If your household is like ours , you probably append Wi - Fi base stations in 2020 . We went from four to six to improve coverage across our house and fill in numb zones we did n’t know existed until kids or adults were essay to take part in Zoom or Teams classes or meetings from them . And we have a tiny family .
You may sometimes feel take the air around with an iPhone or Mac laptop that you ’re “ dowsing ” for Wi - Fi . Fortunately , we have more quantifiable measures for Wi - Fi , but they ’re hidden from unpatterned view . A Mac laptop will provide you the best information . ( you’re able to install Wi - Fi signal - strength apps on an iPhone , but they are n’t as useful as the build - in hidden macOS . )
maintain down the Option cay and click the Wi - Fi menu on your system menu barroom . If you do n’t see a Wi - Fi carte icon , with macOS 10.15 Catalina click the Control Center and then Option - click the Wi - Fi item . ( you’re able to change whether this menu appears in the connection predilection pane with your Wi - Fi adapter select in the list at unexpended . watch or uncheck “ Show Wi - Fi status in menu cake . ” )
The result details may seem like too much , but only a few point issue in term of figuring out performance emergence . I offer trace at the bottom on improving your internet .
you could move around in possible lowly - speed or dead areas with the selection - flick menu exposed and find out the values show change dynamically to make certain initial reading were n’t an anomaly .
Tx Rate and PHY Mode
Near the bottom of the details , the Tx Rate indicates the bare-assed data rate of the connection you have to the base station your Mac has connected to , as well as the protocol it ’s “ negociate , ” listed as the PHY Mode . ( PHY is the forcible layer or the real form in which data point is transferred back and forth , whether over wires or wirelessly . )
Apple is n’t yet using the newer naming dodging for Wi - Fi , adopt a few years ago , which replaces the IEEE diligence standards group ’s 802.11 lettering organization with a more consumer - friendly adaptation . The Wi - Fi Alliance manifest Wi - Fi devices , and its simplified version is Wi - Fi 4 for 802.11n , Wi - Fi 5 for 802.11ac , and Wi - Fi 6 for 802.11ax .
You ’ll obtain 802.11ac ( Wi - Fi 5 ) in nearly all Apple devices of the last several years and the somewhat faster and more bandwidth - efficient 802.11ax ( Wi - Fi 6 ) in all novel serial of Apple twist : iPhone 11 and 12 models , the iPad Pro 4th generation and later , and all Apple silicon M1 Macs .
Wi - Fi falls back to the fastest charge per unit that both your Mac and the base place can tally on with the most efficient version of Wi - Fi they both support . For instance , in its spectacles for an M1 MacBook Air , Apple take note that it supports “ 802.11ax Wi - Fi 6 wireless networking ” but that it ’s “ IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac compatible . ”
Your base stations may only handle Wi - Fi 5 — as all of mine do — which is truehearted enough for most home purposes , including handling a lot of rain buckets television from videoconferencing apps and on-line streaming services like Netflix and Hulu . In the design in this clause , you may see my iMac connected at 1.3 Gbps to a nearby base post . With enough density of base stations across your home , it should act as if you had between 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps Ethernet , meaning you ’re more in all probability constrained by your net connexion than local connection focal ratio .
However , if you see numbers like 54 Mbps to 433 Mbps or standard next to PHY Mode of 802.11a , 802.11 g , or 802.11n , the spot you ’re in likely needs some boost . If the connection rate drops off to nothing or near nothing , you require to fill in the spread .
Channel
you could watch the Channel display for more entropy , too . The term “ groove ” in wireless communications bear on to a range of radio frequencies with a beginning and end point that your pedestal station use to communicate with devices . The “ width ” of a channel square off in part how much data point can be sent over it . Interference from other Wi - Fi devices and unrelated equipment subjugate throughput as the base post and its affiliated clients endeavor to be “ heard ” over the stochasticity .
In the U.S. , Wi - Fi can be transfer and received over both the 2.4GHz isthmus , which has 11 lapping channels , and the 5GHz band , which has dozens . Nearly all computer hardware sell by Apple , other computer and Mobile River makers , and home station producer over the last several year let in both bands . A gimmick , like a Mac or iPhone , picks the strongest sign in one band or the other mechanically . A base post has two or more radio systems and transmits over both band at the same time . Some router design for top-notch - high throughput will have one 2.4GHz radio andtwo5GHz radios .
The 2.4GHz band is crowd together with other intent and lots of older Wi - Fi gadget and has other constraints , such as maximal sign transmission power . The overlap channels also mean that base stations can be “ talking ” nearly over each other , which reduces throughput .
The 5GHz band is mostly used for Wi - Fi . The U.S. and many other countries clear out huge swaths of it to allow lots of channel , none of which overlap . As a result , Wi - Fi networks can expend wide swaths of frequency , allowing faster upper . The Wi - Fi 4 , 5 , and 6 standard all allow dynamic canal widths : if there ’s enough “ muteness ” around a hold a duct — no find signaling adjacent to it — the understructure place will spread up and practice a wide-eyed channel , leading to higher throughput .
In the Channel item in the Wi - Fi details computer menu , macOS display a canal number — like 36 or 155 — that you may disregard . This number was utile in the past as you might tune your base station by selecting specific TV channel . For class now , however , understructure station mechanically pick the estimable channels in each band for clear transmission , and can even trade to another without intervention .
In parentheses , you also see something like “ ( 5GHz , 80MHz ) ” . The “ 5GHz ” is good because your Mac is plug into to that faster stria . The “ 80MHz ” imply it ’s using four times the minimum useable distribution channel bandwidth of 20MHz . That ’s how the connection show in material body achieves a sensitive speed of 1,300 Mbps .
The downside to 5GHz is that as a higher - frequency band , signal trip shorter distances at the same signal mightiness as when they are in 2.4GHz . So your Mac might not be able to connect to a base station ’s 5GHz tuner but could to the base post ’s 2.4GHz one .
A 2.4GHz connection mean humiliated throughput . If you consistently see either 2.4 Hz or 5GHz pair with 20MHz or 40MHz , you may almost certainly do better .
BSSID
Wi - Fi networks mechanically sort themselves out by meshing name . Every base station with the same connection name , encoding method , and password appear as a single entity in macOS , iOS , iPadOS , Android , and Windows , as well as on gaming devices and most other equipment . care for multiple base stations as a undivided entity allows gimmick to ramble among them . Your Mac or iPhone switches its connection mutely from one base station to another as signal strength ebb down and it finds a stronger signal .
The only way to tell same - named base stations aside is by the BSSID or Basic Service Set Identifier . This number look just like an ethernet or Wi - Fi MAC ( Media Access Layer ) address , a singular figure assign to an adapter or interface during manufacture that lets it discover itself across an Ethernet or Wi - Fi mesh . ( Without a unique savoir-faire , equipment could n’t have information routed to or from them over a electronic internet . )
It ’s worth recognize the BSSID computer address in this case because it permit you project out to which nucleotide station among many that your Mac has connected . As I note above , I now have six base stations in the house . One is a necessary piece of equipment from our broadband provider , and we do n’t use its Wi - Fi ; the other five form a connection . We had three gateway connect by ethernet in our house before the start of the pandemic and added two wireless extenders during 2020 .
When I ’ve tried to troubleshoot throughput or other problems , that BSSID turns out to be very useful . We throw over 2020 alone to TP - Link equipment , which has a co-ordinated app called Tether to manage its Wi - Fi gear and smart - home equipment . In Tether ’s twist list I can see the BSSIDs for the five radix stations in use .
Why does this matter ? At times , I ’ve been in the kitchen and assess extremely wretched Wi - Fi performance . ( Sometimes I like to read the newspaper on my phone at our kitchen counter ! ) When I check the BSSID , I see that my iPhone has connected to a foot place a few rooms away , rather of the one nearer . The ground is sometimes that the wireless extender has mislay its link to a pumped up root word station , and sometimes it ’s just the vagaries of Apple ’s operating system , which do n’t always give up a weak connection to ascertain a better one . turn Wi - Fi off and back on often fix the trouble .
Solving weak spots
option bristle for improving your Wi - Fi electronic connection :
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