When I open Network Utilility, my wifi adapter WiFi (en0) shows a link speed of 54 Mbit/s.
Very bizar because this is a 2019 Macbook Pro with the latest MacOS + updates.
When I option-click the wifi icon in the Apple menu bar, it shows "802.11ac", "5 Ghz", and a "TX rate" of 585 Mbps. Can I ignore Network Utility, or is something wrong?
Hmm, interesting. When you have your new notebook connected to your wireless network, please hold down the option key, and then, select the Wi-Fi icon on the macOS menu bar again. Try taking these measurements with your notebook near your wireless router.
Once there, please provide the following values for:
Try rebooting both your router and your computer. I've found my router's WiFi tends to get into a weird state sometimes.
hi,
thanks for the help!
values :
Ok, thanks for the additional information.
I suggest that you change your wireless security type to WPA2 Personal which performs better overall. The only reason to use WPA/WPA2 Personal would be for older wireless devices which can't use the stronger WPA2 security standard.
Channel 36 for the 5 GHz band uses less "energy" and thus provides less bandwidth than channels in the upper portion of that band (100+). However, which channels you can use may be restricted by where you live due to potential interference with radar ... so you may not be able to do much about this.
One measure of Wi-Fi signal quality is the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Its formula is: SNR = RSSI - Noise. In your case, it would be: SNR = -52 - (-95) = 43, which would represent an "excellent" signal quality. Which leads us to the last value ... MCS Index. Your new notebook should be able to connect to a wireless network using up to 3 spatial streams ... assuming that your wireless router is capable of providing this number of streams as well. With that said, your notebook would get a maximum MCS Index value of 9, which would equate to roughly 1300 Mbps on a 5 GHz, 80 MHz-wide band. Even at 4, it should be capable of 585 Mbps.
What I suggest that you try, is connecting your notebook to another wireless network. Perhaps a friend's or relative's to see if you can get closer to that 1300 Mbps range. If it still hovers around 54 Mbps, then I would suspect your notebook. However, if it does improve significantly, then it could be your router OR the presence of Wi-Fi interference that is causing the low MCS Index value.
Network Utility shows only 54 Mbps.
