--- title: "Why is my internet slow on Mac? Find the weak link · Kilobat" url: "https://kilobat.app/slow-internet-mac" description: "Find out whether slow internet on your Mac is weak Wi-Fi, your router, your provider, DNS or another app, with one check and plain-English advice." --- A home Wi-Fi router on a hallway shelf at night, its lights glowing, a laptop on a sofa in the background Fix slow internet # Slow internet? Find the weak link. Weak Wi-Fi, a busy router, your provider, slow DNS or a backup in the background all feel the same. Kilobat checks each link in the chain and tells you which one is the problem, in plain English. [Download for Mac ↓](https://kilobat.app/downloads/Kilobat-1.9.0.dmg) ``` brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat ``` ## Sound familiar? - “Everything is slow, but the speed test says it’s fine.” - “Sites take ages to start loading.” - “It works on my phone but not on my Mac.” - “It drops every evening around eight.” ## Six links. One is weak. A page loads only as fast as the slowest step between your Mac and the site. Kilobat measures each one. 1. **Your Mac**Another app uploading, a VPN or proxy in the way 2. **Wi-Fi**Signal, noise, band and channel crowding 3. **Router**Latency and loss to the router itself 4. **Provider**Latency, jitter and loss beyond your router 5. **DNS**How long each lookup takes 6. **The site**Connect, TLS and first-byte timing ## Symptoms, causes, and what to try. Kilobat doesn’t stop at “slow”. With Pro, Health says where, and what to do about it, like: “DNS lookups are slow. Compare Cloudflare or Google DNS, then restore Automatic if it does not help.” 1. ### Every new site hesitates, then loads fast Slow DNS lookups. Times your resolver, then switch to Cloudflare, Google or Quad9 in one click and back to Automatic. Pro: 2. ### Slow in one room, fine in another Wi-Fi signal or a crowded channel. Signal radar walks you to a stronger spot; channel crowding names a quieter channel for your router. Pro: 3. ### Slow whenever someone else is online The router or the line is saturated. Router and internet latency side by side, and latency under load in the speed test. Free: 4. ### Speed test fine, video calls choppy Short spikes and loss that averages hide. The stutter test pings every 50 ms and draws every spike. Free: 5. ### One site or app fails, the rest work A proxy, VPN, DNS or the server itself. Why can’t it connect? tests the path that app uses and names the layer that broke. Free: 6. ### Drops every evening Your provider. Health records outages and latency over time; the report button turns them into a summary for your provider. Pro: Diagnosis ## Why can’t it connect? Name a site or an app and Kilobat checks Wi-Fi, VPN and proxy, DNS, its own rules, the connection and the server’s answer, using the same request and path the app itself uses. Then it names the layer that broke and what to do next. Terminal ``` # Find the layer that stops a connection $ kilobat why example.com # Wi-Fi, router, internet, DNS and login-page checks with advice $ kilobat diagnose # DNS, connect, TLS and first-byte timing for one URL $ kilobat http-check https://example.com ``` **Why can’t it connect?** Kilobat tests the request and path the app itself uses, its own proxy, IPv6 and tunnels included, and names the layer that broke. Speed test ## Speed tests that explain themselves. Each result records the server it reached, how many connections it used, and the network, Wi-Fi band, signal and VPN at the time. Compare any two tests and Kilobat says what differed, so “it was faster yesterday” gets an answer. Ping under load shows bufferbloat as a number, and a verdict says whether calls, video and streaming will hold up. Free, capped at 80 MB per test, and skipped on metered networks unless you start it. **Will this call hold up?** A speed test for capacity, and a stutter test for the short spikes that speed tests average away. Provider report ## Proof for your provider. The report button in Health covers what Kilobat measured on this network over 24 hours or 7 days: outages, latency at the router and beyond, ping loss, speed tests against your plan and a check of the site that fails. Copy it as text or save it as a PDF. It leaves out your network’s name, every local address, device names and which apps used the network, and says so. **Your provider says more?** Put their figure beside Kilobat’s for the same period, with the hours Kilobat recorded and the likely reasons for a difference. ## What’s free, and what Pro adds ### Free, for good - Speed tests with latency under load, and comparing two tests - The stutter test - Why can’t it connect?, for any site or app - Signal, noise, router and internet latency at a glance - A report for your provider - `kilobat diagnose`, `why`, `trace` and the rest of the CLI ### Pro, $19 once - Findings with a fix for router, DNS and login-page trouble - Outage and latency history - One-click DNS switching - Signal radar, scans and channel crowding Pro is $19 once for two Macs, with a 7-day free trial and 14-day refunds. [Free for students](https://kilobat.app/students). ## Questions **Is the check free?** Speed and stutter tests, Why can’t it connect?, the provider report and the CLI’s `diagnose` are free. Findings with a fix in the app, radar and history are part of Pro, $19 once, with a 7-day free trial. **Can my AI agent run it?** Yes. `kilobat diagnose --json` and the MCP server give agents the same measurements and advice. See the [docs](https://kilobat.app/docs#agents). **Does Kilobat change my network settings?** Only when you ask, such as switching DNS, and it puts Automatic back with one click. Diagnosis only reads. **My speed test is fast. Why does it feel slow?** Speed tests measure how much fits through the line. Browsing feels slow when lookups, the first byte or short spikes are slow, which a big download hides. Kilobat measures those separately. ## Kilobat for… [**Better Wi-Fi**Walk to a stronger spot and a quieter channel.](https://kilobat.app/wifi-analyzer-mac)[**Video calls**A report card after every call that says why it froze.](https://kilobat.app/video-calls)[**Bandwidth by app**Live upload and download for every app, in the menu bar.](https://kilobat.app/mac-bandwidth-monitor)[**Gamers**Ping to CS2, Dota 2, Deadlock and Fortnite servers, lag spikes named, ping on stream.](https://kilobat.app/gaming) ## Stop guessing. Fix the right thing. [Download for Mac ↓](https://kilobat.app/downloads/Kilobat-1.9.0.dmg) ``` brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat ```