take the whole setup out in front of my unruffled suburban abode and scarper the test at a number of set distances , rank from 6 understructure to 200 foundation in direct line of sight with the Time Capsule .
At 6 feet forth , the transfer charge per unit from the customer ( MacBook Air ) to the server ( MacBook Pro connected to the Time Capsule via ethernet ) was 547 megabits per second ( mbps ) . At 26 fundament away , that rate dropped by 17 percent to 456 mbps . At 54 feet , the throughput dipped under 400 mbps . have past 100 foot , the focal ratio dropped sharply to just 139 mbps — about a one-fourth of the throughput we catch from 6 foot away . At 150 feet we pose 25 mbps and at 200 unobstructed invertebrate foot , we were able to eke out just 12 mbps .
‘The more wireless networks there are around you, the worse your Wi-Fi performance will be.’
To test this theory , I brought that same out-of-door suburban aloofness test indoors to a prospicient hallway in our seven - story office building in San Francisco ’s South Park vicinity . At my home , the MacBook observe 25 networks ; at the office staff it saw 150 .
At a distance of 6 feet from the Time Capsule , our average throughput was 489 mbps , 11 percent less than the suburban internet fastness . At 26 feet , the office amphetamine dropped to 305 mbps , 33 percent less than the suburban test ensue from the same space . At 54 feet , the indoor exam was 44 percent sluggish than in my quiet neighborhood . And at 78 foot , the speed in my office were down 51 percent from the speed I got in front of my house at the same space .
‘Do-it-yourself Wi-Fi antenna boosters are totally bogus.’
We ’d seen claims on the cyberspace that a simple feeler sweetening could promote Wi - Fi signal strength . Was it for real ? We decided to check up on . First , we took a Linksys EA6900 router with three outside antennas and measure the throughput ( using the WiFiPerf utility ) at different locations around our offices . We then print out templates for 6 - column inch parabolic signaling reflectors fromFreeAntennas.comand constructed the reflector using paper , tape , composition board , and tinfoil .
At about 20 foot away from the router , the trial showed roughly a 12 percent throughput improvement when we used the reflectors . Moving about 70 feet away , the performance welfare increased to 43 percent . duplicate the distance reduced the throughput both with and without the reflector , but still they help the router deliver 46 percent higher throughput pep pill overall . The antenna boosters really did offer a hike to our connection ’s carrying into action .
‘Microwave ovens can interfere with your Wi-Fi network.’
This one is no myth . A microwave oven can emit a marvelous amount of energy while heating up your remnant Formosan takeout food . The problem is particularly spoiled on the 2.4GHz absolute frequency stripe — a reason to avoid using that frequency if you’re able to . As you may see from this figure trance withMetaGeek ’s $ 599 Wi - Spy DBx Pro spectrum analyzer , interference from an operating microwave oven stamp all over our 2.4GHz connection , reducing connection throughput from just over 100 mbps to about 3 mbps .
We watch much less preventative on the 5GHz frequence band . To change the frequency that an AirPort Extreme utilize , for exemplar , launch AirPort Utility , pick out your router , and clickEdit . Select theWirelesstab and clickWireless Options . In the next window , check the box titled5GHz internet name . ClickSaveand then clickUpdate . This will create a unique meshwork name that you could connect to for ensure that you ’re always on the 5GHz band .
‘My roommate is hogging all our bandwidth by downloading Torrents, and there’s nothing I can do.’
Well , either you could say your roommate to be more considerate of the rest of the household or you could trade to a router that defend Quality of Service ( QoS ) . Apple ’s $ 179AirPort Extreme(3.5 of 5 evaluation ) and $ 299Time Capsule(4 of 5 rating ) are great routers , but this is one feature they miss .
With QoS , a router can prioritize dealings traveling over the web so that app that are sensitive to dawdle — on-line game and VoIP , for example — are given higher priority than coating that are n’t , such as large file downloads . A grow trend in wireless routers is to also bring home the bacon downstream QoS , which enables the router to differentiate between , say , file downloads and video stream , so that the latter gets high-pitched anteriority and you may enjoy a proficient experience . Both the $ 170Asus RT - N66U router(4.5 of 5 paygrade ) and Netgear ’s $ 200Nighthawk router(4.5 of 5 rating ) offer this feature .
‘To really figure out what’s affecting your Wi-Fi network’s speed, you need to buy expensive equipment.’
Youcanbuy expensive networking computer hardware and software program analytics tools like MetaGeek ’s Wi - Spy DBx Pro spectrum analyser . But many cheap ( or free ) tools can also shine a light onto the status of your electronic internet .
Mac OS X users can simply hold down the Option key while clicking the Wi - Fi picture in the upper - right recess of the menu Browning automatic rifle . When you do , you ’ll see many more contingent about your meshing : for example , the ethernet criterion that your connection is using ( 802.11 a / b / n / ac ) , the TV channel that your router is on , the type of security that ’s enabled , and the transmitting rate and strength of your wireless signal via the RSSI ( receive signal strength indicant ) .
Another great tool for empathise your web is Objective Development ’s $ 35Little Snitch(4.5 of 5 rating ) . This service program will alert you when any app or physical process render to get to the Internet . You might be surprise by how many lotion try on to connect to your net . Little Snitch ’s position screen also shows you connected apps as well as how much data they are sending and take in . If your connection seems sluggish , Little Snitch give you an easy way to recognise bandwidth hogs .
