Mac user. Opening SL causes wi-fi speed to plummet, even after ending using SL.

[JordonBanks]

Anyone any ideas what could be happening here?  Over the last week or, some weird internet speed issue has begun to affect my MAcbook Pro, after using SL.

My speed over Wi-Fi is usually around the 50-70Mbps mark.  However over last week, whenever I open SL after a few minutes my speed drops to around 4 or 5Mbps.  But remains like that even after termimating the SL OR Firestorm app.  The only way to get it back up to speed again, is usually by rebooting my machine.

BUT the werdest part is this.  This is only affecting the machine I am using with SL.  So even though the speed drops on my Macbook to around 5Mbps, it remains at the usual 50-70Mbps on all other devices - inluding other apple devices.

Speed only drops on my Macbook, and only ever after launching Firestorm or SL Viewer.  Anyone any ideas whats happening?

Below are some screen shots showing thre speeds of three devices, the lower one being my Macbook, after I launched and terminated the SL app.  9These examples are afyter using Firestorm.  But also checked if same happens using SL Viewer and it does)

Macbook - After starting and then ending Firestorm once the speed dropped

iMac - tested at the same time

 

iPhone - tested at the same time

Edited June 27, 2022 by JordonBanks
Update

[Anicha Heartsong]

Jordon, try checking to see if a process called 'kernel task' is running and taking control of the most of the CPU availability. It's a MacOS function, designed to 'capture' all the processing power when the machine is getting overloaded or too hot, as a way of protecting the hardware from excessive use.

It's legit, but really, really annoying.

It might be that which is also interfering with your wifi. That might seem illogical, but kernel task manages to interfere with just about everything.

It would be interesting to know if that's the case - but if it is, then there's not a whole lot to be done about it. You could try installing apps such as MacFans or TG Pro which allow you to increase the fan speed. I find this helps a little in keeping kernel task under control.

[Lyssa Greymoon]

What Mac, macOS and router? 

[JordonBanks]

On 6/27/2022 at 7:03 PM, Anicha Heartsong said:

Jordon, try checking to see if a process called 'kernel task' is running and taking control of the most of the CPU availability. It's a MacOS function, designed to 'capture' all the processing power when the machine is getting overloaded or too hot, as a way of protecting the hardware from excessive use.

It's legit, but really, really annoying.

It might be that which is also interfering with your wifi. That might seem illogical, but kernel task manages to interfere with just about everything.

It would be interesting to know if that's the case - but if it is, then there's not a whole lot to be done about it. You could try installing apps such as MacFans or TG Pro which allow you to increase the fan speed. I find this helps a little in keeping kernel task under control.

Doing exactly this now - to see what happens.  Not 100% sure I'll know if the figures in the activity monitor are higher than they should be. but will paste sopme results here showing before the speed dropped, and what they were when the speed dropped.

Edited June 28, 2022 by JordonBanks

[Psyche Starling]

This happened to me on my laptop because it was overheating, while other devices that ran cooler were still doing fine. Does your Macbook run hot by any chance?