Wifi makes EVERYTHING run slow

[tangmusi]

To a computer whizz, I bet this issue will sound like a feather-brained hallucination but I have tried very many reasonable, practical solutions (I will list them all,) and it endures.

In a nutshell: the wifi I have at home is making my computer slow. To be clear, it’s not that my wifi itself is running slow. All my applications, moving through the finder, clicking on the apple menu, all slow down. I get the cheerful pinwheel, eternally bouncing icons in the dock, or nothing at all.

What I’ve found is that if I switch off wireless and wait up to five minutes the problem goes away AND I find that the issue does not occur at all when I’m on other networks (like, say, at the apple store, which I’ve been visiting a lot, or a coffee shop, because, hell, I’m clearly a stereotypical apple user.)

Also, this always occurs after I start up. But after I’ve gone through this once, it usually doesn’t recur. I’ll fire up wifi after five minutes, and be good to surf and do whatever as long as I want. (Occasionally, it will recur after a few hours, and I’ll have to run through the same solution.)

I’m using Yosemite 10.10.5 on a MacBook Pro, 13-inch, early 2011. I have 8 GB of memory, and a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor. I’m on ATT Uverse, with a DSL Modem, specifically a Pace Model 5031 NV-030.

I promised I would list the things I’ve tried:

Repair disk from recovery mode

Hardware test.

That hardware check thing they do at the genius bar.

Re-install the operating system from recovery mode.

Delete the entire hard drive, and migrate all my files individually from Time Machine.

Create a seperate User Login and see if the problem persists there.

Check activity monitor for patterns (a lot of kernel_task)

Watch to see if there is any correlation with overheating. Does the mac run slow specifically when it is hot (implying a broken fan.) (Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There’s no correlation.)

Upgrade from 4 GB of memory to 8 GB of memory.

Install and run a virus checker (Why not? It found nothing, and I took it off again.)

Pressing the reset button on the router.

Delete all my preferred networks (I read online somewhere that it might be searching through all of those.)

So, please, I would love to try more stuff. It is tremendously frustrating that I can’t solve this. I greatly appreciate any thoughts you might have.

 

[Mac-Helper]

Hi,
Try using Terminal for this problem
Type: ping -c 10 www.apple.com
This wil tell you the ping of your Network
If this gives you no information,
Try restarting and using the command:
Killall Finder
Thanks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

A few additional questions:

-Does the issue only happen at your home location?
-Do other devices on the same Wi-Fi network have speed issues?
-Have you tried an Ethernet wired connection?
-Are the DNS settings in Network the defaults, or have you manually changed them?
-Have you done a power cycle of the modem in addition to the reset button?
-Have you arranged the Services list in Network pref pane so that Wi-Fi is on the top?
-What services are enabled in the Sharing pref pane?
-Do you have any anti-vrus or third-party apps like MacKeeper or CleanMyMac installed?
-Do you have FileVault enabled?

C

 

[tangmusi]

Hi,
Try using Terminal for this problem
Type: ping -c 10 www.apple.com
This wil tell you the ping of your Network
If this gives you no information,
Try restarting and using the command:
Killall Finder
Thanks

Ping looks fine. Unfortunately, restarting Finder through terminal changed nothing:

PING e3191.dscc.akamaiedge.net (23.72.156.118): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=62.054 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=50.380 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=51.550 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=55.204 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=53.504 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=55.897 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=62.290 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=53.274 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=8 ttl=56 time=54.408 ms

64 bytes from 23.72.156.118: icmp_seq=9 ttl=56 time=51.644 ms


--- e3191.dscc.akamaiedge.net ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 50.380/55.021/62.290/3.922 ms

Thomass-MacBook-Pro:~ Turtle$

 

[tangmusi]

C[/QUOTE]

Hello and welcome.

A few additional questions:

-Does the issue only happen at your home location?
-Do other devices on the same Wi-Fi network have speed issues?
-Have you tried an Ethernet wired connection?
-Are the DNS settings in Network the defaults, or have you manually changed them?
-Have you done a power cycle of the modem in addition to the reset button?
-Have you arranged the Services list in Network pref pane so that Wi-Fi is on the top?
-What services are enabled in the Sharing pref pane?
-Do you have any anti-vrus or third-party apps like MacKeeper or CleanMyMac installed?
-Do you have FileVault enabled?

C

Thank you for asking:

-Does the issue only happen at your home location?
Yes. Checked multiple times. Does not occur on other wifi networks.

-Do other devices on the same Wi-Fi network have speed issues?
They have speed issues--specifically, sometimes their internet slows. But my computer is the only one that slows down completely when on wifi. All my applications slow down, garageband, itunes, etc.

-Have you tried an Ethernet wired connection?
This is the one I haven't tried yet. No ethernet cord...

-Are the DNS settings in Network the defaults, or have you manually changed them?
Originally, it was default. Due to advice elsewhere online, I've changed my DNS server to 8.8.8.8, I've configured IPv6 to link-local only

-Have you done a power cycle of the modem in addition to the reset button?
Yes, both of those.

-Have you arranged the Services list in Network pref pane so that Wi-Fi is on the top?
Done. Issue still on-going.

-What services are enabled in the Sharing pref pane?
None.
-Do you have any anti-vrus or third-party apps like MacKeeper or CleanMyMac installed?
no.
-Do you have FileVault enabled?
no.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Your ping results are a tad slow, but workable. Here are mine:

PING e3191.dscc.akamaiedge.net (23.206.140.59): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=19.903 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=19.951 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=21.013 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=18.100 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=26.010 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=18.277 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=26.107 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=21.345 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=8 ttl=56 time=22.114 ms
64 bytes from 23.206.140.59: icmp_seq=9 ttl=56 time=21.513 ms

--- e3191.dscc.akamaiedge.net ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 18.100/21.433/26.107/2.628 ms

Thanks for the additional information. I did a search on the Pace DSL modem and it seems that most people have all kinds of speed and connectivity issues with it. Is it supplied by your ISP? Can they swap it out for another brand/model?

At this point, I am running out of ideas and am actually stumped. This leads me to the modem as the probable culprit, especially since other devices on your network have slowness issues as well. It could also be something else in the Wi-Fi Network settings...maybe some more info about the settings and/or screenshots? Also, I would definitely try an Ethernet cable if you can...if issues persists, then it is definitely the modem.

C