WiFi unstable on Mac Studio

How much metal or shielding is between the Wi-Fi router and the Mac?

Metal desk or other metal or other signal-opaque gear close or nearby, maybe?

And I’d wonder if the Studio has a hardware problem with its internal antennae.

Wi-Fi runs at different speeds, depending on local conditions, and local interference, and the client. Walls, competing Wi-Fi networks, interference, etc., can all reduce performance.

From the Linksys Velop user guide, that router apparently can’t display the local Wi-Fi activity, which means you’ll have to depend on the Mac for that. I use an add-on app Wi-Fi Explorer for that on macOS, as that has some handy graphs showing all nearby activity.

That Wi-Fi router isn’t running all that fast, either. Two streams of 80 MHz channels operating with MCS 4 tops out at ~432 Mbps (2 x 216.2), which matches what you are seeing.

For comparison, I’m using 40 MHz channels (more overhead than your 80 MHz usage), with three streams and MCS 9, with -42 RSSI and -95 noise, on Wi-Fi 5 / 802.11ac (and which is generally not as fast as Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax) and that’s all running at 540 Mbps. I could increase that speed somewhat with 80 MHz channels, and with a Mac capable of Wi-Fi 6.

Basically, your signal strength here is poor. Whether that’s due to the Wi-Fi router, interference, or the Mac is not yet entirely clear. But absent some overt culprit (router, noise, Mac, etc), this is probably going to mean trying the Studio elsewhere, or trying this Wi-Fi router elsewhere.

The signal drop outs are the most interesting thing here, though. That is usually the Wi-Fi router.

See if macOS Wireless Diagnostics show something: Use Wireless Diagnostics on your Mac - Apple Support

PS: We’re also not folks that work for Apple, so we’re not in a position to discuss their hardware recommendations.

Taking a quick look at the images that you provided, one thing that stands out in the first image, is the quality value. This is same as the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR).

As a guideline, here are typical SNR values:

• 40+dB = Excellent signal
• 25dB to 40dB = Very good signal
• 30dB = Minimum range boundary (voice)
• 15dB to 25dB = Low signal
• 20dB = Minimum range boundary (data)
• 10dB to 15dB = Very low signal
• 5dB to 10dB = Little or no signal

Using that guideline, you can see that the SNR value, as "seen" by your Mac Studio is running around 17-18 dB, which would put it in the low signal range.

With your Mac Studio connected to Wi-Fi, hold down the <option> key, and then, select the Wi-Fi icon on the macOS menu bar. Please provide the following values: PHY Mode, MCS Index, & NSS

This image you posted is showing severe problems. Periodically the Noise jumps up by +80 dBm and EQUALS the RSSI which also jumps up (by +60 dBm) which no doubt wipes out your WiFi. Something seems to be periodically blasting the router, dramatically altering both the signal and the noise. Those changes are more than a million-fold! You want signal/noise to be high and stable.

I have a Linksys Velops MX12600 (also confusingly designated as MX4000 series) and it is a 3-pack which means I have three such units creating a mesh network. My unit is probably comparable to the 3-pack currently sold by Apple on its web site. By the way, Apple does not "recommend" those devices but does sell them and generally what Apple sells does work reasonably well with Apple products.

With my Linksys mesh, I see RSSI between -35 and -45 dBm (it varies by location), and Noise around -93 dBm. The TX rate is 800-1000 Mbps but on the internet I always see 360 Mbps as that is the max rate for my internet plan with my internet provider.

First thing to try with your Linksys unit: reboot it. This may help it find a better configuration.

Next thing to try: use the Linksys app, the phone app is better than the browser-based interface. With the phone app, you can see the signal strength between all the router units (I have three -- they are always linked) and you can also see which of your devices (computers, phones, tablets, TVs, etc.) are using which router unit.

Next things to try: download WiFi Signal, which will provide you information about your WiFi signal quality, and also download WiFi Explorer. The Explorer program is very useful because it shows all the other WiFi signals in your area as well as yours and helps you to see if any might be interfering. Based on what it shows, you might want to try changing the channel(s) on your Linksys router to avoid congested channels, although my experience is that the router does that automatically.

To rule out the Mac Studio being faulty, can you temporarily use an iPhone as a hot spot and use its connection to see if the odd behavior repeats? If it does, then that points the suspicion to the Mac. If not, it is either a faulty router or you are getting interference.

You did not provide information about your router. If you have only a 1-pack (one unit), its placement is quite important. Even with three units (3-pack) the locations can make a big difference.

Thanks! Let's start with the NSS value of 2. These are the number of spatial streams for this connection. Your Mac Studio should be capable of, at least, 3 streams ... so either your Linksys cannot support this or there is something amiss with your Mac.

With only 2 spatial streams, an 802.11ax connection with an 80 MHz-wide channel on the 5 GHz band, can only achieve a maximum data rate of 432 Mbps ... as you can see from the image you provided. This is confirmed with the MCS value of 4.

Ref: Full MCS Table -mcsindex.com

As I'm sure you are already aware, the Linksys Velop is a "mesh" wireless system. That is, it is based on wireless connection between nodes, negating the need for Ethernet connections.

As such, node placement is critical to achieve the maximum amount of bandwidth & throughput for each wireless network client connected to any of those nodes.

A Linksys mesh system consists of a single router, and a number of nodes. The router is what is connected directly to your Internet modem, and the nodes would be connected by wireless to that router.

Which exact Linksys system do you have, and in addition to the router, how many nodes have you employed to work with it? Where is your Mac Studio located, in relation to them ... placed near the router, or one of its nodes?

-73dBm RSSI is lousy. It is barely possible to keep a network connection. Any little interference will cause you to loose your connection.

You want you RSSI to be in the -30 to -50 dBM and all other WiFi sources to be either on a distant channel or have much worse (much higher negative number) RSSI values.

Again, if you can provide the exact model of your Linksys system and the component locations, it would help with troubleshooting your wireless network. Based on what you provided so far, I would suspect that Wi-Fi interference may be the main culprit.