HORRENDOUS 5ghz speeds on brand new m2 mac mini

[Nicole1980]

It's in another room. I tinkered again all day yesterday and am back to my original configuration with 5GHz for everything but the Mac Mini, which is on 2.4Ghz. My wife is able to do her work remotely, watch videos, etc. and is happy.

Tinkering with the Wireless settings messes everything up. I end up having to reboot routers and reset modem both in order to get speeds back up after tinkering. Is it normal that the modem seems to get messed up too? Yesterday I had to do a very long reset of the modem to get Internet speed back to 560 instead of 19!

I probably will buy a 6E router in a month or so since I pay so much for Internet and Macs that I might as well invest in an upgraded router. I am leaning to Netgear AX 7800.

Thanks everyone for your help!

I dont know what the issue with your mini is, but it def has 5ghz capability. I would take it in to apple or a good mac repair place and have it diagnosed

 

[HDFan]

I am leaning to Netgear AX 7800.

I have the RAXE 500 or AXE1000. Their model numbering is totally confusing. The only problems I have with it:

1. It only has one 2.5 Gbs port and the rest are 1 Gbps. No 10 Gbps port

2. Luckily I purchased their expensive support. Spent a lot of time trying to get the 5 Ghz band working. Had to have the unit replaced.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

Diagnosed it myself. Wifi cards in M1/M2 mac minis are crap. Am hard wiring the whole house at the weekend 😂

Tons of posts already all over the apple forums about how bad the 5ghz on the mac minis is. Same story with the M1 mac mini's too. Wish i'd have known in advance

Well i would have wired internet anyway when at home for a desktop setup...faster and more secure.

 

[Huw Price]

TBF wires are always the best solution. I keep telling this to people who start similar threads about Mac Mini bluetooth issues, but bless 'em, they keep battling on like troupers, trying to make what is just a low-range weak radio signal work for them when the design of the Mini inherently compromises it further.

I once had similar issues to you with an iMac in the previous house I lived in, but it was because the airwaves were so crowded. I lived on a typical English street corner in a densely-populated area, and on a bad day my computer could detect 19 different wifis, all 3-5 bar strength just like my own. Trying to get my computer upstairs to connect wirelessly to my router downstairs was like trying to hold a meaningful conversation with your mate at the opposite end of a loud rowdy pub, late on a Friday night. To save me from ripping up the floors and installing cat cables everywhere, my solution was to use powerline adaptors.

Just realised my comparison with my 2010 Mac Mini is probably irrelevant because it likely only has 2.5gHz, which possibly had no (less) issues with the Mini design.

Not having the problems that the OP has had - sorry to read this - , I would recommend the powerline set up as an alternative to re-wiring the house. I live in a 3 story Victorian house with wiring at least 41 years old ( if that makes any difference) and powerline connectors via the mains works well as does the Wi-Fi router on the floor above where the iMac is used. For reference, we are on a 'fibre to the house' as the local phone networks company (Openreach) has it & have bought in a 150mps service which is enough for us. We can 'see' 19 neighbours with routers nearby.

 

[SRC1954]

Seems your router is one of your weakest links. You might want to invest a little time and catch up with some of the routers that are available now that are Wifi 6 and 6e.

Youtube and this site would not be a bad place to start. https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

Well, I got the 5GHz working on the Mac Mini this morning. I had noticed that all my devices only support up to 80MHz connection speeds except the Mac Mini. I also saw that my neighbors connections that it could see were 80MHz also. I had looked for a way to turn off the 160 MHz speed on the router but couldn't find it. I also wanted to turn off the 60GHz band (ad) that as far as I know was experimental and no one every supported (correct me if I am wrong). I never could find these setting until today.



They didn't show up even in the Advanced Wireless Tab, but I found them under Administration:Wireless Settings. I unchecked the "Enable 160MHz speed in 5G" and I unchecked the 60 GHz settings too. And that did it.



I suspect there is a problem with the implementation of 160MHz in the R9000 that never showed up as I had no devices until now that supported it. I doubt the 60GHz Wireless had anything to do with it. I now have excellent 570 mbps in the Mac Mini (up from 75 or so) matching my iMac (which is much closer to the router). My Spectrum Internet is 500.



I see three other settings that I have on and left on for FYI:

Enable Beamforming

Enable MU-MIMO

Enable Smart Roaming

 

[George Dawes]

I’m stuck with 2.4ghz as my sonos beam 2 won’t connect to 5ghz at all and is so dumb it can’t do dual band etc

So my whole set up is limited by a crappy soundbar , make note

Never buying any more sonos gear ever again. They try desperately to ape apple but are a total joke

 

[monokakata]

I’m stuck with 2.4ghz as my sonos beam 2 won’t connect to 5ghz at all and is so dumb it can’t do dual band etc

So my whole set up is limited by a crappy soundbar , make note

Never buying any more sonos gear ever again. They try desperately to ape apple but are a total joke

You could get a two-radio router. I have a Beam and other Sonos equipment on 2.4 and the rest of the devices on 5, no problem at all.

 

[HDFan]

I unchecked the "Enable 160MHz speed in 5G"

That is very misleading wording. I (think) it is referring to the channel width. The larger the width the greater the potential speeds.