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Question

Mac vs. laptop wifi speed

Oct 27, 2018 7:07AM PDT

For some reason the internet speed on my laptop is 8mbps, whereas on my mac it is 50mbps. I have no idea why this is, but as I am in China and need to use a vpn, the internet slows to an almost impossible pace on my laptop when I connect.

I am not at all tech savvy, and so not sure what info I should provide, but my laptop is a Dell with windows 10, and the hardware says the wifi protocol is 802.11n, and the network band is 2.4GHz. The laptop was bought around a year and a half ago, and it is newer than my mac.

Anybody have any ideas on how to improve the internet speed on my laptop? Thank you in advance!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: speed
Oct 27, 2018 7:10AM PDT

- Is the Mac connected wireless also?
- What is the speed on the laptop if you connect it with an Ethernet cable?
- What is the wireless speed on your smartphone?
- What is the wireless speed on a Windows laptop of a friend?

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Oct 27, 2018 4:48PM PDT

- Yes, the mac is also connected wireless.
- With the ethernet cable the speed on the laptop is still 9mbps.
- On my iphone 6 the speed is only 3mbps!
- I haven't had any friends round with laptops to try it. We have only had this internet connection for a week or so.

I should also add that the speed was awful across every device we own. We contacted the company and they asked us to turn our router off for an hour last night at a particular time. When we turned it back on the mac speed was up to 50mbps. My laptop had previously been anywhere between 0.5mbps and 2mbps. So they definitely sped it up, i'm just struggling to understand why there is such a huge difference!

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It's a long shot
Oct 28, 2018 9:33AM PDT

But some VPN code uses part of the Intel instruction set that was targeted/used by FORESIGHT and other CPU exploits. The patches for this can impact VPN apps. That issue is supposed to be cured next month. For now the fix is to forgo VPN or try other VPNs.

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Oct 28, 2018 5:18PM PDT

The VPN isn't really the point here though. I am talking about the internet speed without a VPN.

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I read your top post again.
Oct 28, 2018 5:56PM PDT

And came away you had the VPN up and running. Now that it's not you can try drivers and most of all be sure your antivirus is not inspecting each packet. While STATEFUL INSPECTION is great it does cost.

In parting I always carry in our own laptops and USB WiFi dongles to sniff out where the trouble is. I have never fixed it reliable any other way. The generic advice is to use the laptop maker's drivers and defaults during testing. If the owner installed a VPN or AV we remove those during tests.