Virgin Media broadband slow on MacBook Pro

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Level 1

17 points

Virgin Media broadband slow on MacBook Pro

This post will (probably) only be relevant for UK users.

My internet is exceptionally slow (like so slow I don't even have the bandwidth to run a speed test) on my MacBook Pro, but fantastic in all other devices, including an iPhone, an Android phone and two PCs. The speed is slow regardless of where I am in my flat. It is a Virgin Media specific issue, as my internet speed is fine when I connect to any other wifi. I have already tried all the obvious steps:

I have restarted the hub, to no avail.
I googled it. It seems to be a relatively common issue with Virgin Media hubs and MacBook Pros – for example, see here and here – but none of the posts I could find provided a solution.
I have reached out to Virgin Media support. They sent out a technician but the guy said there was nothing he could do, as it was a device-specific problem.

Any suggestions? I have a Virgin Media hub 5 and a 2022 MacBook Pro running macOS Ventura 13.5 (22G74).

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.5

Posted on Aug 11, 2023 06:47 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 11, 2023 07:13 AM in response to lmaia

Poisoning Internet performance:

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners. or a VPN that you installed yourself.

The idea that a third party, with no special knowledge of the inner workings of MacOS, can somehow find a simple way to protect your computer — that is not already being done by MacOS itself — suggests that the MacOS developers are somehow "holding out on you". That is absurd.

You should remove any and all (other than Apple built-in) virus scanners, speeder uppers, optimizers, cleaners, App deleters or VPN packages you installed yourself, or anything of that ilk.

Third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive can ruin performance, but are not inherently dangerous.

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Answer 2

lmaia Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 19, 2023 08:51 AM in response to lmaia

Posting the answer here in case it's helpful to someone else: after playing around a bit I found what the actual problem is: the Virgin Media router for some reason doesn't like it when the “Limit IP address tracking” option is on. I simply turned it off and the connection is back at full speed.

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Answer 3

Aug 19, 2023 02:01 PM in response to ku4hx

When we were first dealing with "Limit IP address Tracking" and the new new Wi-Fi capabilities in new M1 Macs, the suggestion was to turn that feature off. It turned out to make No difference in most cases, and there were other things about Wi-Fi 6 and the newest Macs that were much more important.

I wholeheartedly agree with ku4hx on this one. Based on your symptoms and solutions, it really does sound like they are tracking you, at least noting where you go.

Try turning that feature on again in a few days, and see if you performance deteriorates again.

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