Internet speed dropped on Macbook Pro please help

I've been trying to get a solution for this problem for the past hour now, but to no avail. Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.

First off, some info:
2012 Macbook Pro with Retina Display, 16G RAM, 250G harddrive, 80G of which is free space. Updated. Bought it a month and a half ago, worked perfectly fine up until now. Good for graphics work, good for gaming, couldn't complain but it does get kinda hot sometimes. I have a bottom fan for that but it still heats up if this info helps.

Over the past 4 days, the internet on my computer and my computer alone has slowed to a crawl. Speed test shows it's getting a download speed of 0.31 mbps, when it normally gets 13 mbps. Upload speed is a little better but still not good. It's maddening how slow it is.

The other computers in the house are getting the same internet as normal, so it must be the mac.

I have already tried changing the DNS to 8.8.8.8, making a new location, etc, and it's honestly becoming quite frustrating at this point. I just want to stream and browse the internet in peace.

WiFI or wired? If WiFi, what you are seeing is the most common symptom of something interfering with the channel of WiFi that your Mac is using. I had a friend who had exactly the same symptoms promoted when they installed on of the new TV dongles for WiFi direct to TV. We moved the computer to a different channel and that solved it, instantly.

MacInWin said:

WiFI or wired? If WiFi, what you are seeing is the most common symptom of something interfering with the channel of WiFi that your Mac is using. I had a friend who had exactly the same symptoms promoted when they installed on of the new TV dongles for WiFi direct to TV. We moved the computer to a different channel and that solved it, instantly.

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Hello,

I am using Wifi, yes. However, nothing that I am aware of has changed in terms of TV or internet provider, so I do not know the cause of this.

When you say switching channels, what do you entail?

Thanks for responding, much appreciated.

When you say switching channels, what to you entail?

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You switch the broadcast channel by accessing your router through its internal menu. What kind of WiFi setup do you have at home? And which router (if any) do you have - include the model number.

chscag said:

You switch the broadcast channel by accessing your router through its internal menu. What kind of WiFi setup do you have at home? And which router (if any) do you have - include the model number.

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I have a cisco wireless router, fairly recent (only a couple years old, works great), Linksys E2500. I think that'd the model number? Probably not. 1905-1595?

Edit: I have just accessed my router's settings online. What do I do now?

How do I access the internal menu? Thanks for helping.

Update: I rebooted the system digitally and it seems to be working normally again? Hesitant optimism.

Update 2: Nope. Few minutes of good wifi then dropped back to slow again. Almost dropped off completely. Switched locations and seems to be working okay but this is driving me nuts.

You haven't said what version of the OS you have, but if you Option-click on the wifi symbol in the top bar, then run Open Wireless Diagnostics the system will run diagnostics on your WiFi. At the end it will offer you the chance to save the results to the desktop. Double click on the resulting tar.gz file and a folder will appear with the same name as the tar.gz file. Open that folder and look for a file named "wireless-diagnostics-xxxxxx.log" where the xxx string is letters and numbers. That log will show you the channel you are currently using and recommended channels for both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands. Set your router to one of those channels in each band. That cisco is dual band, so I would suggest giving the 5GHz network a different name than the 2.4GHz so that you can find it on the Mac and give it preference there as well. 5GHz tends not to suffer as much from interference as the 2.4GHz band.

Assuming you renamed the 5GHz band, on the Mac open System Preferences, Network and highlight the WiFi connection in the left pane of the window. Now click Advanced. Look for the name you gave the 5GHz network and drag it to the top of the list in the "Preferred Networks" window. From now on, your system will first look for that network and if it is available, attempt to connect. If the channel you set on the router is clear, you should get a good, reliable and swift connection. If there is some other device within range on that same channel, move the router to a different channel and try again. 2.4GHz has 11 channels, 5GHz has 153. The channels are adjacent in frequency, so if you move on the 2.4Ghz, move at least three channels. On the 5Ghz, move at least 10.

"Only a couple of years old' is plenty of time for it to begin to fail. Two years is a great run personally.

When having Wi-Fi trouble on a portable device, the VERY FIRST thing you ought to do is go find a good public Wi-Fi network like a coffee house or library and try there. If everything works normally outside your home network, then instantly you know its your home network and not your device.