Level 1

17 points

Ping spikes after the Sonoma's update

Hello,

I was using Monterey for a long time and decided to get the update to 14.2.1. After the update I started to notice ping spikes in all games I play from GeForce Now, Steam. I'm getting stuttering all the time with a period like 0.5s. I've started to investigate the reason and solution, but the only thing I found, that the issue disappears after the wifi's disabling/enabling (or laptop's reboot), but not for a long time, it returns after some time. I've tried disabling location/bluetooth/airdrop services, rebooting the router, disabling the maccleaner's defender, played around autoboot items and a lot of other stuff. I think it's more like software's issue, because I haven't faced such issues before the update. Monitoring systems are fine, nothing suspicious even with a game. Network's diagnosis is not showing any issues, the same in EtreCheck. Something is happening after some time after enabling the wifi.

Actually, do not really want to downgrade, so I'm trying to find a solution or at least assumptions what could be a reason for that? Thanks in advance!

Here is a ping:

I've also tried to ping via iPhone - no issues, so, again, I assume it's not a provider's issue.

P.S.: I was looking through the internet, found some similar discussions, but they were without responses, so, probably, this topic may be helpful for a workaround.

Macbook Pro (2020) 13" M1, 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD, MacOS Sonoma 14.2.1

MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)

Posted on Dec 23, 2023 9:48 AM

Top-ranking reply

KGreenway20

Level 1

10 points

Posted on Jan 12, 2024 9:17 AM

Thanks for posting on this, relieved to see it as I was convinced I was going mad and/or I had some external issue which I had to track down. Just to concur I'm seeing an identical issue after updating to Sonoma 14.2.1 on my 2021 MBP M1. Also to confirm my scenario has zero to do with the internet, as the spikes are experienced when pinging my local router (inside interface). I work from home quite frequently and this is effecting real-time video calls (Teams/Zoom).

The only change on my side was after updating to Sonoma. From my MBP 2021 14.2.1 if I ping my inside router I'll see rtt range from 1ms-5ms and then regular spikes from 200ms-1500ms which always coincide with the video/audio freeze on the Teams/Zoom call. On my earlier MacBook Intel Pro 2017 running Ventura 13.6.1, with otherwise identical SSID and pings the rtt ranges from 1ms-5ms with what I consider expectable and reasonable (Normal for any home wifi with various devices connected and contending) occasional spikes to 40-100ms. Essentially the 2017 MacBook can run Teams calls with zero momentary video/audio freezes vs the 2021 MacBook experiencing video/audio freezes almost every min or few. This phenomena didn't occur before the Sonoma update.

Following the link here (thanks!) https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/451646/force-disabling-awdl-on-ventura-or-above/454060, I have moved my WiFi 5 channel from 36 to 44 and this seems to have so far drastically reduced the spikes on the 2021 MBP. There's reasons specifically behind changing the channel (AWDL) as explained in that link and FWIW I have scanned (NetSpot) my home WiFi and confirmed that 36 and 44 are otherwise free and available. My point being the problem isn't caused by a conflict on either channel 36 or 44 at my home, rather AWDL prefers operating on channel 44 vs 36.

I will put it to the test on the Teams/Zoom call. Be interesting if anybody else experiencing the problem can try this.

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17 replies

Owl-53

Level 10

102,985 points

Jan 11, 2024 1:03 AM in response to timeisapear

Running Sonoma 14,2,1 on M2 machine with a 500 / 500 Fibre Optic connection to Router

Broadcasting over Wifi 6E band

No Disk Cleaners or this party Security software at all

Best I leave this issue to the two name users above with this computer issue

ping www.google.com

PING www.google.com (xxx.xxx.x.x) Redacted info : 56 data bytes

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x) : icmp_seq=0 ttl=115 time=7.459 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x) : icmp_seq=1 ttl=115 time=10.194 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=2 ttl=115 time=6.969 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=3 ttl=115 time=10.614 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=4 ttl=115 time=10.219 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=5 ttl=115 time=10.513 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=6 ttl=115 time=11.087 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=7 ttl=115 time=8.543 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=8 ttl=115 time=10.357 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=9 ttl=115 time=10.176 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=10 ttl=115 time=11.216 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=11 ttl=115 time=12.986 ms

64 bytes from 1(xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=12 ttl=115 time=6.688 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=13 ttl=115 time=11.520 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=14 ttl=115 time=10.128 ms

64 bytes from (xxx.xxx.x.x): icmp_seq=15 ttl=115 time=10.901 ms

Jan 12, 2024 10:26 AM in response to clvmswtf

Thanks for the additional info, ultimately a shame we can't just permanently disable AWDL as what looks like the cause of our problems. Interestingly I have only seen the issue at home, which is what made me initially suspect the home WiFi network until I found this article. I suspect now my work WiFi network is running on channel 6/44. I will confirm next time I'm in. Also to confirm I'm in the UK, so these channel solutions do work for me vs 149. Thanks again! Interesting if others experiencing this also have similar outcome with changing the channels.

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Ping spikes after the Sonoma's update