Wifi speed dropping after a while

[gigatoaster]

Hello there

I have a Mac mini M1 that I mostly use for Torrents. It’s always on. Often, the speed is dropping drastically: from 35 to 2 MB/s. My Internet speed is 300 Mbps (35 or 37 MB/s).

When I do a speed test on fast.com I get 280/290 Mbps but after a while only 20 Mbps.

I understand I can just use ethernet but I need to pull a cable.

Did anyone experienced a drop of speed of wifi after a while in their mini?

EDIT: I forgot to mention, if I toggle off & on the wifi from the mini, I’ll get back to my max speed.

 

[gigatoaster]

No one is experiencing this issue?

 

[gigatoaster]

I spent 2 hours yesterday with Apple Support. First level was clueless, she was talking about stuff she didn't know, telling me to use Terminal commands that were not found. Then, of course they tried to put the blame on my ISP, even though I told them I have 5 different devices that reach max speed. Twice! Then, Level 2 told me to re-install everything...🤦‍♂️

Finally, I found an article, I was surprised there is no article about this on Macrumors:

Problem solved after disabling AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link), see here:

Recent Apple updates leading to Wi-Fi issues

Meter is currently tracking an issue that is affecting M1/M2 Macbooks and leading to slow internet connection, drops in Zoom calls, and entirely losing a Wi-Fi connection.

www.meter.com

Results:

 

[carylee2002]

Are you using a VPN...companies track your actions and geardown speeds to a crawl by referencing your IP address..I use IPvanish and always hide my actions to the world.

 

[gigatoaster]

I’m not using a VPN and I forgot to mention but I have also an iPad Pro, a MacBook Pro and a Surface Laptop and all are reaching maximum speed. Except the mini.

I’ll monitor for a few days but after downloading a different torrent, I’m currently at 25 MiB/s. So all good.

 

[gigatoaster]

I confirm it’s fully resolved.

 

[gigatoaster]

Unfortunately, the issue is not solved. I upgraded to Ventura but it didn’t work. I spent 2h30 with Apple and the last thing they suggested is to reinstall MacOS. I’ll do it and see if it fixes the issue.

 

[carylee2002]

You're mini may already have been pinged by your service provider for using torrents. Torrents is a avenue to get viruses and it is a well known fact that without a VPN you will be tracked. And yes Macs is not virus free. Try using a ethernet cable and hardwire to your modem to your mac and run a diagnostic program by using a free interent speed test and see if that helps vs using wifi. I use AVG free as a barrier for basic protection.

 

[gigatoaster]

Hi there

Thanks for your message. Torrent is not an issue, here. Also, I mainly did speed test to get bad (42 Mbps) or good speed (300 Mbps).

I spent a few hours with my ISP. We did factory reset, enabling 2 channels (2,4 GHz & 5 GHz), disabling all my gadgets (13 devices, yes it’s a lot), factory reset again, disabling ipv6…but we ruled out my connection speed.

I also tried briefly Ethernet & I got 300 Mbps.

I called Apple and they want me to go to an Apple Store but that’s too far. No UPS.

I’m trying something else. I put the mini in the bedroom & downloading a big Torrent:

It seems to work fine. I leave it for the night & try again in the morning.

Maybe it is interferences in my living room.

 

[gigatoaster]

After some troubleshooting, I managed to isolate the problem. It was qB. I replaced it by Transmission & now everything works perfectly.