My iPad is slowing down the Internet for everyone else.

[Musiciater]

Recently, whenever I connect my iPad mini to the WiFi on my home network, the bandwidth increases from 15 to anywhere between 300 and 500+. It slows everything else connected to the wifi without me running anything on my iPad. As soon as I connect, it immedietly goes up. Has anyone else had this problem and how do I fix it?

 

[giradman]

Recently, whenever I connect my iPad mini to the WiFi on my home network, the bandwidth increases from 15 to anywhere between 300 and 500+. It slows everything else connected to the wifi without me running anything on my iPad. As soon as I connect, it immedietly goes up. Has anyone else had this problem and how do I fix it?

Hello and welcome to the forum! Your description above makes little sense to me, e.g. you're implying that your iPad when connected to your home Wi-Fi slows down the internet for other devices, but then you state the bandwidth increases from 15 to..... 300 and 500+, which would imply improvement but does not make sense either.

Please provide more information: 1) What is your computer setup at home, i.e., brand/model computer, operating system installed, modem/router being used, and ISP (Internet Service Provider); 2) What iOS is installed on your iPad Mini; and 3) What do the 'bandwidth' numbers mean and how are you determining these values, i.e. on you iPad and/or computer? Dave

 

[Musiciater]

Hello and welcome to the forum! Your description above makes little sense to me, e.g. you're implying that your iPad when connected to your home Wi-Fi slows down the internet for other devices, but then you state the bandwidth increases from 15 to..... 300 and 500+, which would imply improvement but does not make sense either.

Please provide more information: 1) What is your computer setup at home, i.e., brand/model computer, operating system installed, modem/router being used, and ISP (Internet Service Provider); 2) What iOS is installed on your iPad Mini; and 3) What do the 'bandwidth' numbers mean and how are you determining these values, i.e. on you iPad and/or computer? Dave

Ah yes, sorry. When I say it increases, I mean the speed. From 15ms to 500ms+, I believe is what my housemate said. The modem we use is Netgeae and our provider is Telstra. The operating system is Windows 8 on a HP laptop. The computer isn't mine, it's my housemate's and he also is in control of all the Internet/wifi system.
On my iPad I have iOS8.4. I hope that all makes sense

 

[dhewson777]

I've never heard of bandwidth or internet speed measured in milliseconds.

 

[giradman]

Ah yes, sorry. When I say it increases, I mean the speed. From 15ms to 500ms+, I believe is what my housemate said. The modem we use is Netgeae and our provider is Telstra. The operating system is Windows 8 on a HP laptop. The computer isn't mine, it's my housemate's and he also is in control of all the Internet/wifi system.
On my iPad I have iOS8.4. I hope that all makes sense

I've never heard of bandwidth or internet speed measured in milliseconds.

Hi again Musiciater - thanks for the additional information, but I have to agree w/ Dhewson... about the use of 'milliseconds' - typically bandwidth is given in MHz (Megahertz) and transmit or download speeds in Mbps (i.e. Megabits per second). Do you have a modem & a router or a combo unit, is the HP laptop on Wi-Fi or cabled, and how many others are using this Wi-Fi network? - the bandwidth from your ISP is limited (depending on your plan) and shared, so a potential issue.

Looking at the Telstra Website, there is broadband FAQ support - click the link. You might also want to provide us w/ measurements that are easier to understand, i.e. download (DL) speeds of devices using your Wi-Fi network w/ your iPad not connected and then attached - I use Speed Test on my iPad & MBPro - please provide us some DL speeds from various devices in different connection scenarios, and answers to the questions above. Dave

 

[twerppoet]

Pings are measured in milliseconds (ms).

A ping is a short messages sent to a server that asks for a reply, an acknowledgement that the message has been received. The measurement is the round trip time for the sent message and the reply. Pings may or may not indicate slow upload/download speeds.

Consistently slow pings speeds usually indicate lag (also latency), which is how long it takes for your computer to request data, and to start receiving it. Your download (or upload) speed is a combination of lag and the actual transmission speed of the data. Think of lag as stop lights on a highway, and transmission speed as the speed limit. For a small packet like a ping (think motorcycle) lag is almost all the delay. You are sending and receiving very small amounts of data. However most of the internet traffic you care about is composed of busses and tractor-trailers; convoys of them for large files. They may arrive at the same speed as a ping (lag) but they contain a lot more data for the same travel time. That means that for actual data transmission the bandwidth (highway speed) is the most significant factor. A convoy of trucks may take just as long as a motorcycle to start arriving, but once they start coming in you will be receiving a constant flow of data at highway (bandwidth) speeds. The lag becomes almost meaningless.

That does not mean ping speeds are unimportant, just that they don't have as large and impact on bandwidth as you might expect.

Good ping speeds are well under 100ms for a low bandwidth connection to under 20 for an excellent connection. At some point your bandwidths stops effecting ping speeds, as there is a minimum time needed for each computer and router along the way to route the traffic.

Ookla Speed Test shows acceptable (average) pings.

More troubling than slow ping speeds are erratic or dropped (no reply) pings. This indicates some kind of problem with the connection or the routers along the way. Simple speed tests won't distinguish between this and lag. To detect this you need to see pings over a period of time.

Ping from Terminal on OS X shows fast, consistent pings.

 

[giradman]

Great point TP about the ping measurement - hopefully, the OP will return w/ some more information, including whether the 'milliseconds' indeed has to do w/ pinging? Dave

 

[dhewson777]

Pings, of course!

 

[Musiciater]

Hi everyone. TP was right about it being Ping measurement. And I've fixed it now. Turns out my iCloud was backing up every time I connected to the wifi.

 

[J. A.]

iCloud should backup once a day only. Did it backup more than once every day, or was the backup never completed?