Find yourself waiting forever for websites to load? Have problems with video calls, playing games or working online? Probably your internet needs a speed boost. But what can you do to ensure the best online experience?

1. First, we recommend you power off the computer. Next, turn off the cable modem by disconnecting the power cord from the back of the modem. Leave it unplugged for at least ten seconds, then plug it back into the modem. It takes a few minutes for the cable modem to run through all its self-checks and reconnect to the Internet.
2. For quick, short term monitoring, a tool like Ping Plotter can give you a graph of connectivity that includes not only a graph of ping times, but also red bars that show when there was no connectivity. For more permanent, long term monitoring, a dedicated tool like Cacti or Smoke Ping is the way to go.

Don’t worry, in this article we’ll go over all tested troubleshooting steps to resolve troubles with the slow internet. Read on and learn how to make internet faster and your online activities stress-free.

Why is my Internet so slow?

There are many different factors that could be slowing down your internet speed. It can be anything from the browser you use to the cluttered system or your router’s location. Some of these things have nothing to do with your Mac at all like a router, some can be easily fixed through a simple action.

However, no matter the reason, if your internet connection is slow, it may destroy your productivity. That’s why we’ve gathered 10 ways to fix the Mac slow internet. Let’s ensure that your connection is as fast as lightning!

How to speed up Internet on your Mac

This guide provides some of the common and the most helpful ways to make your internet faster. Try out these tricks to get a smooth web experience!

At the same time, it may also be worth changing the name of your home (or office) network and setting a new password, which you can do through your internet provider. If necessary, you should be able to do this through a mobile phone, and then check whether your Mac will connect again. Wi-Fi signal issues. 'I have been using your product for a few months and find it extremely useful in monitoring my internet connection. 'I've been running your program for 14 hours now and have seen 18 service interruptions, varying from as little as 5 seconds to as much as 5 minutes. It is very interesting to look at these fail logs. One of the first things to try when your connection doesn’t seem to be working properly is the ping command. Open a Command Prompt window from your Start menu and run a command like ping google.com or ping howtogeek.com. This command sends several packets to the address you specify. The web server responds to each packet it receives.

1. Test your internet speed

If you keep asking yourself how to speed up your internet, first of all, test your speed. Sometimes your internet is slow because you’re paying for the slow internet. Visit your internet provider’s website and find out what plan you have. Then run one of the speed tests (there are many of them available online, but one of the most popular is Speedtest.net) to check whether the numbers match. If they do match up, then your network is working fine and you just pay for the slow internet. However, if the numbers are different, read on to learn how to improve internet speed.

2. Check Network preferences

Do you see a spinning beachball when you try to load web pages? It may not be clear whether the page is taking a long time to load or whether your connection is broken. To check it out, do the following:

1. Go to the Apple menu in the top left corner of your screen.
2. Choose System Preferences > Network.
3. Click Assist me and then choose Diagnostics.
4. Choose your type of connection and click Continue to start the test.

If the problem pops up, follow the suggested advice to deal with it.

3. Test all your Macs

If you have more than one Mac, check whether the internet connection is slow on each on them. If you see the slowdown only on one computer, then most likely the problem lies in this particular Mac. For instance, it may have an unusually weak Wi-Fi connection. Try to go to the Wi-Fi menu in the menu bar and choose Turn Wi-Fi Off. Wait a few seconds and turn it on. These simple actions may fix your MacBook internet slow connection.

4. Restart your router

Router issues can cause problems with the internet. If your internet is as slow when your smartphone or other device is connected to Wi-Fi, chances are, the trouble is not with your Mac. To fix the slow connection, try restarting your router. Simply turn it off, wait a few seconds and turn it on again. You can also try to relocate your router, so it’s closer to the place where you usually connect. Make sure no objects will affect the signal, like microwaves and various metal things.

5. Enable wireless security

How To Monitor Internet Connection For Interruptions For Macbook

Do you use Wi-Fi and notice that your Internet running slow? Then check whether you’ve turned on security settings on your router. If the security is not enabled, how do you know that all your neighbors aren’t just enjoying the free access? It’s worth checking the router's manual, setting up the highest security level and choosing the appropriate password no one can guess easily.

6. Use an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi

While the wireless internet is more convenient, connecting directly to the router with a cable provides the faster connection. Many people don’t realize that and still use Wi-Fi even if they are close enough to the router to use the cable. In fact, Wi-Fi rarely achieves the speed that Ethernet can due to the signal loss, distance from the router, and many more. The best solution is to simply plug your Mac in using a cable and you’ll notice the considerable speed boost.

7. Close unnecessary apps and browser tabs

Internet running slow on Mac? If you have dozens of apps and websites open, such as Skype, Safari, Mail, Facebook, Twitter, and many more, then they are all trying to connect to the internet from time to time to update and synchronize. It makes the Mac internet slow and the websites start to hang. That’s why close unnecessary apps and tabs in your browser. Believe us, your Mac will thank you for that!

8. Switch to another web browser

Which web browser do you use? Chances are, that it’s either Chrome or Firefox. However, if you open up the Activity Monitor and see how much RAM your browser uses, you may be a bit surprised. A single tab opened may take up 20 percent of your RAM. Why? The answer is simple: these popular browsers are not optimized for a Mac. If you want to increase the internet speed, try switching to Safari. It is considered to be one of the fastest web browsers out there and it usually wins the speed tests on Macs.

9. Clean up your Mac and increase the overall speed

It goes without saying that a cluttered system affects your Mac performance. If you want to get a better browsing speed, you need to clean up your Mac from all the clutter it contains. Surely, you can remove the junk manually but a smart utility like CleanMyMac X will save you tons of time. With its help, you can easily remove large and old files, broken downloads, app leftovers, caches, log files, and much more. CleanMyMac knows what to clean and what not to clean, making it incredibly safe. Once you get rid of all the useless files, you’ll not just get the faster internet but a better running Mac.

10. Call your internet provider

If you’ve gone through all the steps and your internet is still slow, then it’s time to call your internet provider. The problem may be on their end and most likely they are doing their best to resolve it this minute. However, if your internet provider can’t give you the speed you want or you are not satisfied with their customer service, consider to find a new provider. Make a little research to choose the one that fits all your requirements.

That’s it. We hope our guide has helped you and you finally made your Mac faster. The last but not the least our piece of advice: just make sure to do regular cleanups and maintenance with utilities like CleanMyMac X to prevent problems with slow internet on Mac. Staying connected matters, right?

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Make your Mac invincible

When Wi-Fi stops working on a Mac, it can be a nightmare. All of a sudden, you can’t make progress or even start on something without an internet connection.

Most of us take the always-on Wi-Fi connectivity for granted. Even when traveling thousands of miles from home in developing countries, most businesses, homes, and even public spaces are equipped with modems that broadcast wireless internet.

How to fix Mac won't connect to Wi-Fi

In many respects, Wi-Fi has become a commodity, a necessity for the smooth functioning of business, academia, governments, and the media. Thanks to Wi-Fi, we are more connected than ever before. Our music, emails, and even shopping are dependent upon it.

So if you’ve ever had Wi-Fi connectivity issues on a Mac, you might want to save this article for offline reading, just in case. There are a few ways to these problems.

1. Check your macOS

When Mac users update their operating system, Wi-Fi connectivity can vanish.

At the time of the original version of Catalina, a lot of users found they couldn't connect to Wi-Fi, which made it harder for Apple to release an update that included a patch solving this particular problem. In some cases, users had to download the updated version using a phone as a Personal Hotspot, which caused other problems, such as extra data costs.

Unfortunately, as a result of the recent macOS Big Sur release, some users were experiencing the same problem. You can find step-by-step instructions on how to fix Big Sur Wi-Fi problem (as well as other issues) here.

Turn Wi-Fi on and off

One way to fix this is to switch your Wi-Fi off and back on again. At the same time, it may also be worth changing the name of your home (or office) network and setting a new password, which you can do through your internet provider. If necessary, you should be able to do this through a mobile phone, and then check whether your Mac will connect again.

2. Wi-Fi signal issues

Sometimes it’s Wi-Fi signal causing all the problems. If that’s what you’re suspecting, here are the possible solutions:

Run a speed test and get a better signal

A good way to work out whether the problem is the Mac or Wi-Fi itself is using an analyzer app. To analyze your Wi-Fi network signal strength, use WiFi Explorer or NetSpot.

You may find that furniture and walls in your place are blocking or reducing the signal. When you are checking the results, it might be helpful to move your wireless router to a better location or ask if your broadband provider can install a signal booster.

How To Monitor Internet Connection For Interruptions For Mac Pro

Make WiFi faster on Mac

Download Setapp to declutter your Mac and make WiFi powerful. There's at least one tool that handles the task perfectly.

Don’t trust public networks

Ensure your personal information is securely protected on public Wi-Fi. While every public network can potentially “read” the data you send and receive, dealing with sensitive information on a public network is a huge risk. To stay safe, control your network connection with Activity Monitor or iStat Menus— perfect for real-time tracking of what’s being sent and received via network.

To prevent suspicious apps from accessing your data, use TripMode. The app allows to activate blocking right from your menu bar. So it’s a one-switch solution that you can use every time your Mac connects to a public network.

Secure your private network

Using your own network is certainly more secure than accessing public ones. But it’s never a risk-free deal. Private or public, there are a few tips that will help you stay safe:

1. Change the SSID name so that it’s hard to identify the type of router you use.

2. Solidify encryption. There are several options for Wi-Fi protection, out of which WPA2 is considered one of the most secure.

Use a VPN client. A reliable VPN app like Shimo will help you handle and place restrictions on the network you use. Plus, it has a module for setting multiple connections.

3. Forget your Wi-Fi network

Sometimes you need to let go to reconnect again. That also works for Wi-Fi signals.

Assuming you’ve already tried rebooting your Mac and router, disconnecting entirely is a tried-and-tested solution.

Here are the steps for doing this slightly trickier fix:

1. Turn off Airport
2. Go to Systems Preferences
3. Network > Select Wi-Fi
4. Click Advanced
5. Select the network you want to disconnect from and click on minus, then agree.

Do that on any other device you can’t connect with, and then start the process to connect to that network, entering the password, and (fingers crossed) you should be connected again.

4. Declutter your Mac

One of the other problems that could be causing connectivity issues is bloat, junk, and clutter. Over time, Macs can get full of things they really don't need to store, such as cache files, email downloads, browser extensions and viruses. All of these slow down and overheat Macs, which could impact your connectivity as well.

Then, use CleanMyMac to clean up your macOS. This app is an effective solution and much-needed antidote to slow Mac performance. You can use it to dig up junk cluttering up Macs, delete unused apps completely, tidy up email folders and attachments, and remove plugins you don't need.

So if you’re wondering how to fix Wi-Fi and you’ve already tried every network-related strategy, it’s probably your Mac’s fault. CleanMyMac X will clear caches, browser extensions, and declutter disks and hard drives so that your Mac is operating at peak performance again. It also includes health monitors, so you can avoid similar issues in the future. Dive into Extensions, Uninstaller, and System Junk modules to clear away whatever can hinder your network connection.

5. Contact your broadband provider

Your broadband provider should have a speed testing function within wireless routers or your customer account portal. Increasing the speed, or switching to a faster provider, could be the solution to Wi-Fi connectivity problems, providing you’ve tried everything else first.

Prepare beforehand

Given you’ve already saved this article for offline reading, it might also be a good idea to download all the apps mentioned above, so you don’t have to use your phone’s data when the Wi-Fi crisis hit, which, hopefully, it never will.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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