MBA M2 - WiFi problem

[BigDO]

Seriously frustrated with the very patchy WiFi on my MBA M2.

I have a 1000/500 fibre line, using WiFi 6 router. 2.4 and 5 GHz networks are separated.

MBA is getting ~200/100 speeds in a place where my iPad, iPhone, and Thinkpad are getting 300/250 or better. The speed is so poor that Teams/Zoom calls are a challenge with other parties not able to hear me and constantly complaining about breaking up etc.

This happened both on 15.7.2 and now on 26.2 RC (which I went to in desperation hoping it will address the problem).
I get an improvement with the ifconfig awdl0 down command, but it's very short lived. Turning BT off is not really an option, because I use a BT mouse, as well as like taking calls with my APP2.

Would appreciate any input as this is driving me crazy - not being able to take calls is a showstopper, but also downloading anything takes too long on the Mac.

Happy to make channel changes etc on the router if this will improve things but I am dubious since the iPads and iPhones are working without any problems.

 

[Bigwaff]

Happy to make channel changes etc on the router if this will improve things but I am dubious since the iPads and iPhones are working without any problems.

Does your router support turning off WiFi 6 ax and just leaving WiFi 5/4 ac/n/g/a/b active?

 

[1BadManVan]

Has it always been this way? ive never had an issue with wifi on my m2 air. It's got one of the stronger signals of all devices in my house

 

[BigDO]

Does your router support turning off WiFi 6 ax and just leaving WiFi 5/4 ac/n/g/a/b active?

I don’t think so, but will check.

I don’t think that WiFi 6 is the problem, more the interference with the particular channel and AWFL. Problem is i cant find anywhere which channels are AWDL “safe”.

 

[BigDO]

Has it always been this way? ive never had an issue with wifi on my m2 air. It's got one of the stronger signals of all devices in my house

Always. It was even worse before I set IPv6 to “Local Link”.

 

[BigDO]

Update: just tried on channel 149 (apparently this stops it from hopping due to AWDL), no improvement.

This is infuriating. Just tested 250/160 on MBA and 500/300 on iPhone in exactly the same spot.

 

[SRQrws]

Two quick, easy things I would try:
1) I realize you stated turning off BT is not an option, but for the purposes of testing, have you tried turning it off both on the MBA and the related devices? Reboot and then check wifi speeds.
2) Delete wifi from Network in Settings. Reboot and then add it back.

Good luck!

 

[raythompsontn]

This is infuriating. Just tested 250/160 on MBA and 500/300 on iPhone in exactly the same spot.

I know it is frustrating, you want the maximum speed you can get. This is not meant to be condescending in any way.

But, is this lack of speed really causing you any problems? Something you have on the MBA that needs that speed? Is chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow going to make the MBA faster for your needs?

Sometimes chasing the problem consumes more time than you will save with faster WiFi.

Yes, you want answers as why the difference. But sometimes that answer is buried so deep and actually may not be resolvable. Do you have a friend or coworker with the same machine, or maybe even another MacBook? Have them try connecting to your WiFi and see their results. The problem may not be isolated to your machine.

 

[Howard2k]

The fact that you're not including Mb/s or MB/s is a little disconcerting. But even if it's 100Mb/s that you're getting, that's plenty for a zoom call. It sounds like the issues are elsewhere.


Maybe option-click the wifi and show us the results from various locations. Specifically you're looking for the noise to be 40-50 lower than the signal. So noise -90 and RSSI -60 RSSI (-30 SNR) is great. You ideally want the noise to be as low as possible and the RSSI to be 25 or greater difference.

 

[BigDO]

I know it is frustrating, you want the maximum speed you can get. This is not meant to be condescending in any way.

But, is this lack of speed really causing you any problems? Something you have on the MBA that needs that speed? Is chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow going to make the MBA faster for your needs?

Sometimes chasing the problem consumes more time than you will save with faster WiFi.

Yes, you want answers as why the difference. But sometimes that answer is buried so deep and actually may not be resolvable. Do you have a friend or coworker with the same machine, or maybe even another MacBook? Have them try connecting to your WiFi and see their results. The problem may not be isolated to your machine.

No worries, and I don't take it in a condescending way at all. I am not obsessed with speed on the MBA, but like I said in the OP, it's particularly challenging in calls where people are complaining that they can't hear me, I am breaking up, the video is choppy, etc. Just yesterday I closed the MBA and reconnected to the call from my Thinkpad (T14S, nothing fancy) and one person said "now it's like you're in a room with us". I was sitting in exactly the same spot (my desk).

 

[BigDO]

The fact that you're not including Mb/s or MB/s is a little disconcerting. But even if it's 100Mb/s that you're getting, that's plenty for a zoom call. It sounds like the issues are elsewhere.


Maybe option-click the wifi and show us the results from various locations. Specifically you're looking for the noise to be 40-50 lower than the signal. So noise -90 and RSSI -60 RSSI (-30 SNR) is great. You ideally want the noise to be as low as possible and the RSSI to be 25 or greater difference.

I went through the whole troubleshooting process with Gemini last night...

As you can see, SNR is not too bad, but Tx rate still fluctuates wildly. All speeds I mentioned are Mbps.

 

[BigDO]

Two quick, easy things I would try:
1) I realize you stated turning off BT is not an option, but for the purposes of testing, have you tried turning it off both on the MBA and the related devices? Reboot and then check wifi speeds.
2) Delete wifi from Network in Settings. Reboot and then add it back.

Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions, this was part of the initial troubleshooting I did and both had no impact.

 

[Howard2k]

I went through the whole troubleshooting process with Gemini last night...

View attachment 2586141

As you can see, SNR is not too bad, but Tx rate still fluctuates wildly. All speeds I mentioned are Mbps.

Good call. Gemini is not perfect, but it does look like you have a relatively good SNR there. Does an ethernet connected device plugged into the modem get full speed? If so at least you can isolate wifi vs wired.

 

[BigDO]

Good call. Gemini is not perfect, but it does look like you have a relatively good SNR there. Does an ethernet connected device plugged into the modem get full speed? If so at least you can isolate wifi vs wired.

Yes, I have a number of hardwired devices throughout the house, all are getting full speed. Wifi is for mobile devices only (laptops, tablets, phones) and only the MBA is problematic.

 

[MBAir2010]

anyone here mention possible OS problems?

to add a whack stick on dead horse of failures of Tahoed'
reverting back to Monterey improved my wifi usage and speed more on my MacBook Air m1.

not that many will do this,
but this is something to consider and perhaps just accepting with upgrades on early Ms.

 

[BigDO]

anyone here mention possible OS problems?

to add a whack stick on dead horse of failures of Tahoed'
reverting back to Monterey improved my wifi usage and speed more on my MacBook Air m1.

not that many will do this,
but this is something to consider and perhaps just accepting with upgrades on early Ms.

This was the same on Sequoia and Tahoe.

 

[Howard2k]

A bit time consuming but since you've isolated it to the router you could consider buying a replacement router and leveraging the store's 30 day return policy, if applicable, if there is no improvement.

You could also consider installed DDWRT or OpenWRT or similar to your existing router. Sometimes the older routers slow down as features are added but DDWRT and OpenWRT may alleviate that.

 

[raythompsontn]

it's particularly challenging in calls where people are complaining that they can't hear me, I am breaking up, the video is choppy, etc.

That is odd. Video calls, and especially voice calls, do not take that much bandwidth. I am limited to 300 MBs down and 100Mbs up and have no issues with video calls to Germany. My WiFi connection tops out on 5he Mac at about 200Mbs down and 50Mbs up using Speedtest.net. Don’t ask about the quality setting as I just use the default.

 

[BigDO]

A bit time consuming but since you've isolated it to the router you could consider buying a replacement router and leveraging the store's 30 day return policy, if applicable, if there is no improvement.

You could also consider installed DDWRT or OpenWRT or similar to your existing router. Sometimes the older routers slow down as features are added but DDWRT and OpenWRT may alleviate that.

Agreed, I think it's a MBA/router interfacing thing. Not worth chasing further.

Thanks all for the suggestions!

 

[BigDO]

That is odd. Video calls, and especially voice calls, do not take that much bandwidth. I am limited to 300 MBs down and 100Mbs up and have no issues with video calls to Germany. My WiFi connection tops out on 5he Mac at about 200Mbs down and 50Mbs up using Speedtest.net. Don’t ask about the quality setting as I just use the default.

I think it's more of a consistency/latency thing. I see Tx rate fluctuate wildly, which probably forces Teams/Zoom into lowest quality, and results in breaking up sometimes.

 

[Ruggy]

I went through the whole troubleshooting process with Gemini last night...

View attachment 2586141

As you can see, SNR is not too bad, but Tx rate still fluctuates wildly. All speeds I mentioned are Mbps.

The only thing I see as a flag there is NSS-1. One stream
You should see 2 not 1.
That and 62dB RSSI- it's at the limit of dropping the connection or modulating the throughput
Your other devices-if they are connection on 2 streams will get double the speed- and will not modulate

Are you doing anything different at all on that device? I'm thinking specifically USB-C keyboard or mouse that is connected to it and isn't used on anything else. That'll do it. USB-C hub (- that is, USB-3 specifically which interferes with wifi) USB-C hard drive? Anything like that?
If so, unplug everything like that and see if you get NSS-2
Other possibilities? Driver issue, plist file...
Did you have the machine repaired because it could be an antenna issue. Did you have the screen replaced?
In any case, NSS-1 is what you need to hone in on.

 

[diego.caraballo]

Seriously frustrated with the very patchy WiFi on my MBA M2.

I have a 1000/500 fibre line, using WiFi 6 router. 2.4 and 5 GHz networks are separated.

MBA is getting ~200/100 speeds in a place where my iPad, iPhone, and Thinkpad are getting 300/250 or better. The speed is so poor that Teams/Zoom calls are a challenge with other parties not able to hear me and constantly complaining about breaking up etc.

This happened both on 15.7.2 and now on 26.2 RC (which I went to in desperation hoping it will address the problem).
I get an improvement with the ifconfig awdl0 down command, but it's very short lived. Turning BT off is not really an option, because I use a BT mouse, as well as like taking calls with my APP2.

Would appreciate any input as this is driving me crazy - not being able to take calls is a showstopper, but also downloading anything takes too long on the Mac.

Happy to make channel changes etc on the router if this will improve things but I am dubious since the iPads and iPhones are working without any problems.

Had issues when I purchased my MBA M2.

Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support

For the best security, performance, and reliability, we recommend these settings for Wi-Fi routers, base stations, or access points used with Apple products.

support.apple.com

Use one SSDI only (same for 2.4 and 5GHz networks) and enable WPA3 (Use WPA2/WPA3 if you have older devices around)