Slow computer when accessing information from a network

Plugging in an Ethernet cable does not always suffice.

Packets leaving your Mac for the Internet are sent to the TOPMOST, Working interface listed in

Settings > Network

if that is not Ethernet, use the [ ... ] symbol on the lower right to choose Set Service Order. Then drag Ethernet TOPMOST.

First, by far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, Third-party Virus scanners, Bit Torrent, or a VPN that you installed yourself. They are relentless in scanning your files, non-stop, looking for virus-like patterns in Everything, or looking for files that have changed. When completed, they do it all again.

¿Are you running any of those?

One measure of wireless signal "quality" is its Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). SNR = RSSI - Noise. From what you provided, SNR = -56 - -92 = 36

For reference, a SNR of 40+ would be considered an excellent signal. Below 25 would be considered marginal. With the instantaneous value of 36 would put it at the good-to-very good range. However, as mentioned this is only one measurement.

The other is data throughput, which is related to the following values: Channel (specifically. the band), Tx Rate, MCS Index, & NSS. As mentioned by MrHoffman, the wireless network is not tuned for performance, thus the low (compared to what it is capable of) Tx Rate.

There are several ways to resolve this, but they basically come down to three areas:

1. Making configuration changes on the wireless router,
2. Adding an additional wireless access point in the room where your Mac is located.
3. Making adjustments to the placement of the Mac relative to the location of the wireless router or access point.

The former two are something the network support folks would be responsible for; the latter is potentially something you could do ... and, with the last item, I had written a user tip awhile back about how to best place an AirPort base station, but if you just substitute your Mac for the base station, it equally applies. Ref: AirPort - Optimal Base Station Placement - Apple Community

Colleengo wrote:

I am direct connected by a cord to the server. Would the wireless router still be a factor in this case?

If the network configuration is not subnetted correctly, then network performance can suffer, yes.

This would not affect devices with one network connection, but would affect those with two or more. Yours here has (at least) two.

If there are multiple network routers here (routers, not access points), then each segment needs to be in a unique subnet.

If there are multiple access points, then the wired and wireless networks can all be configured in the same subnet.

An experienced installer will have this setup correct, but I do always check and confirm it as we all have our off days.

There are other potential causes. Some of which might show in the Etrecheck report.

Wi-Fi Radio Signals from your Router fall off as the cube of the distance. Provided you are close to your Router and have clear line of sight and no competition from neighbors' Routers or known interference producers like microwave ovens, you should not be having issues.

All others need to do a more careful analysis to find out what is happening.

Wireless diagnostics:

Hold down the Option key while you click on the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar to open up the tools for investigating and fixing Wi-Fi issues

Choose "Open Wireless diagnostics", which opens the wireless diagnostics Assistant, but does not proceed.

NB> Wireless Diagnostics is an App that puts up its own MenuBar.

Using its Window menu, there are about eight different things you can do from here,

Assistant (default window)

Info

Logs

Scan

Performance

Sniffer

Sidecar

Diagnostics

The top-level is to choose Diagnostics off the Window menu, or simply click (Continue) to do a quick check for Gross misconfiguration or operating problems. Your Admin password will be required. If any recommendations are shown, you should consider then seriously.

Next is to hold down the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon as before. The screen that opens shows operating parameters of your Wi-Fi network. There is a great deal of valuable information in those numbers.

Readers are eager to interpret what is going on from the values there. Screenshot, transcribe, or photograph the results and post back in a reply on the forums. Looks like this older one.

A few questions, if you don't mind:

• Is this a personal computer or is it one provided by your company?
• Is this computer connected to the local network via wireless or by wire (Ethernet)?
• If by wireless, Grant Bennet-Alder has asked you to provide the results of holding down the Option key and selecting the Wi-Fi icon on the Mac's menu bar. Please provide that, especially the values for: Channel, RSSI, Noise, Tx Rate, PHY Mode, MCS Index, & NSS. This information will let us know "the quality of the wireless connection" the Mac is having with the local wireless network.
• Do you have any Bluetooth devices (mouse, keyboard, etc.) connected to this Mac?
• Finally, where is the wireless router/access point located in relation to this Mac? Same room, different room, or different floor?

The Wi-Fi 6 connection here is quite good, though the router is not configured for maximum speed. It’s presently running at roughly a quarter of gigabit Ethernet speeds. Faster here would come from switching to wider channels from the present 40 MHz to 80 MHz or wider as workable, and this configured on the Wi-Fi router.

Next would be the questions that HWTech had asked.

Hello Apple Community,

That definitely sounds frustrating, especially with a powerful machine like yours—it shouldn’t be behaving that way at all. I’ve seen similar issues before where the problem wasn’t the hardware but things like network settings, DNS delays, or even macOS Finder struggling with network shares. It might be worth checking if the delay happens across all network locations or just specific ones, and also trying a different user account or clearing cached network data. Sometimes even small things like SMB settings or Spotlight indexing on network drives can cause that “thinking” delay. Hopefully you get to the bottom of it soon because that kind of lag can really slow everything down...

Thanks a lot!!

You’re absolutely getting good signal from the (presumably) local access point.

802.11ax with MCS 9 and NSS 2 and 40 MHz channels is going to theoretically top out at ~459 Mbps; a little less than half of the wired gigabit Ethernet speed. Going to a wider 80 MHz channel would usually increase the limit to ~961, roughly gigabit Ethernet speeds, if the local Wi-Fi area isn’t particularly noisy. (But you’re getting all of ~229 Mbps.)

Please download and run (free) EtreCheck, and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button that looks like a printed page, and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From that, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.

It shouldn't but see both MrHoffman's and Grant Bennet-Alder's responses since we really don't have insight into exactly how your network is configured.

... and to add a bit to Grant Bennet-Alder's reply, I suggest that you not only verify that Ethernet is the top-most service, but also to temporarily disable Wi-Fi to "force" your Mac to only communicate via Ethernet.

Colleengo wrote:

When I am trying to access the network of other computers, it is so slow. It has to "think" with the spinning beach ball for approximately 20 seconds until the folder of items loads. Every step that I go it is another 20 seconds.

Perhaps the slowness is on the server you are connecting and not your local system.

And that make me wonder.......where is this server in relation to your computer? Is it on the same network, or elsewhere on the Internet?

And how are you connecting to this other computer? Are you just accessing files through some sort of SMB file sharing or other? Or are you connecting to remotely manage the other computer (aka "server").

I have had computer network techs here and they have tested all connections and cords between my computer station and others. They are saying it has to be in the computer.

Is this a home network or business network?

Is either of these computers a business computer?

Who are the "computer network techs"? From your ISP, employer, or hired by you to assist with your home network?

And are they actually familiar with macOS? And whatever system you are trying to access?

If it were inverse cube law then we wouldn't have mobile phones and routers.

Assuming you're 5m away from your router and using 2.4GHz then the path loss for inverse square is 54dB and the path loss for inverse cube would be 81dB. To maintain the same performance you'd need 27dB more power, or about 500x.

At 5GHz you'd need 30dB more power - that's 1000x.

The earth would be a lot cooler too.