If you find that your wireless download speeds are abysmal while youruploads speeds are pretty solid, especially with Apple devices, I’ve got apossible solution for you. I struggled with this issue for a while and decidedto write down my findings in a blog post in case I, or anyone else, runs intothis in the future.
tldr: disable WMM QoS in your router settings.
I found that the WiFi on my MacBook Pro (late-2013) works slowly on 5 GHz / 80 MHz channels (topping out at about 30 Mbps). Enough so that it's at least 3x faster when connected to the 2.4 GHz band in the same router (and I say at least because I can't measure any higher). Use an Ethernet Cable Instead of WiFi. Surprisingly, many people don’t realise that using an Ethernet. Check what areas of your house lack a good Wi-Fi connection, or run the Wi-Fi Sweetspots app for a few minutes in the usual place where you use your Mac, to see if the signal drops out.
Symptoms
At home, I have the following setup:
Macbook Air Wifi Fast Upload But Slow Downloads
Macbook Air: OS X 10.7.1, Intel Core i71.8Ghz, 4GB RAM
iPhone 4S: iOS 5.0
Custom desktop: Windows 7, Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz, 2GB RAM
ISP: Comcast xfinity
Whenever I used my laptop or phone, the Wi-Fi connection felt incrediblyslow. Youtube videos took forever to load, Google Maps tiles filled in slowly,and even gmail felt unresponsive. On the other hand, my desktop, which wasconnected to the router via an ethernet cable, worked just fine.
Numbers
To confirm my observations, I decided to take some bandwidth measurementsusing bandwidthplace.com,speakeasy.net, andspeedtest.net for the laptop and the SpeedTestapp for the iPhone. The results were pretty consistent across all app anddevice pairs and looked something like this:
Desktop
Download: 24 Mbps
Upload: 4.5 Mbps
Laptop
Download: 0.65 Mbps
Upload: 4.5 Mbps
iPhone
Download: 0.58 Mbps
Upload: 4.4 Mbps
Yikes! My laptop and iPhone download speed were more than 30 timesslower than my desktop’s download speed! On the other hand, the upload speedwas roughly the same on all devices. What the hell was going on?
Failed attempts
After googling for solutions, I tried a number of tweaks commonlysuggested around the web:
Change DNS hosts
Change wireless channel
Change the wireless channel width
Use a different security mode (WPA2 personal)
Shut off firewalls
Enable or disable IPv6 settings
Reboot the router
None of these worked.
The solution
Out of desperation, I started tweaking random settings on my router andstumbled across one that finally worked. The directions for other routersmay be a little different, but here’s what I did:
Go to http://192.168.1.1 and login to your router. If you’venever done this, look for instructions that came with your router or do agoogle search to find the default username and password.
Find a page that has QoS settings. For the E1200, you need to click on“Applications & Gaming” and select the “QoS” sub-menu.
Disable WMM Support.
Click save.
That’s it. The second I disabled WMM support, the download speeds for mylaptop and iPhone both jumped to 24 Mbps, perfectly matching my desktop.
What the hell is WMM?
WMM isapparently an 802.11e feature that provides higher priority for“time-dependent” traffic, such as video or voice. In theory, this should makethings like VoIP calls and video chat (e.g. Skype) perform better. Inpractice, having it enabled destroyed my Wi-Fi download speeds. Since Idisabled it, my Wi-Fi is blazing fast and I’ve seen no negativeside-effects.
If anyone has more information as to why this would be the case, pleaseshare it here.
Macbook Pro Slow Wifi
Update (April, 2014): firmware upgrades
A couple years after writing this blog post, I hit the inverse of the originalproblem: I suddenly had fast download but slow upload speeds. While lookingfor a fix, I found out that the WMM/QoS issue mentioned above may have beenfixed in newer firmware versions for my router! I once again wrote a blog postto capture all the details: Got fast download but slow upload speeds? Here’safix.
Update (Sept, 2013): some nitty-gritty details
In the last year, this post has had over 100k views and helped many people fixtheir download speeds. I’m happy I was able to help people. Other folks havebeen eager to share advice too: I got an email from a Russ Washington inAtlanta who did some impressive investigative work to uncover a potentialunderlying cause. In case it helps others, here is his email:
Yevgeniy: I ran into your blog post 'Got slow download but fastupload speeds over wireless? Here's a fix.' I have some info you may finduseful.
This happened to me too when I moved toComcast - but I had DSL running in parallel. The Comcast traffic had thisproblem but the DSL did not. Also, it affected my Linksys router when it hadstock firmware *and* after switching to DD-WRT. Clearly the traffic itself wasat issue, so I broke out the packet sniffer.
*All* inbound Comcast traffic (Internet --> client) was tagged with a DSCP valueof 8 (Class Selector 1). The DSL traffic had a DSCP value of 0. So Comcast istagging all traffic to be treated a certain way by QoS: 'Priority,' whichsounds good but is actually the second-*lowest* possible.
WMM, itself a QoS technique, apparentlyde-prioritizes (drops?) based on the Comcast-supplied value. Turning off WMMworked around it - but since WMM is part of the 802.11n spec, I wanted rootcause. Judiciously replacing that set-by-Comcast DSCP value does the trick.
So between my Linksys router and both ISPs, I had aNetscreen firewall. It lets me set DSCP values by policy - so I told it tomatch the DSL (DSCP 0). This yielded great improvement. However, I was stillnot getting full speed so even a zero value was not the best for > DSLrates. I set the DSCP value to 46 (Expedited Forwarding) and bingo, up to20Mbps, almost full provisioned speed (25Mbps).
Why only download issues? Because the only Comcast-tagged packets are the inboundones: Internet --> you, including those big data packets. When uploading,yes, you get sent ACK packets and such - but they are tiny connection-controlpackets. I imagine WWM weirds out on them too, but you (usually) wouldn'tnotice when doing multi-Mbps speed tests.
I am still trying to udnerstand WMM, but this was a big find, and I was lucky to have afirewall that let me packet-tweak. Hope you find the info useful.
Russ Washington, Atlanta, GA
Update (Sept, 2014): more nitty-gritty details
Russ has found even more info about this issue: it turns out it’s not just aComcast DSCP bug, but also poor handling of this bug by the firmware of manyrouters. More details here: Critical DSCP bug Affecting WiFi Download Speedson Comcast.
Chrome is the preferred web browser for thousands of users as it seamlessly syncs across devices and effectively integrates with all of Google’s products. But this makes it especially annoying when the usually speedy web browser slows to a snail’s pace.
Luckily, we’ve got a couple of ways that should help Chrome get back to the peak condition in no time, allowing you to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible.
Note: there is no one-fit-all solution that can speed up Chrome like magic. A slow Chrome is usually due to a specific cause, or in many cases a combination of several.
Let’s get started to pinpoint before getting them fixed, and make your Chrome browser fast again.
Reason 1: Your Cache is Beyond Overworked
Maybe you’ve heard this one before — but for a good reason! The cache seems like the mysterious fix-all solution for dozens of tech issues, but it’s actually very important to keep up to date on.
The cache is the temporary storage file where Chrome stores frequently used information in order to load that information faster. However, once this very limited space becomes full, the browser can’t react as quickly to new sites that you want to load and becomes bogged down searching for information.
To fix this, you just need to clear the cache. First navigate to the top right of chrome, where there is an icon with three dots: then choose More Tools > Clear Browsing Data. You’ll be prompted to pick a time range, in this case, “all time” is your best bet. You should also check all of the boxes.
It will take a bit for your Mac to speed up after doing this since it will need to rebuild the important parts of the cache. But overall, you should see performance pick up pace pretty quickly.
Macbook Air Wifi Fast Upload But Slow Downloaded
Wait…for those of you who are using CleanMyMac (if you’re not, you should), it’s even easier to get this done. Just open the app, go to Privacy > Chrome > Cookies, and hit the “Remove” button.
By the way, CleanMyMac also does a number of other things. It’s an app that we use and recommend for most Mac users unless you’re super tech-savvy. You can learn more about the app from the official MacPaw site here.
Reason 2: Chrome is Outdated
It’s easy to close the reminder box and postpone updates, especially when they require restarting apps you installed or worse, the whole computer. But these updates are critical to the functionality of any application, including Chrome.
Checking for an update in Chrome is super easy. First, look for the three dots icon in the top right of the browser. If there’s an update waiting to be installed, the icon will be one of three colors:
Green: An update has been available for two days
Orange: An update has been available for four days
Red: An update has been available for more than a week
If any of these are showing, you’ll see an option to “Update Google Chrome” at the top of the three-dots menu. If this option isn’t present and the icon is colored, then you’re running the latest version of Chrome, and this isn’t your problem.
Reason 3: Flash is Always Enabled
Besides the fact that Apple has a tumultuous history with Adobe Flash, the plugin has always been known to be a drag despite its frequent necessity. Luckily, you can change a single setting to force Flash to ask your permission before it activates on any page, which will prevent Chrome from unnecessarily loading Flash elements and slowing down your whole browsing experience.
To do this, go to the Chrome Menu and choose Settings near the bottom. Note: This page may look different depending on whether or not you have signed into Chrome.
Once in settings, either choose “Privacy” or scroll to the bottom of the page and pick “Advanced” and then find “Privacy”.
Then choose Content Settings and find the label for Flash. Here you’ll be able to pick “Ask First” for running flash.
After this has been changed, you’ll see a small dialog box in the top left of Chrome anytime a page wants to run Flash, which you can accept or deny at will.
Reason 4: Overzealous Plugins/Extensions
Some people are avid proponents of extensions, gladly installing anything they think will help. Others can’t understand the hype. However, extensions and plugins have a profound impact on the day to day operation of your Chrome browser, so they’re a good place to check for issues when the application is acting up.
First, you’ll want to see which extensions are currently running by opening the Chrome menu, then choose More Tools > Extentions.
This will open a new tab listing all of your extensions. Disable all of them by unchecking the box on the right side that says “Enabled” (you don’t have to delete them).
Then, relaunch Chrome and see how things run. If you see an improvement, you know one of your extensions is to blame and can systematically enable and disable them to figure out which it is. If you don’t see a difference, then this probably isn’t your problem and you should try a different method listed here.
Macbook Air Slow Speed
Reason 5: It’s not Chrome, It’s Your Internet
Has all else failed to fix your slow Chrome problem? Maybe it isn’t Chrome that’s slow in the first place — the culprit could be your internet connection. This is also fairly easy to check, and you have a couple different options to do so.
The easiest one is to run Google’s speed test by simply googling “speed test”. The first result will be an option to run the test. Once you do, your results will show in a small box and will even help you determine if your internet is performing up to par.
If you’re a gamer or techie and also want to know your ping rate, you can use speedtest from Ookla, which will also provide quick and accurate results of your internet speed.
You can compare any results to this internet speed chart that will identify whether or not yours is performing as advertised. If it’s not, then it may be time to contact your provider (ISP) about your service quality.
Also, since your MacBook is probably connected via Wi-Fi, and it’s often possible that your Internet router needs help getting the Wi-Fi signal to part of your house or apartment where your laptop locates. In this case, all you need is a Wi-Fi repeater like this one from TP-Link to extend your WiFi network for ultimate performance and coverage.
Final Words
Macbook Air Wifi Fast Upload But Slow Download Pc
A slow browser is the bane of modern existence. You can’t check your email, research pages for work and school don’t load, and even when you just want to have a bit of fun with an internet game or Buzzfeed article you’re cut off.
Macbook Air Slow Internet
Hopefully, this guide has given you a starting place for fixing the problem, but we’d love to hear your solutions as well! Leave us a comment below if you’ve ever fixed a slow Chrome problem or tell us what you tried that didn’t work.