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Why are my IPads so much slower than my IMac?

Hello,

I have done extensive testing and the results are my iPads get only 1/3 the internet speed of my imac. The iMac get between 70-80 mbps and the iPads 15-25 MBps.

Setting and hardware: iMac is 1.5 years old, big screen. IPads tested are the iPad 2, the iPad air, and a mini. Latest OS updates installed. All testing took place in the same location, with ipads same distance from the routers as the iMac (about two feet). Routers tested are the actiontec mi424wr (2.4 ghz) and the cisco ea3500 dual band.

Modes and setups tested: qos/mms enabled vs. disabled. N only vs. multiple n/g/b etc. 2.4ghz vs. 5ghz (w separate ssid to confirm connection) vs. regular dual mode....5ghz tested only on cisco since the actiontec is not dual mode.

In the beginning I was using a couple test sites then decided to stick with one to be consistent...speedtest.net.

So no matter what combination and setup as explained above, the iPads sitting right next to the iMac always get in the range of 15-25 Mbps while the iMac enjoys 75-80 mbps.

My inet provider is verizon fios 75 up/25 down. All test speeds im discussing above are upload. Not much difference between the iPad and the mini was tested less than the 2 and Air fwiw.

So is this to be expected? Is there just a hardware difference? Does anyone get above say 30 Mbps on an iPad?

Thanks for any input I hope i covered everything.

Comments

eljefe2

I have FiOS 75/35 with an Actiontec Rev I router.

If I run a test with the speedtest.net app on an iPad 2 in the same room as the router, I get 42 mb/s down and 30 mb/s up.

That's a little better than what you're experiencing but still not as good as I see on a Windows laptop or a MacBook Pro in the same location. With either of those other devices I max out at slightly over 75/35 mb/s.

I'm assuming the issue is a hardware limition in the iPad 2.

Afterthought....

I get almost exactly the same results with my iPhone 5s.

meegwell1

Thanks. I have a similar thread over on the apple boards to get the view of ipad expertise...a recent reply said they get 55-60 Mbps down per speedtest.net fwiw. Other than that, i havent had much other input. It does sound like we are in the same situation.

eljefe2

Our results do sound similar. For me, the speeds I get on the iOS devices are good enough for what I used them for, and we all know that Steve's legacy was to not allow any performance tweaking of those devices. Smiley Wink

JoeMan1

curious if you have WEP incryption or WPA2? if it is WEP you should change it to WPA2 for best performance.

Hubrisnxs

have you seen this thread?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15065064#15065064

meegwell1

re: Hubrisnxs: I absolutely did see that thread and know it well. I am not sure if you are familiar with that thread or found it via search to reply here but it concentrates on the QoS/MMS issue I mentioned in my original post. They do wander on that thread but I was there early on in my testing and covered everything and explained that in my op. Thank you for the effort, let us know if you find anything else.

JoeMan1

Here is a shot in the dark http://osxdaily.com/2011/12/16/slow-iphone-wi-fi-speed-up-with-custom-dns/

eljefe2

It's my understanding that the orignal poster was interested in faster throughput, upload and download, as indicated in a speedtest. Changing DNS servers won't do anything to help those speeds.

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