Time Capsule Wireless - What a load of junk!

[Logsi]

Why is the wireless of the Time Capsule just absolute junk?

When checking latency of the wireless connection i constantly get lag spikes and higher than usual latency through it no matter what settings i use. When connecting to the BT Homehub wirelessly i get 20-30% better latency and a much more stable wireless connection...

Why is this? I just don't understand!

 

[Feek]

That doesn't make sense to me, I've found that my Time Capsule wireless is equally as good as the Airport Extreme I had before and that was by far the best wireless I've had here

Which version do you have? I don't know the 'official' title of mine but I bought it just as the 2Tb versions came out.

 

[cliffy]

Had a 1TB time capsule myself and decided to take it back as the performance was very poor

 

[Logsi]

1TB First Generation version.

Seems like since the new version has come out they cease to support it now :/

Firmware version is 7.4.2 and that's the latest for my model.

EDIT - Checking wikipedia it looks like there is 4 generations of Time Capsule, i'm not sure which generation i have, but it's a 1TB one when they were the largest size available.

 

[Logsi]

Time Capsule

Ping has started…

PING bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.138): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=0 ttl=113 time=19.244 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=1 ttl=113 time=36.049 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=2 ttl=113 time=18.188 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=3 ttl=113 time=17.407 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=4 ttl=113 time=23.354 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=5 ttl=113 time=22.162 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=6 ttl=113 time=24.275 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=7 ttl=113 time=26.205 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=8 ttl=113 time=57.152 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=9 ttl=113 time=28.706 ms

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 17.407/27.274/57.152/11.260 ms

HomeHub 2.0

Ping has started…

PING bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.138): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=0 ttl=113 time=18.478 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=1 ttl=113 time=15.969 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=2 ttl=113 time=16.793 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=3 ttl=113 time=18.306 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=4 ttl=113 time=16.012 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=5 ttl=113 time=16.458 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=6 ttl=113 time=17.832 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=7 ttl=113 time=16.342 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=8 ttl=113 time=18.436 ms
64 bytes from 212.58.224.138: icmp_seq=9 ttl=113 time=16.899 ms

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 15.969/17.152/18.478/0.961 ms

Defeats me why it's like that!

 

[Logsi]

Any ideas why this would be happening?

Would where it is placed do this to the latency?

What settings might be causing this?

 

[Tunney]

Could it be the wireless channel that the Time Capsule is using? Maybe there's interference on the channel that it's using. I'm not sure if there's an option to change it though.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Hold command/option and click the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar.

It should tell you some indepth stats about the connection. Not sure I understand why pinging BBC.co.uk would show the different in Wi-Fi? Surely that shows your internet connection is a fraction slower at the time you ping'd?

 

[Kol]

Hold command/option and click the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar.

It should tell you some indepth stats about the connection. Not sure I understand why pinging BBC.co.uk would show the different in Wi-Fi? Surely that shows your internet connection is a fraction slower at the time you ping'd?

That's a handy thing to remember. Never tried option+wireless to see stats.

Agreed with you, also, pinging BBC.co.uk is not a good test, OP you should be pinging a local source.

 

[FirebarUK]

I have the same generation time capsule as you. Pinging a local source....

ping 192.168.0.109
PING 192.168.0.109 (192.168.0.109): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=85.447 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=3.466 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=3.640 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.073 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=44.031 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=3.299 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=5.714 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=2.945 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=4.978 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=3.118 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=29.400 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=46.833 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=11.908 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=15.289 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=8.036 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=3.228 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=3.086 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=7.131 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=30.170 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=19 ttl=64 time=3.048 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.109: icmp_seq=20 ttl=64 time=3.077 ms

 

[Logsi]

Hold command/option and click the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar.

It should tell you some indepth stats about the connection. Not sure I understand why pinging BBC.co.uk would show the different in Wi-Fi? Surely that shows your internet connection is a fraction slower at the time you ping'd?

I only pinged bbc to check the connection latency. It's the same everytime though. At any time of the day, it fluctuates like that.

I'll give that tip a go, thanks!

Has you got any other wireless connection to compare against Firebar?

 

[Logsi]

Local source pinging

Time Capsule

Ping has started…

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.965 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=4.586 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=4.473 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=5.859 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=8.110 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=21.238 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=6.555 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=48.735 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=5.098 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=4.795 ms

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 4.473/11.441/48.735/13.322 ms

Homehub

Ping has started…

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=3.237 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=3.335 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=3.922 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.380 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=3.275 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=3.630 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=3.295 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=3.316 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=3.229 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=3.333 ms

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 3.229/3.395/3.922/0.206 ms

It's just those random spikes on the time capsule that i just don't understand!?

 

[FirebarUK]

Has you got any other wireless connection to compare against Firebar?

I did but don't anymore, I can't say I looked into it with my previous router though. It certainly appears common though.

I'm considering picking up a Linksys WRT610N and just using this TC as a backup drive.

 

[SoapSurgeon]

I recommended my parents get one of these. You should try getting one to join an existing wireless network (they have ADSL so it cant be the main router). Every time it ran a backup the whole network would come to a standstill. I've had to plug it in now - may as well have bought an external HDD.

 

[FirebarUK]

Just out of curiosity, trying switching to 5Ghz N and see what happens. I just tried this and I had similar issues but even worse (timeouts included).

 

[Logsi]

I've tried loads of different configurations and they all yield the same results...

 

[FirebarUK]

I think I'm going to fork out for a new router anyhow. I'd quite like a dual-band N spec jobby.