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I inquired about certain things in regards to wifi connections with an expert on it in a reddit thread once, this was what he explained:
a 2010 iPhone will NEVER be able to get 200 Mbps download. That being said, if you had a first gen iPhone and three brand new MacBook pros, there is a high chance the internet may appear slow on those three laptops. TCP/IP is the communication portion of the internet. As packets get sent from one host computer to another, they get reassembled to ensure information is correct. If these packets are not assembled in the correct order you will have issues. So, if it receives too many incorrect packets, it will slow down the transmission to allow the packets to arrive properly. This can cause congestion. The first gen iPhone would be limited by its technology and so the modem/router would accommodate for its lack of ability. One way this can be done is by slowing down everything else. It may sound strange, but I have seen this be the cause of many issues. Once the older device is eliminated from the network, speeds tend to go up. It's the same logic when you think about 802.11G vs 802.11AC. I can give you 1 gig up and down in speed, but if you have an 802.11G router, your wireless will never go above 54 Mbps.
I'm quite uninitiated when it comes to networking terminologies, but what he explains seems to make sense to me. Before I bring it up in the future as a matter of fact, I was wondering if I could check the validity of his statements. (I'm leaning on it being the truth)
Edit: Ooookay, so, I don't who's correct here after reading the given answers, I'll leave the topic unmarked for answers.
"It's the same logic" doesn't really follow, though. Limits caused by an old client (which is "on the side") work differently from limits caused by an old access point (which is directly on the path). – user1686 – 2017-07-26T07:54:23.743
Could you link the original source of that statement? Could you maybe give a bigger scope for the question? It does read like it's not actually about Apple products but rather device specific wireless standards. The AP standard is always fixed and nobody can be faster than him but always slower. Usually (assuming a single network) the slowest standard (A/B/G/N/AC etc.) will determine the overall network speed. Slowest wireless client dictates the connection quality of all others?
– Seth – 2017-07-26T08:10:03.1871No, that guy you quoted is on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. There are so many errors and misleading bits in what he said, I don't know where to begin. – Spiff – 2017-07-26T18:06:26.237