# New MacBook very slow over wireless



## MQMurphy (Oct 10, 2010)

Hello - my wife's new macbook seems to work very slowly over our Netgear wireless router (WGR614v6). I updated the firmware and set the router for 'wireless g' devices only. THe new MacBook has Snow Leopard OS, obviously - Safari and Firefox both seem slow. I've browsed my way through about eight pages of threads and read quite a few - can anyone suggest a fix that may be newer and simpler than what's been posted already? Thanks.


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## Satcomer (Oct 12, 2010)

Open System Preferences->Network pane and at the top of the pane is the "Location" pull-down. Use that Drop-down to make a new custom 'Location' calling it whatever you want (like home or Work or Roaming). Then at the bottom of the pane hit the 'Apply'. Then use System Preferences->Network pane to re-join your wireless network.

Also what security are you running on your wireless network?


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## MQMurphy (Oct 12, 2010)

Thanks for the reply. This is a very curious situation - I thought it might be some kind of Snow Leopard vs Netgear issue, but they've got the exact same Netgear router at my wife's office and her MacBook works just fine there. She has no problem on another network here at home that uses an old Airport as the router. My older PowerBook still works okay on the Netgear and the Airport at the house. I'll try your suggestion this evening. Oh, we're using WPA security on the network.


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## Satcomer (Oct 15, 2010)

Any updates on your situation?


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## MQMurphy (Oct 15, 2010)

Hello, Satcomer -
Tried your suggestion - Pref>Netwk>Loc>New 
Doesn't seem to be helping - it makes my 8 (10?) year old PowerBook look fast. Pages on the MacBook seem to take really long to load - when they poad at all. Any other suggestions? 
Thanks.


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## Satcomer (Oct 15, 2010)

Have her take to another wireless network to see if is still slow. Then if it is let us know and I will walk you through resetting the wireless driver in 10.6.x.


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## MQMurphy (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks, Satcomer - I'll try that over the weekend and get back to you.

Best,
MQM


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## Satcomer (Oct 23, 2010)

Any news?


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## MQMurphy (Oct 23, 2010)

Hello, Satcomer -
No real news - MacBook worked fine on another network with a slightly newer Netgear router (1 digit up in the 'v'). I tried taking that router back here to the house, plugged it in, still had slooooooowww access. Temp solution is to put old Airport Base Station as the primary wifi router here at the house. It isn't fast (might be 802.11b) but at least spouse's MB seems to be working just about normally. I had read one post on this site about possible conflicts when a modem (cable, in our case) has two wifi networks running off of it. But even then - with the Netgear as the first in line (cat5 cable from Netgear brought signal to outbuilding where Airport was hooked up) the Airport gave reliable pretty-near-normal internet access when that network was selected (not so good signal back here at the house from it, of course). The Airport doesn't have any other ethernet plugs for connecting cable to send signal out to barn, so I've got to try finding a connection solution. I guess I could pay another 50 - 60 dollars for a newer wifi router, but hey, 50 - 60 bucks - there are other places where that's needed these days.


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## joon_mac_air (Nov 21, 2010)

Just received a new MacBook Air but got the exactly same problem for wireless connection.
I'm using the same Netgear router at home which works fine with my 3 other notebooks to browse internet at the expected speed. 
However, the wireless connection for the new Macbook is extremely slow -- taking more than a minute to visit a web site and sometimes timed out. It's not in a usable condition now.


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