Slow ethernet & 5GHz WiFi

[michaelseko1992]

So I recently got bumped up to a 500mb connection with my cable company. I have my iPhone X on the 5GHz band and it's consistently testing at around 470-490mbps. However when I test on my MacBook Pro, it never goes above 160mbps. On ethernet or WiFi. Any ideas why? I've disabled QoS on my router so that's not the issue.

 

[Howard2k]

No offence, but it's way easier to help diagnose these issues with proper naming It's probably 500Mb/s you have, or 500Mbps, but it's not 500MB, or 500mb, or any of the other random naming conventions that folks come up with. It matters, because when it comes to trying to diagnose throughput issues there's a significant difference between 25Mb/s and 25MB/s, and in some instances different tools are using different metrics so without the proper names it's sometimes confusing which specific measures we're talking about. Not to be pedantic, just trying to help you resolve your problem faster.

I'm assuming that all the numbers you mentioned are Mb/s.

How are you measuring on the MBPro? And which MBPro is it?

When connected over Ethernet, does your router show the connection type? (100Mb/s, 1,000Mb/s etc.).
And over wifi, if you option-click the wifi icon it will show a whole load of cool info about connection stats. What does that show?

Thanks

 

[techwarrior]

On ethernet, what cables are you using, and what are you connecting to? Older Cat5 cables may max out at 100Mbps, but 5e or 6 can reach 1000Mbps (1Gbps). Are you connecting directly to 1Gbps ports on a router or switch? If a switch, how is it connecting to the router (same cable question).

On WiFi, are you certain you are connecting to 5Ghz, and is it 802.11ac or 802.11n? You can see the PHY mode if you OPT+click on the WiFi menu icon. 802.11n may not reach better than 150-300Mbps in ideal conditions where AC can hit 1Gbps+ in ideal conditions.

You don't mention the MBP model, but AC WiFi is only available in 2014 or later models. So it may well be the WiFi on the MBP is not as capable as the iPhone X.

As @Howard2k suggests, more details on the MBP might be helpful to understanding your situation.

 

[michaelseko1992]

Sorry for the lack of details guys. First off, it's an early 2011 MBP so it only has 802.11n. Also, the ethernet cable is a Cat 5e. I even tried plugging directly into the cable modem and it still tests at the same speeds. It does show under ethernet on networks settings on my Mac that it has a 1000baseT connection.

 

[Howard2k]

For 802.11n that sounds right.

I recommend testing the Ethernet again, but ensure that you disable the wifi first. Then repeat the test. If you're getting the same result in both cases it might be that the Ethernet is active but it's using the wifi for some reason.

If you have multiple devices, it might make sense to split your network into separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and spread your devices across them. 5GHz has a shorter range but might still be a better choice for the iPhone. For the MBPro maybe leave it in the 2.4GHz space.

Or don't complicate things But just be aware that wifi is shared. Only one device can transmit on the network at a time, so if your MBPro is sending a message to the Internet via your router, your MBPro has to wait until that has finished. This means that you dramatically decrease your available throughput as your number of wifi clients goes up.

 

[techwarrior]

I recommend testing the Ethernet again, but ensure that you disable the wifi first.

This, or set the Ethernet priority over WiFi in Network Preferences, click the gear at the bottom of the left columns and choose Set Service Order and move Ethernet ahead of WiFi.

If both are on and WiFi has priority, the Mac will use WiFi before Ethernet, even if it is slower.

 

[michaelseko1992]

I have Ethernet's priority set to the top but WiFi is disabled anyway. I rebooted multiple times and I'm still getting around 150-170. I'm going to try booting into recovery mode and I'll report back.

 

[Howard2k]

Is that Mb/s of MB/s? And where are you seeing that number?

 

[michaelseko1992]

Mb/s, and SpeedTest.net
[doublepost=1537508502][/doublepost]Well I went into Safe Boot and I am getting the same speeds over Ethernet that I’ve been getting on my iPhone. So there’s something wrong software side.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Well I went into Safe Boot and I am getting the same speeds over Ethernet that I’ve been getting on my iPhone. So there’s something wrong software side."

OK, that's an important step forward.

What I would suggest next:
Create a NEW administrative account (for test purposes). You can just delete it without any consequences later on.
Keep it "lean and clean" -- don't put any "non-Apple 3rd party things" in there.
When you log into the test account, are your speeds "up there" ... or not?

 

[michaelseko1992]

OP wrote:
"Well I went into Safe Boot and I am getting the same speeds over Ethernet that I’ve been getting on my iPhone. So there’s something wrong software side."

OK, that's an important step forward.

What I would suggest next:
Create a NEW administrative account (for test purposes). You can just delete it without any consequences later on.
Keep it "lean and clean" -- don't put any "non-Apple 3rd party things" in there.
When you log into the test account, are your speeds "up there" ... or not?

Yep, my speed test came back at 495Mbps when using a new user account. I also went back into my main account and downloaded the SpeedTest app from the Mac App Store. That tested right around 500Mbps too. I figured out it was the "AdGuard" Mac desktop app that is causing the slow speed tests in Safari. Does anyone have any experience with AdGuard?