Mac mini - wifi faster than LAN

[Sheridan]

I've set up a Mac Mini recently, and when connect to the wifi (450Mbps connection speed) an internet speed test consistently shows around the 60Mpbs mark, however with the wifi turned off and the 100Mbps LAN connection on, the speed test consistently shows around 25-35Mbps!

 

If anything I would have expected it to be the other way around - plugging a Windows 7 laptop into the same LAN port and running the same test brings results of 60Mpbs which makes sense!

 

Its running Mojave, but it was doing the same with Sierra before. Is there a known issue with 2012 Minis gigabit lan ports?

[PD1279]

25Mbps on a 100Mbps network sounds about right

60Mbps over 450Mbps wireless network sounds about right too

Now if you had 1GB LAN I would expect higher speeds

[Brimstone]

Sounds absolutely normal to me...

[Sheridan]

The ISP speed is a max of 80, so getting 60 is about right. However, I would have expected the same speed on LAN as Wifi - which is the case on the Windows 7 laptop, just not the mac mini

[Arthur]

Your Mac mini has Gigabit Ethernet (like almost every other Mac sold since 2000).

 

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-i5-2.5-late-2012-specs.html

 

Is it connected to a 100Mb switch?

[Sheridan]

Yeah it’s 100mb switch, so my point is that both the Mac and the w7 laptop should show the same test speed, like they both do over WiFi. The Mac and laptop both have gigabit lan so the Mac should really match the laptop. Wireless results are pretty much identical.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yes the results should be the same 60mb/s even on the 100mb link.

 

Have you tried it plugged directly into the router? That should help show if it is the 100mb switch at fault (as it's 100mb I am guessing it's 10+ years old).

[AlanD]

So...you are using the internet as a source...which is subject to external factors. And what kind of connection do you have? A 72mb/s fibre connection?

 

What makes you think you have 450mb/s WiFi connection? Does your Mac report this connection? Sounds like a 3 stream ‘n’ type of connection...which is a UDP transmission rate. There is nor guarantee and not muck likelihood actually of TCP half duplex data rates being anywhere close to this. A single stream connection of 150mb/s would struggle to deliver 75mb/s and single extra stream rarely delivers more than 20% extra as spatial separation is difficult especially if you signal to noise ratio is beyond a few meters or has to go through walls..or bodies. A third stream delivers a few percent extra at best.

 

But yes, I am surprised your cable connection is slower...

[Sheridan]

I’m using the speedof.me site to measure the access. All traffic goes out through a router on an 80mb line. The wireless connection speeds reports as 450mbps in the connection info, and the lan is 100mbps as it goes through a powerlan adaptor.

 

I know there’s a few factors in there, but the windows 7 and Mac wireless speeds tally up, with the windows 7 lan being the same. Just the Mac lan drops down quite a lot!

 

It’s odd, I’m just using the WiFi at the moment but that’s usually the opposite of what you’d do!