Check your Wi-Fi and test your speed

The first card in Mainspring's Network section shows how your Wi-Fi connection looks right now, and runs a speed test with one click.

Reading the status card

• The network's name — the Wi-Fi network you're on.
• Signal … dBm · Noise … dBm — signal strength and background noise. Signal closer to zero is stronger: around −50 is excellent, around −80 is weak. The wider the gap between signal and noise, the cleaner the connection.
• The icon — a Wi-Fi symbol, which gains an exclamation mark when the signal is weaker than about −75 dBm.

Other things it can say

Wi-Fi connected

Mainspring can see your Mac's Wi-Fi but not a network name. That happens when Wi-Fi is off or hasn't joined a network, and also when macOS keeps the name private — recent versions of macOS hide Wi-Fi names from most apps. The card adds “Network name hidden — allow Location Services to show it.” and leaves out the signal and noise figures. The speed test works either way.

No Wi-Fi

Mainspring can't find any Wi-Fi hardware on this Mac.

The card is read when the Network section opens. To refresh it, switch to another section and back.

Run a speed test

1. Click Test speed. It reads Testing… while the test runs — usually 15 to 20 seconds.
2. Results appear on the card: Download and Upload in Mbps, and Responsiveness in RPM.

The test is Apple's own networkQuality tool, built into macOS. Responsiveness is how many round trips your connection manages per minute while it's busy — higher is better, and it's the number that best predicts how video calls and games will feel.

If the test fails, or can't finish within a minute, the card says “Couldn't complete the test — try again.”