Slow internet with macOS Monterey

I have investigated the use of the Internet by the kernel_task process in my computer and found that the > 5Mb/s traffic is coming from a daughter process called "com.sophos.endpoint.networkextension" I have informed Sophos (my security supplier and the supplier of the program) about the problem. They state that the excessive traffic is not normal and their staff have requested and received two logs from my Sophos software using their Sophos Diagnostic Utility taken during the periods of excessive traffic. I am still awaiting their diagnosis/solution. I am confident that if this is corrected, the problems with my Internet connection should disappear. I have re-enabled "Send diagnostics to Apple" etc. I would be interested in how many users of similar M1 systems have Sophos installed, and how many of those have used the Activity Monitor to observe their network traffic.

This is what worked for me. Wired ethernet 2018 Mac Mini previously on 10.14 Mojave with zero issues using Chrome. Upon upgrading to Monterey, Chrome and Chrome Canary was not working properly. I have a special launcher since my Chrome profiles are on an external disk to offload disk wear.

After the initial upgrade, everything was okay. However this next morning, Canary would not even see an internet connection on the custom profile location, and Chrome was lagging/buffering on YouTube with NEVER happens. I was afraid that Monterey screwed up this ability, as running Chrome with the default profile on the main disk didn't have the problem. That's when I came searching for network issues, because this definitely wasn't normal.

I created a new network location, and turned off Limit IP Address Tracking. That fixed Chrome Canary at least getting internet connectivity.

EDIT: While it technically worked, my connection speed is still much more poor and not what it should be. There's still something going on. This is incredibly frustrating.

This works!! Uncheck all in Analytics and Improvement under Security and Privacy, as suggested above. Got my wifi speed back to normal. Thanks!!

Rebooting works thank you!

I'm having the same issues since upgrading from Big Sur to Monterey on my MacBook Air 2020 (Intel).

A typical Chrome browser user.

Normally a complete reboot resolves the slow / loss of connectivity WiFi issue. I particularly experience this when attempting to play / streams videos on several websites, one being such as YouTube for example.

Also, i never had the "Share Mac Analytics" / "Improve Siri & Dictation", nor "Share with App Developers" options checked, under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Analytics & Improvements, as others have suggested. So i can clearly rule these particular configurations out as being the root cause of the WiFi issues since the upgrade to MacOS Monterey.

I also tried other options, such as PRAM / SMC reset, Renew DHCP lease, clear network configuration files and let the OS regenerate fresh files in case there's some incompatibilities with previous Big Sur configurations. But, nada.

Just did an internet speed test on the upgraded MacBook Air, and it looks normally, maxed out, which is good. And for now it seems that things look normal on Safari, and Firefox where sites like YouTube is streaming videos without any buffering this morning, for now.

And so this suggests to me that the system is somehow severely interfering with the packet data from the connection down to the Chrome browser(?).

However, i have another device; MacBook Pro 2019 (Intel), which is still on Big Sur, and the Google Chrome browser is on the same perfect home network connection and browser version too (Chrome version 96), where Chrome runs sites (eg, YouTube streams) seamlessly without connectivity issues over on Big Sur.

Is Apple now throttling the connection to the Google Chrome browsers now on MacOS Monterey? Coercing us to use non-Chrome browsers perhaps, such as Safari / Firefox? Then that would be a bigger issue if that's the case.

Has anyone come across similar specific issues, specifically with Google Chrome on MacOS Monterey? If so, have you found a long lasting solution? Please share!

Nevertheless, this is clearly an underlying software issue somewhere, and should surely be fixed.

I've noticed since the Monterey upgrade issues at times with pages loading in Safari. Not happening with other browsers that I have experienced. Noticed that Google searches sometimes pauses several seconds before loading results. Other web sites sometimes do not load completely. Whatever the issue it was not happening prior to the upgrade to Monterey.

Yes yes yes! Ever since I upgraded to Monterey my iMac (27 inch) keeps disconnecting randomly from my wifi router. This happens multiple times a day. Once it disconnects, it does not reconnect for minutes at a time and even when it does, I receive a message that it cannot connect to web pages. I know this is a Monterey issue because I have not upgraded my Macbook Pro and that has no problem staying connected to the same router. I have tried every suggested fix and none of them work. This has rendered my computer useless for my work which relies heavily on connectivity. I so regret upgrading.

It's frustrating that Apple's response is always to try blaming the wifi signal or hardware. Hundreds of users in the Apple forums alone are reporting wifi connection failures with M1 Macbooks and OS Monterey, and almost all report multiple other devices in the same location having excellent wifi speeds at the same time. Also, as soon as I reboot, the speed is back to normal. It's a problem with the M1 MacBooks or with OS Monterey. It needs to be fixed.

Disabling Share Mac Analytics doesn't help. I recently did that, and now, a day or two later, the internet speed has gone back to a trickle (dial-up speed or worse). Most pages can't function. So far, the only thing I've found that fixes the problem is rebooting.

I am the author of a submission at 4:14 pm on Nov 20,2021 to this community about this problem. I have also contacted Apple's support group about it (case number 101578289456) with no resolution of the problem. I would like to present what I know about my particular problem to the community in order to see whether others have a similar problem or can propose solutions to mine.

I acquired my M1 iMac in May 2021. By November 2021 I was aware that Internet access from my iMac actually halted on certain occasions, and resumed of its own accord after a few minutes. I used the Apple utility called "Activity Monitor" to find out possible causes. I found out that the computer was transmitting at rates up to 7 Mb/s to the "network" for the whole period during which I could not get Internet access, and that the total data transmitted was of the order of 10 Gb. I attach a screenshot of the Activity Monitor display during the most recent transmission.

I live in a rural location and use a wireless Internet service which offers 15 Mb/s upload and 2 Mb/s download, which normally is more than I need. I checked that these activity bursts were not automatic backups to my AirPort Time Capsule. I do not have a total data ceiling on my use of the Internet.

As I mentioned above I have contacted Apple support about this problem and I have sent Activity Monitor screenshots similar to the above, They have acknowledged them but have yet to offer any explanation. Earlier I contacted Sophos support (I have a Sophos Home subscription which includes an app that scans incoming data) about the same problem when it appeared that the data were coming from a Sophos process. Sophos changed the configuration of my computer so that their app was not under the "kernel_task" in the Activity Monitor hierarchy. After this, and up to the present, the transmissions came from the "kernel_task".

For this reason I disabled the option to send diagnostic information to Apple and developers, thinking that this could be a potential cause for the transmissions. I also described my problem in my first submission to the Apple Community and my choice to disable the transmission of diagnostics.

I have followed with interest the submissions of other users who have found slow Internet access from their M1 Macs. At least one other user thanked me for the suggestion of disabling the transmission of diagnostics. This does not solve the problem I have described. Other users have described using fixed rather than automatic location services (doesn't work for me) and repairing the disk permissions, which I might be persuaded to try if my computer actually had a disk!

Any ideas from the community? Do any other users find these huge transmissions from the kernel_task?

Hey there!

I’ve seen kernel_task for many reasons. It tells you that some process is on overload and causing the system to heat up. In your case, it maybe related process that uses the network. The “Disk” as I put would be your physical internal drive which is represented in Disk Utility, if the issue does occur in another user and in safe mode, then I’d say repairing the disk is a good idea, otherwise, as I mentioned before, if it works normally in a new user account then repairing the user permissions maybe a good idea. If it’s an OS bug, or the OS was corrupted some how, I’d say repairing the Disk permissions while in recovery mode is a good idea, it’s a simple step that doesn’t take too long usually. Just make sure to select View > Show All Devices, start from the bottom up, (Usually Macintosh HD - Data, and run First Aid until on each, until you reach the main HDD/SSD (The disk), and do that one last, if all passes, great, restart and test. Hope you’re able to get it sorted out, not much these days can be done without a solid network connection, so I get it.

Go to Settings > Security & Privacy. Click on the fourth tab (Privacy). Scroll down in the left box and find 'Analytics & Improvements'. Uncheck 'Share Mac Analytics'. You might have to unlock the lock on the bottom by entering your password. I also uncheck 'Improve Siri & Dictation' and 'Share with App Developers', just to be on the same side.

Creating a new network location also does nothing for me. I suspect any of the proposed fixes only appear to work because, by luck, the wi-fi behaved itself for a while after making the change. It looks like Apple has simply failed us on this one.

Turning off "limit IP address tracking" does nothing either. Doesn't matter which browser I use; the download speeds are awful at some random time after a day or so since reboot.

And it's nothing to do with wi-fi signal strength; once the problem arises, I can go and sit right next to the router, reset the router, and still have the same pathetic speeds.

As with all other users complaining about this issue, no other devices are having problems (not even my lousy phone, which has trouble with other routers).

Hello, we have similar problem:

Mac 24' M1 on Monterey performing incredibly bad in network, both wired and wifi. Network drops out or is disconnected. Uploads ridiculous slow compared to old (2011!) iMacs in the same network. Almost impossiible to work with data stored on a NAS.

It is four new iMacs all the same problems. Also printers in network get lost frequently and have to be reinstalled.

Update to 12.2.1 not possible because of "network errors".

All other machines Microsoft, Android and older Macs work fine in same network enviroment.

Tried all different settings but problems come back...

I've experienced this across all my apple devices. Spent 3.5 hours on with support and still couldn't figure it out. Smoking fast Mac Pro M1 max, older Mac air, iPad Pro and iPhone pro max 13 all showing same symptoms. Home: smoking fast gigabit mesh wifi 6 system. Hotels all over the USA and all showing same symptoms. Symptoms: Internet not found for several minutes.....then once a web page is located it takes several minutes to load......then it takes several minutes to find another.....it takes several more minutes to attempt streaming......it takes upwards of 30 minutes for the internet to speed up enough to be considered somewhat normal. Every time I shut down it happens again at home or hotel.