I was having trouble with my wifi in rooms far away from the router. Broadband supplier (Virgin) advised changing my router's 2.4GHz settings: changing the channel width from 20MHz to 20/40MHz. At the same time I added a mesh extender.
Since then my wifi speed on my MacBook Pro 13" M1 has dropped to 12Mbps.
At the same time, my iPhone 13 is getting 281Mbps.
Using the original wifi or the mesh extender makes no difference.
Can anyone help?
Expanding to 20/40 can take over the ENTIRE 2.4 GHz band and mean that your neighbors Routers ALWAYS clash with yours. If you can see the names of your neighbors' Routers, you may need a different solution.
Hold down the Option key while you click on the Wi_Fi icon on the menubar. you get a wifi snapshot.
screenshot, photograph or transcribe and post your numbers in a reply on the forums for analysis.
Bennet-AlderAssociates:
PHY Mode: 802.11ax
Channel: 44
Country Code: US
Network Type: Infrastructure
Security: WPA2/WPA3 Personal
Signal / Noise: -48 dBm / -89 dBm
Transmit Rate: 286
MCS Index: 11
if you are using a modern Router, and NOT in an apartment block with lots of neighbors, your SHOULD have been able to easily make a connection in the MUCH faster 5 GHz band. However, those signals do not carry as far, so your brick wall might very well damp the signal down to unusable levels.
Keep in mind that an Exteder/AccessPoint connected 'over-the-air' in your current physical location can do no better than your Mac at pulling in the WiFi signals, so it will NOT improve your situation
UNLESS:
The tender is placed at a point that skirts the signal-damping materials
OR---------
connected by a wired medium or power line medium to get higher speeds
...
you have marginal signal level at -72 dB, where -40 is right next to your Router and -75 is unusably low.
Using both antennas, you have managed to stabilize on a 4-pattern signaling method, where up to 64 patterns are possible if you had higher signal levels. Your Hardware appears to be working as designed.
Reducing the distance between your Router and Mac by moving either device closer would likely help. Or relocating to a place with less construction materials intervening.
The Router can be placed anywhere your input cable (typically cable-TV) runs, and the input cable can often be extended.
I am working on relocating my main Router out of the basement, moving it upstairs and adjacent to the TV set. The Router can be connected at any point on the cable, I just need some Ethernet wiring and a cable-TV splitter before proceeding.
Try putting wifi off in the MBP and re-enabling it.
So I'm at a friend's house. My iPhone is testing at 136Mbps and my MacBook is at 48Mbps!! It's a MacBook issue, surely?
what is RSSI and all the rest of the Option-Wi-Fi values?
Appreciate the reply. It’s really disappointing performance from Virgin’s router as it’s a small bungalow with one brick wall between the router (installed five months ago) and the spot where my MacBook recorded that signal. Thinking I might lodge a complaint and see if they’ll offer me their mesh-wifi pods…
thanks for the info about signal levels - really helpful.
Now you say that about the extenders it makes sense. But this is weird. The MacBook is giving the -72 signal. But the extender is working well. Losing some speed. But still 167Mbps using the MacBook connected to the extender, compared to 12Mbps using the MacBook connected to the router directly. Makes no sense…?
MacBook slow wifi; iPhone not affected
