Holding Alt and Clicking the Wi-Fi-symbol is more useful.
That only gives information about the link between your computer and the wifi access point you're connected to.
This conversation is about what's happening upstream of that.
The networkQuality tool on macOS
61–70 of 92 posts
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a shell alias so I can just type pb to do pbpaste|pbcopy - easiest way I’ve found to strip formatting and get plain text.
It's a little awkward, but Cmd-Opt-Shift-V is "Paste and Match Style" aka "paste as plain text".
Pro-tip (at least for me): control (^) doesn't change this, so you can just hold all the modifier keys rather than trying to remember which 3 let you paste as plain text.
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#63Tangentially related: the wirelles chips that Apple uses make a world of a difference compared to my other machines (Lenovo ThinkPads in cheap to low-mid price range).
They have signal where other devices don't, and, most importantly, Bluetooth does not interfere with 2.4GHz WiFi in a crowded apartment building in a crowded street.
This makes a world of a difference. With my previous laptop, I simply couldn't use wireless internet simultaneously with Bluetooth unlesss being in the same room next to my router.
With apple client hardware and the same router (it also supports 5GHz, but I'm not sure if that's the underlying cause as it still works great on 2.4GHz with the MacBook), WiFi and BT work flawlessly across my whole apartment.
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#64Tangentially related: the wirelles chips that Apple uses make a world of a difference compared to my other machines (Lenovo ThinkPads in cheap to low-mid price range). They have signal where other devices don't, and, most importantly, Bluetooth does not interfere with 2.4GHz WiFi in a crowded apartment building in a crowded street. This makes a world of a difference. With my previous laptop, I simply couldn't use wir…
This situation was greatly improved over the last 9 years. A modern machine with Wi-Fi from Asus, Lenovo, Dell etc works as good as Apple, if not better.
* Having both ASUS Vivobook and Apple M1 on my desk - Vivobook does it better in a particular environment of my house.
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#65Tangentially related: the wirelles chips that Apple uses make a world of a difference compared to my other machines (Lenovo ThinkPads in cheap to low-mid price range). They have signal where other devices don't, and, most importantly, Bluetooth does not interfere with 2.4GHz WiFi in a crowded apartment building in a crowded street. This makes a world of a difference. With my previous laptop, I simply couldn't use wir…
I'd say it's the antenna design not the actual chips?
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#66Holding Alt and Clicking the Wi-Fi-symbol is more useful.
It's not.
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#67Tangentially related: the wirelles chips that Apple uses make a world of a difference compared to my other machines (Lenovo ThinkPads in cheap to low-mid price range). They have signal where other devices don't, and, most importantly, Bluetooth does not interfere with 2.4GHz WiFi in a crowded apartment building in a crowded street. This makes a world of a difference. With my previous laptop, I simply couldn't use wir…
Apple's WiFi and BlueTooth interference sucks tho. There are multiple reports of jagged moused cursor movement when using BT. Switching to wired fixes the problem. But it's weird that even Apple's MagicTrackPad doesn't work well with my MBP if I use it wirelessly :/
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#68Very cool finding! Made me want to explore what other tools my mac has pre-installed in /usr/bin
One nice thing about macOS is that many of the system GUI tools are graphical wrappers around a command-line tool that does the real work. Most of them live in /usr/sbin I keep a list for my students. Here are some: diskutil mdfind mdutil plutil networksetup softwareupdate screencapture pmset hdiutil pkgutil caffeinate osascript defaults launchctl For example, mdfind lets you use Spotlight search on the command line.…
Very Nice! One caveat is that say won't speak the "minus" if your SNR became negative.
echo '-30' | say
echo '\-30' | say
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#69Responsiveness differ greatly for me between tests in Norway, in contrast to fast.com (Netflix) and Speedtest.net
Guess they change servers regardless if its the most optimal one?
Re: The networkQuality tool on macOS
#70I made a free GUI app for this tool: https://sindresorhus.com/speediness