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[dbtrader1]

My Mac mini is getting horrible wireless speeds with my DLink 655. If I put one of my PCs in the exact same location I get about 18mbps download speeds. My Mac mini gets about 200kbps. What is odd is the upload speed for the mini is about the same as the PCs which is 7mbps. I have a feeling the dlink and apple aren't playing nice together for some reason.  Does anyone know of a setting on the Mac or dlink that can fix this?

[dbtrader1]

One more thing.  It looks like the Mac Mini will only connect at "G".  This issue has caused me to lose what little hair I have left on my head.  Any help is greatly apprecited.

Thanks,

Dan

[mackworth]

In your network Utility Application, can you post a screenshot of your info tab with your wireless connection selected?  What version mac mini?  What version OS?

Also, what settings are you using for wireless on the router.

[dbtrader1]

Thanks for the reply:  Here is what I have at hand.  W

MB463LL/A (newest Mac Mini)   
Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Wireless Settings:
Mode: n and g
channel: 11
transmission rate: automatic
channel width: 20/40
Security: WPA

Do you mean the network utility application on the Mac? 

Thanks,

Dan

[mackworth]

Thanks for the reply:  Here is what I have at hand.  W

MB463LL/A (newest Mac Mini)   
Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Wireless Settings:
Mode: n and g
channel: 11
transmission rate: automatic
channel width: 20/40
Security: WPA

Do you mean the network utility application on the Mac? 

Thanks,

Dan

Yeah, I was talking about on your mac.  Don't actually need the screen shot, I am just wondering what the "link speed" is.

[dbtrader1]

I have never used that utility but was able to find it with search.  I'm a bit surprised apple support never asked me to pull that up.  In any case it says 130mps so that looks good.  Any suggestions is much appreciated.

Dan

[cmk1198]

I had a quick thought, I read somewhere that the channel width selection under the manual wireless settings area was put there specifically for Intel wireless N network cards (those cards only support 130 mbps anyways)... I see your channel width is set to auto 20/40, I wonder if that causes the issue you're having? Try changing that setting to 20 MHz only. Again, this is just a thought, but that setting is there for a reason 

[Reinvented]

The wireless performance in general is horrible - period.  Its not that they don't play nice together, as it's more so software.

The 20/40 channel width is necessary for "N" speeds, however if you drop it to 20 Hz, you'd ultimately lose that ability. Sure, it'll still broadcast at N, but at really really gimped speeds.

Try forcing it to "N" mode only, with WPA2 Personal, and a cipher type of AES.

I've noticed on both my 4500 and DIR-655 that the wireless N speeds have been really really bad in general.  And again, as I mentioned earlier, it's not hardware - it's software.  Sadly to say, it's more so on D-Link's side.

Although you may have a link speed of 130 Mbps, you could try just forcing it to "G", and see how stable it is.  It might be better, it might not.

[mackworth]

I had a quick thought, I read somewhere that the channel width selection under the manual wireless settings area was put there specifically for Intel wireless N network cards (those cards only support 130 mbps anyways)... I see your channel width is set to auto 20/40, I wonder if that causes the issue you're having? Try changing that setting to 20 MHz only. Again, this is just a thought, but that setting is there for a reason 

I am not sure the new mini's use intel adapters.  I thought they used broadcom cards but I could be wrong.

[summerstormpictures]

I thought N speeds were better if the router were set to 20-only rather than 20/40.

Can somebody clear this up?

I have had good wireless N speeds in general set to 20-only--but with an occasional daily slow-down happening that I attributed to OpenDNS--which is having a lot of issues with mis-categorization of sites. Maybe this 20-40 thing is at issue?

[dbtrader1]

Well, I'm about ready to toss this router out the window and go buy something else.  It's clearly a software issue.  If I change the WISH settings and give my Mac Mini highest priority (Voice High) I can get about 6mb download and 8mb upload.  That said, my PC will still pull about 20mb download and 8mb upload in the exact same location.  To me this is absurd.  I've never had these kind of issues with any other routers I've owned.  Since this is a Dlink sponsored forum I would love to hear what a moderator or SME has to say about the incompatibility with Macs. 

Thanks,

Dan

[cmk1198]

Here's the thing.... I'm not positive the Mac Mini has an Intel wireless adapter, however, the chipset on the the motherboard is an Intel chipset (I'm talking northbridge and southbridge not wireless chipsets). The wireless N spec itself lists 40 MHz wide channels as a standard, but this does not work properly with some devices, in fact, Intel wireless N cards have the 'Channel Width' spec defaulted to 20 MHz only. Now, as for this being a D-Link only issue, it seems like this is more of a Mac only issue... I can almost guarantee you this is a Mac OS driver issue. One of the things that tipped me off in the original poster's message (it being a possible Intel issue), is the 130 mbps connection speed. When wireless N was first released, 20 MHz channel widths were the default, an as such were limited to 130 mbps (still wireless N because of the MIMO feature), however, the 40 MHz channel width is necessary for 270/300 mbps operation. This sort of seems like a weird auto step-down for the wireless device, unless the driver in Mac OS specifically allows only a 20 MHz channel bonding (this could be hardware or software related actually). There is also a feature, which as far as I know exists on a driver level, and in Windows only, for the wireless network card to broadcast whether or not it's capable of utilizing 20 or 40 MHz channels or both. Again.... this poster has found that the performance is only horrible with his Mac Mini, and doesn't have these issues with his PCs... this leads me to the conclusion that it's a hardware/software issue with the mac only. I've also done a quick search on Google to *try* to find any information on the performance of the wireless device in a Mac Mini and was unable to find anything. Please try setting the channel width on the router to 20 MHz as a possible/probable solution to this issue.

-update-
After seeing this last post, this REALLY leaves me to believe that in fact the wireless card/chipset of the Mac Mini is only capable of 20 MHz channel widths. Still though, the actual performance that dbtrader1 is seeing, is only a small fraction of 130 mbps (assuming the speed he gives is megabits and not megabytes).

[dbtrader1]

My Airport express which is even farther away gets a decent signal so are you saying it depends on which apple product it is?  If I change the setting to 20mhz then all my other devices which were getting up to 300mbps will now max out at 130mbps correct?  If that is the case it doesn't sound like a good solution to me.

Dan

[Reinvented]

If you are so curious as to what kind of adapter it is, click the Apple logo top left, and select "About This Mac", and hit More Info...  Left hand pane, wireless network adapter...it'll tell the manufacturer. 

Again, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH LINK SPEED, nor does your link speed have any effect on how fast you will download. 

The OP doesn't even mention what his line is rated for.  On top of that, you didn't listen to what I had to say regarding the bad firmware, which cripples the wireless performance.  The point of telling him to force it to G mode is that G/B seems to be a bit more stable than N. 

[dbtrader1]

To put the wireless card type to rest I checked and it's a Broadcom BCM43XX 1.0.  As for my link speed it's a 30meg pipe so that isn't the issue.  I did change my settings to WAP2 and AES and the signal strenght is a bit better but no luck on the speed.  If I set my router to "N" only what about the clients that have "G" cards?  Won't they no longer connect?

Dan