I have tested the speed on the wireless and it is 1/10 of the speed of the Ethernet. Can the wireless speed be improved? I have set the Mac to vertical from horizontal, and it is about 15 ft from the Xfinity router/modem with no obstructions. No complaint on Ethernet at 900 Mb/s
Mac mini, macOS 12.6
Wi-Fi speeds are subject to interference with signals from other local equipment and other nearby equipment and Wi-Fi networks, and signal degradation due to local structures including reflections.
Wi-Fi speeds are also effected by the Wi-Fi generation. Current Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6, -6E) can outrun gigabit Ethernet. Older Wi-Fi routers or installations with interference, not so much.
ISP-provided Wi-Fi routers tend to be chosen for bulk price and for ease of remote support, and less so or not for performance. Slower Wi-Fi connectivity can be considered beneficial to ISPs too, as it inherently throttles the load on the ISP network. It’s also routine for ISPs to only replace older Wi-Fi gear with newer generations when the existing and older and slower gear fails hardware tests or fails performance tests.
It’s also possible the Wi-Fi gear is malfunctioning. I’ve met some older Apple Wi-Fi gear for instance, that just dropped out for somewhere between fifteen and thirty seconds at random, then picked up again, and with no device errors reported. Network performance stank, unsurprisingly.
Run some network scans for local Wi-Fi activity, and determine which Wi-Fi generation the router has implemented, as a starting point. I use the Mac App Store Wi-Fi Explorer app, and have access to Wi-Fi gear that can show local traffic and conflicting network setups. There are some in-built tools in macOS for this, but the add-on traffic displays are vastly better.
Network signal readings for the Wi-Fi network can be helpful, too. For signal strength values (Mac calls this RSSI, in dBm), the larger the value shown, the better. For noise values (in dBm), the lower the value shown, the better. You can option-click on the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar to get the values. If you want, screenshot and post that display, though obfuscate / scribble your MAC addresses before posting.
Related reading (particularly Measure Client RSSI section): macOS wireless roaming for enterprise customers - Apple Support
Wi-Fi speeds are subject to interference with signals from other local equipment and other nearby equipment and Wi-Fi networks, and signal degradation due to local structures including reflections.
Wi-Fi speeds are also effected by the Wi-Fi generation. Current Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6, -6E) can outrun gigabit Ethernet. Older Wi-Fi routers or installations with interference, not so much.
ISP-provided Wi-Fi routers tend to be chosen for bulk price and for ease of remote support, and less so or not for performance. Slower Wi-Fi connectivity can be considered beneficial to ISPs too, as it inherently throttles the load on the ISP network. It’s also routine for ISPs to only replace older Wi-Fi gear with newer generations when the existing and older and slower gear fails hardware tests or fails performance tests.
It’s also possible the Wi-Fi gear is malfunctioning. I’ve met some older Apple Wi-Fi gear for instance, that just dropped out for somewhere between fifteen and thirty seconds at random, then picked up again, and with no device errors reported. Network performance stank, unsurprisingly.
Run some network scans for local Wi-Fi activity, and determine which Wi-Fi generation the router has implemented, as a starting point. I use the Mac App Store Wi-Fi Explorer app, and have access to Wi-Fi gear that can show local traffic and conflicting network setups. There are some in-built tools in macOS for this, but the add-on traffic displays are vastly better.
Network signal readings for the Wi-Fi network can be helpful, too. For signal strength values (Mac calls this RSSI, in dBm), the larger the value shown, the better. For noise values (in dBm), the lower the value shown, the better. You can option-click on the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar to get the values. If you want, screenshot and post that display, though obfuscate / scribble your MAC addresses before posting.
Related reading (particularly Measure Client RSSI section): macOS wireless roaming for enterprise customers - Apple Support
Make sure there are no “old” devices that have connected to the a or b band on your Wi-Fi router.
If you connect any older device to Wi-Fi that can only accept the a band, and it connects to your network, it will drop all devices to the lower speed of Wi-Fi for that device.
Try disconnecting everything from Wi-Fi and only attach your device and check again. If the network speed for Wi-Fi increases that’s the issue.
FYI; 90mbs download on Wi-Fi is not that bad. But I prefer wired Ethernet for speed, reliability, and security.
good luck
IEEE 802.11ac was retconned as Wi-Fi 5, and should provide a 5 Ghz connection between a half gigabit, and rather more than a gigabit, absent interference, overload, or other issues. With fewer streams and fewer antennas, it’ll get 150 Mbps, or 300 Mbps, or more, in the 2.4 GHz band. Check the signal and the noise as mentioned above, and check for interference. Interference can clobber throughput.
What type of Wi-Fi connection are you using? N? B? G? AC? 2.4GHz? 5GHz?
What channel is it on?
Have you verified with other devices, that the Wi-Fi works correctly and at an acceptable speed?
Here are the parameters on the wireless from the Xfinity modem: Wifi connection 802.11 a/n/ac at 5 Ghz. channel 157
WPA2-PSK (AES). SSID Broadcast Enabled. I have 3 connected at 5GHz, 3 connected at 2.4 GHz, and 3 on ethernet.
Yes, all the wireless devices have good speed connections for their distance from the modem. I was just curious to see if there was a reason why the disparity was so great between Ethernet and Wifi. I have an old laptop Ideapad 2016 10-15IBR that has a Wifi speed of 220 Mb/s with Ethernet speed of 80 Mb/s. While my Mac M1 2020 shows 900 Mb/s but under 100 Mb/s for Wifi. No issue, just curious.
Internet speed on Mac mini 2020 M1 with both wireless and Ethernet
