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ethernet speeds

Running a 2012 Mac Pro, on wireless, I get the internet service speeds of 40-50 MBPS down, 15-20 up. The signal is weak though owing to two heavy brick walls between router and computer and I get my voice and image dropping out or freezing during group Zoom conferences.. So I got 500 MBPS powerline adapters, and plugged into ethernet, thinking I'd get a stronger and more consistent signal. But speeds dropped to 20 down and 18 up. The computer has gigabit ethernet, so there should have been no drop in speed. The powerline adapters are plugged into the wall in each room, no other equipment interfering. Anyone else encountered this?


Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Apr 26, 2022 7:35 PM

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Posted on Apr 26, 2022 10:24 PM

Just to be sure, by "MBPS" do you mean MegaByte or Megabit per second? I'm assuming that you mean the latter ... correct?


Regardless, do you have one of these powerline adapters connected directly to your main Internet router. Since you are attempting to get a pseudo Ethernet connection over your home's electrical circuit between rooms with brick walls ... is the electrical circuit you have both of these adapters on the same circuit. That is, does this electrical circuit terminate at a single breaker? If it doesn't, this could be the reason for the performance drop.

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Apr 26, 2022 10:24 PM in response to CliffHBernard

Just to be sure, by "MBPS" do you mean MegaByte or Megabit per second? I'm assuming that you mean the latter ... correct?


Regardless, do you have one of these powerline adapters connected directly to your main Internet router. Since you are attempting to get a pseudo Ethernet connection over your home's electrical circuit between rooms with brick walls ... is the electrical circuit you have both of these adapters on the same circuit. That is, does this electrical circuit terminate at a single breaker? If it doesn't, this could be the reason for the performance drop.

Apr 27, 2022 1:12 AM in response to CliffHBernard

With wifi connection, can you depress and hold the Option key and click on the wifi icon in menu bar and post screenshot of the wifi window that opens. This will give idea of if the observed connection speed is commensurate with the wifi connection parameters.

As a test I would one of the following:

  1. Get a long ethernet cable and connect the Mac directly to the router. Alternately you can temporarily move the Mac near the router and use direct ethernet connection.
  2. Get a long power extension cord and and try the powerline ethernet with one end of the extension cord plugged in the same ulet at the powerline transmitter and the other in the room with the computer.

Apr 27, 2022 8:00 AM in response to CliffHBernard

Packets going to the Internet are sent to the TOPMOST, working interface listed in System preferences > Network.


If Ethernet is a possibility for you, move Ethernet to be the TopMost interface. When no cable is connected, it will not also be Working so Wi-Fi (or whatever is second) will be automatically active instead.


Use the gear icon under the list of interfaces and choose "Set Service Order". Then drag Ethernet to the top of the list.

Apr 27, 2022 8:51 AM in response to CliffHBernard

Re: Wi-Fi


Surprising (to me anyway) was the discovery that the Mac Pro 2009 thru 2012 models have only Two Wi-Fi antennas on the stock Wi-Fi card. (Some other Macs have three antennas).


So the 117 transmit speed is next-to-the fastest your Mac and produce on that 2.4GHz band. It uses 64-pattern QAM, the most complex pattern possible, at one-click-back-from-maximum possible speed of 130.


If your Router supported 5GHz band and it had adequate signal levels, your Wi-Fi speed could be about twice as fast.


-63dB signal level is ordinary. Not a problem unless there is a lot of competition or a lot of interference in your "network neighborhood" (for example, it that other network shown was also trying to use channel 1 at the same time)

Apr 27, 2022 7:26 PM in response to Tesserax

Well, I moved the. monster into the kitchen and plugged it straight into the ethernet port on the router. Top speed straight away, and consistently. So rule out the computer, rule out the ethernet cables. That leaves the household wiring. Any suggestions, or is this the end of the road? I can run a long ethernet cable into the study, but that's an inelegant solution.

Apr 28, 2022 6:18 AM in response to CliffHBernard

RE: powerline Ethernet


advertising is very deceptive compared to "real-world" results.


Some slowing occurs when the powerline sending unit and power line receiving unit are on different circuits. The signal travels back to the breaker-box, through the branch circuit breaker, along the Bus bars, through the other circuit breaker, and out to the other device.


The most slowing occurs when you are using two circuits that are on apposite phases in two phase power. But in Australia, I don't know whether two phase power is even used.

ethernet speeds

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