MacBook Pro WiFi repeatedly drops

Michael Collins3 wrote:

Thanks for the reply, but none of this works. I have tried all of it.

Understandable.

"renew DHCP lease" is as worthless as "check your WiFi" is obvious. Makes you wonder why people bother to post such nonsense.

I believe what Grant Bennet-Alder was suggesting was for you to provide some of the information he alluded to.

For example Wireless Diagnostics finishes with a Summary page. Ideally, it will resemble the following:

Anything else requires investigation.

Your Wi-Fi menu parameters may also be useful. As he wrote, "Screenshot, transcribe, or photograph the results and post back in a reply on the forums."

The Wireless Diagnostics log folder in /var/tmp will also contain copious amounts of information. The most useful file it generates may be diagnostics-environment.txt but others such as ping.txt and (your SSID)-diagnostics.txt are short enough to review and / or post for others who aren't experiencing trouble can compare and make suggestions. Right now you're working in a vacuum, depriving yourself of potentially useful knowledge.

For pedantic reference: Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support. Avoid the temptation to arbitrarily dismiss its recommendations; after all you're the one having trouble you shouldn't be having. The question is why.

More pedantic reference: If your Mac isn't connecting to the internet over Wi-Fi - Apple Support. Same comments.

If all else fails, EtreCheck.

I understand. Please confirm its Summary page has no entries other than Review Wi-Fi Best Practices. Nothing else. Just like EtreCheck, it is a diagnostic utility that gathers and reports information, and as such there can be no report that merely states "everything is fine." If there were though, you already know everything is not fine.

The Tx rate of 32 Mb/s is really low. You're on the right track wanting to constrain your connection to 2.4 GHz, but that has to be addressed with the router's settings which I understand may not be possible with the "ubee" device.

Also,

The Wireless Diagnostics log folder in /var/tmp will also contain copious amounts of information. The most useful file it generates may be diagnostics-environment.txt but others such as ping.txt and (your SSID)-diagnostics.txt are short enough to review and / or post for others who aren't experiencing trouble can compare and make suggestions.

Those three are fairly short and contain valuable information that may help you advance troubleshooting. It may be necessary to use the "additional text" icon to post them.

Otherwise, it's all just guesswork.

Still using 802.11ax rules, you have established a 160 MHz connection on channel 100, which will engulf all channels from 100 to 128.

as I said above, when RSSI signal strength deteriorates to under about -72, your Mac is searching hard for ANY other connection. This signal strength at a poorer -75 is about to switch.

In my opinion, THIS is the problem. 5 GHz signals fall off more quickly than lower frequencies, and simply do not carry as far.

Noise is still good at -93, suggesting no nearby Routers interfering on channels 100 through 128.

You are using both your antennas, but here it is clear that lack of signal strength is what is limiting your to MCS index 1, the lowest possible that is still connected. At MCS=1, that SHOULD be producing 68 M bits/sec * two antennas, but it can not. It has not even been able to make a baseband (one bit per signaling interval) speed, because there is simply not enough signal strength.

The most obvious solution is to reduce the distance between Router and computer, by moving one or the other or BOTH. If cable-TV is providing your access, you can typically move the Router to ANY position on the cable-TV cable. (Some Providers use an integrated 'cable-TV Modem/Wi-Fi Router', and those resist this solution.)

Another approach that seems likely to work for you (because you appear to be far enough way from your neighbors) is to add an additional Access Point. This can be a device designed for this exact use, like EEROS access points, or any old Router set to 'Bridge/Access point' mode and using the same network-name.

My story:

My home is solid masonry construction, and has grounded wire lath behind the plaster. It is a Wi-Fi dead zone. I am using Five different Routers to provide coverage all over the house and out to the garage. In my case, I decided to pull Ethernet wiring for each Acces point.

Wi-Fi Radio Signals from your Router fall off as the cube of the distance. Provided you are close to your Router and have clear line of sight and no competition from neighbors' Routers or known interference producers like microwave ovens.

All others need to do a more careful analysis to find out what is happening.

Wireless diagnostics:

Hold down the Option key while you click on the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar to open up the tools for investigating and fixing Wi-Fi issues

First is "Open Wireless diagnostics", which opens the wireless diagnostics Assistant, but does not proceed. NB> Wireless Diagnostics puts up its own menubar.

Using its Window menu, there are about eight different things you can do from here, but the top-level is to choose Diagnostics off the Window menu, or simply click (Continue) to do a quick check for Gross misconfiguration or operating problems. Your Admin password will be required. If any recommendations are shown, you should consider then seriously.

Next is to hold down the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon as before. The screen that opens shows operating parameters of your Wi-Fi network. Screenshot, transcribe, or photograph the results and post back in a reply on the forums. Looks like this older one.

Ok, I'm breaking my promise to review your submissions in greater depth 😄 because others already addressed everything that can be addressed.

One likely insignificant caveat: If you are using custom DNS entries in either your Macs or your network equipment try deleting them. Leave that up to your ISP unless you have justification for changing it. The reason is that your ISP is the first to get complaints when things don't work well, so it's in their best interest to use DNSs under their control and that keeps customers happy.

Some people don't have the luxury of choosing their ISPs, and the bigger they get, the worse they are.

By the way are you the same Michael Collins who was active on this site many years ago? If so you helped me with a problem I had with my SE/30 way back then, and I'm glad to finally return the favor.

Michael Collins3 wrote:

….I would get my own router, but I don't know if it would be compatible with our cable TV. I will check with the ISP about my options.

Usual question: ask the ISP if they can switch your router or cable model into “bridged” mode.

Also whether you need to spoof their router MAC address or not.

(MAC here is the router hardware address, and not an Apple Mac computer.)

ISP-provided Wi-Fi gear is chosen on price and ISP supportability, and most everything else is a very distant third. At best.

If you do decide to replace, also are considering acquiring your own networking gear, consider an option that has direct or indirect Time Machine server capabilities.

More network data is better first though, as John Galt is seeking in their replies here.

In both tests, your received signal from the router / access point is awful, and signal-to-noise (SNR) is awful.

That’s the problem.

Whether that’s weak signal from the Wi-Fi itself, or structures, or interference, or a combination?

There are competing networks interfering.

The local 2.4 GHz is filled with a mix of uncoordinated 20 MHz and 40 MHz channels. Everybody involved gets to share the three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11) are available with 20 MHz, or gets to share the two (3, 9) with 40 MHz, so, this is basically the typical pile-up of conflicting and overlapping networks.

2.4 GHz has lots of channel numbers assigned for tiny-narrow channels that nobody uses, and not nearly enough bandwidth for using either (3) 20 MHz channels or (2) 40 MHz channels that everybody uses. The lack of available channels is why 2.4 GHz is unreliable in many locations. Including yours.

Adding 5 GHz and (where available) 6 GHz access point coverage is probably the best path, but that means either mesh (which uses more channels for the mesh, more bad) or wired (no added channels, more work) backhaul. 5 GHz and 6 GHz also don’t penetrate walls and structures as well as 2.4 GHz, which is counterintuitively good.

Probably unrelated to the signaling: not being able to ping an Apple 17/8 server is interesting. Any nanny filters or parental controls or such active here?

I use the WiFi Explorer app for visualizing local and nearby network activity on macOS. It’s not free, but it works quite well. Some networking gear has monitoring and display built in, such as Ubiquiti. Whether your (presumably) Linksys Velop gear also offers that monitoring?

Here is an example of a very congested "spectrum" screen from WiFi Explorer, an inexpensive tool that is extremely helpful in crowded environments. those using 2.4 GHz are getting nothing productive done:

(drag and drop on Preview to see larger and scroll)

in that set of parameters, you are using 802.11ax rules and have established a 20 MHz connection on channel 1 in the 2.4 GHz band.

your signal at -65 dB is typical. We see as high as -40 next to the router, and at about -72 performance will be awful and your Mac will start seriously trying to switch to a different network.

Noise at -96 (very low) suggests you do not have common sources of interference, and you are likely alone on channel 1.

Using only NSS of 2 is low, but you are using both of your two antennas. 51 M bits/sec is as fast as you can go using NSS of 2. There may be other things limiting the use of higher modulations (the next step up switches to 16 patterns per signaling interval.)

I would be very interested to interpret parameters from any connection on 5 MHz band.