Slow, Intermittent or No Internet Speed

Hi Liam,

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712


System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.


If using Wifi, instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

System Preferences>Network>choose interface>Advanced>Proxies Tab, make sure none are set, like for HTTP & HTTPS.

System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

1.1.1.1

9.9.9.9

Apply.

Hold the mouse button down on the Wifi icon& see what strength Yours is & how many others around using the same Channel & their strength...

Hold alt key whilst clicking on the Wifu icon to see particulars of your Network.

Though Apple has Wifi Diagnostics you may find the free version of this easier to grasp...

https://www.netspotapp.com/netspotpro.html

Avoid the badly mis-named Diagnostics Report -- it should be named network parameter DUMP and has no useful information for regular folks, and no promised summary or any conclusions.

<<'Crowded Wi-Fi Channel'>>

They are telling you your channel is too crowded, which is clear from the snapshot you posted originally.

<<'Confilicting country Codes' with a nearby router. >>

A router nearby using a different country-code from yours, possibly to get illegal access to fringe channels not allowed in your country, or possibly just due to laziness or software update issues.

<<Is there a better channel to select from my router settings?>>

When you select "automatic" channel selection and then Cycle the power to your router, every time your Router powers up (and not otherwise) your Router samples the data on every channel and "automatically" selects the least-busy channel that gives the best throughput. In most cases, it is a mistake to manually assign a channel, unless you have done a detailed analysis of what other Routers are nearby, and what channels they are using.

It is not an accident that every debugging procedure starts with "cycle the power to your Router".

If you have good signal AND your Router is not an antique, its should have connected on the far less busy 5GHz band. Not seeing it connect there suggests it is so old and out-of-date it does not offer 5GHz band. The typical add-on device they provide helps with out-of-range (dead spots at the ned of the house) but does NOT help with overcrowding, you main issue. it is likely a range extender like this:

a device like this ADDs traffic, because each packet must now be forwarded over the too-busy airwaves, and makes matters worse.

You need a 5GHz band on your Router. If you already have a 5GHz band, it is not being used correctly.

You are using channel 13 in the very busy and interference-prone 2.4 GHz band. Attempting to communicate using 802.11n.

Raw signal RSSI less noise leaves 86-68 or 16dB signal-to-noise, not very good. (25 is good). You may need consider moving your Router(s) and computer closer together for improved performance, but this should not be causing non-performance or disconnects. (Best RSSI is between -50 and -40 when right on top of the Router.)

Your Mac Pro has at least three antennas, but your connection is not good enough, likely due to interference form other Routers nearby so that you are using only ONE, and running that one at the maximum possible speed for one on the 2.4 Ghz band, 73 M bits/sec.

The other question I ask is "How many Networks do you see", shown by holding the Option key while clicking on the Wi-Fi Icon on the Menubar.

On that same menu you can find Wireless diagnostics, and initiate a (background) Monitoring of you connection. There are also several interesting displays that can help you if your network neighborhood is crowded. They can show you where the other Routers are already talking and not talking.

Network recommendations come up automatically. Avoid the badly mis-named Diagnostics Report -- it should be named network parameter DUMP and has no useful information for regular folks, and no promised summary or any conclusions.

The Scan tool inside wireless diagnostics can show you what Routers are using what channels in which bands. It looks from your Mac, so that even if your Router does not have 5GHz, you can still see every other Router. Its output looks like this:

(drag and drop on Preview to see larger.)

Channels above 14 are in the 5GHz band.

This display starts to be helpful, but does not show channel SPREAD, where each nominal channel in 802.11n also uses two adjacent channels up and two adjacent channels down for its full signal.

a more realistic picture can be obtained by using an inexpensive Utility called WiFi Explorer, which has a free trial period as well. Its displays show spread, like in this diagram:

(drag and drop on Preview to see larger)

in this case, the 2.4 GHz band is far too crowded, and using it would result in slow speeds and frequent disconnects -- the symptoms you are reporting.

The 5GHz band has some hope, but you may be too far (in terms of signal strength and intervening walls) to use the very high channels, whose power falls off as the channel number increases.