Get started with Plain Air

Plain Air explains your Wi-Fi in plain English: whether the trouble is your Wi-Fi, your internet or the names your Mac looks up, and what to change.

Steps

1. The first time you open Plain Air, it says what it talks to: Your router (small pings, to time the Wi-Fi between you), Your DNS server (name lookups, to time how fast names are found) and Apple (the same check page macOS loads when you join a network). Nothing else, and nothing to us.
2. On the right, Want to see your network’s name? offers Allow Location. It’s optional: press Not Now and everything else works. Why Plain Air asks about Location
3. Press Check My Wi-Fi. While Checking your Wi-Fi shows, Plain Air takes a look at the networks around you, then sends 150 quick pings to your router, with your internet and name lookups timed alongside. It takes about 20 seconds.
4. The answer opens on Check: one sentence at the top, then the path and what to change.

After that, Plain Air checks each time you open it. Press Check Again (⌘R) whenever you change something, to see whether it helped. The speed test never runs by itself: it waits until you press Test Speed.