At 10:17 AM -0800 1/6/2009, rs_poetic wrote: > >I did most of the maintenance steps suggested by Dan: no noticeable >change in video streaming ability. > >I hooked the computer up to the cable router by direct wire. Puzzling >result: although general loading of internet pages was faster, video >streaming itself didn't improve much.
That mostly eliminates your computer and LAN (wired and wireless) as the cause. >That experiment showed that the wireless net contributes slows >download from internet to some degree. Unfortunately, I don't know >what to do about that. I need to be wireless, and the iMac is Core >Duo with 802.11 g. Isn't that a fixed limitation on the wireless net >speeds? Wi-fi is slow, period. We "jokingly" refer to it as a one-wall technology. Most 11g connections run at around half the spec's rated speed - maybe 20 to 30 Mbps. Degrade that further given room interference etc... As long as it is faster than the connection to your ISP, the poor speed shouldn't be too noticeable. >So, it appears the best avenue is to investigate the cable company's >"premium" upgrade package.... It is more likely that the path between you and Netflix is has a problem, or your ISP (cable company) isn't providing you with the service quality for which you're already paying. So before you upgrade... Let's dig a bit farther. So far you know your car, garage, and driveway are ok. Now let's check down the street for obstructions... First, run a speed test. Go to <http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest>. Select the server nearest to you, and run the test. Tell me the upload and download speeds it reports. Next, launch Terminal.app (it lives in /Applications/Utilities). This is a direct command line interface to the Unix underbelly of your Mac. Everything in it is plain text, so you can freely copy and paste stuff. Copy this command and paste it into Terminal, exactly as-is (it is case sensative): traceroute -m 15 www.netflix.com Let it run. The last lines may take a while, but it will stop after the 15th. It will produce some output that looks a bit like this: traceroute to www.netflix.com (208.75.76.17), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 actiontec-mi424wr (192.168.0.1) 2.432 ms 0.962 ms 0.560 ms 2 l100.vfttp-01.cmdnnj.verizon-gni.net (72.73.230.1) 4.437 ms 3.878 ms 4.079 ms 3 p2-1.lcr-01.cmdnnj.verizon-gni.net (130.81.32.184) 5.712 ms 5.136 ms 3.902 ms 4 p9-0-0.lcr-02.cmdnnj.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.34) 8.336 ms 6.296 ms 14.519 ms ...and so on. Copy the whole results from Terminal and paste it into your reply here. Each line is a "hop" along the path to Netflix. Each time given is the round trip time, in milliseconds, it takes for a PING packet to go from your Mac, to that router, and back to your Mac. By comparing the times, we can tell if the path between you and Netflix is ok. >Incidentally, I ordered more memory, just in case it helps; an >additional 1G is merely $25! More memory is fine, but definitely not the issue here. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Low End Mac's iMac List, a group for those using G3, G4, G5, and Intel Core iMacs as well as Apple eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
