How to Fix Slow WiFi on PS5 Pro: 6 GHz Band, DNS, MTU, and Open NAT Fixes for Faster Downloads and Lower Ping

The PS5 Pro is Sony’s most capable PlayStation to date, and its wireless hardware matches that ambition: the PS5 Pro ships with WiFi 7 (802.11be), making it the first major gaming console to support the 6 GHz band. That is a meaningful upgrade over the original PS5 and PS5 Slim, which topped out at WiFi 6 (802.11ax). In practice, WiFi 7 on the 6 GHz band delivers lower interference, higher throughput, and latency figures that beat both the crowded 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands. But getting those benefits requires the right router and correctly configured network settings. Run a speed test before working through these fixes to establish a baseline — if your ISP connection is the bottleneck rather than the console, no amount of router tuning will help.

Fix 1: Force the PS5 Pro onto the 6 GHz Band

The 6 GHz band is the single biggest performance upgrade available on the PS5 Pro, and it is often underused because band steering can silently keep the console on 5 GHz. The 6 GHz spectrum has far fewer devices using it — it requires WiFi 6E or WiFi 7 hardware to access — so interference is minimal and latency is typically the lowest you will see over any WiFi connection.

Requirements: You need a WiFi 6E or WiFi 7 router. If your router only supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, the 6 GHz band is not available — see our best WiFi 7 routers guide for upgrade options. To connect the PS5 Pro to 6 GHz:

1. Go to Settings → Network → Settings → Set Up Internet Connection
2. Select Wi-Fi
3. Look for your router’s 6 GHz SSID — often labeled with “6G” or “6GHz” at the end
4. Enter the password and connect

If your router uses a unified SSID across all bands (band steering), the console may still land on 5 GHz. Log into your router’s admin panel and create a dedicated 6 GHz SSID so you can explicitly connect the PS5 Pro to that band. For background on the differences between bands, see our guide on 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz vs 6 GHz WiFi.

Range note: The 6 GHz band loses signal faster through walls than 5 GHz. Keep the PS5 Pro within 25–40 feet of the router with no more than one or two walls between them for reliable 6 GHz performance.

Fix 2: Use Wired Ethernet Instead

The PS5 Pro includes a Gigabit Ethernet port on the rear panel. A direct Cat 5e or Cat 6 cable from your router eliminates all WiFi interference and delivers the most stable, lowest-latency connection possible — even better than 6 GHz WiFi. If running a cable through walls is not practical, a MoCA adapter over existing coaxial cable or a powerline adapter over your home’s electrical wiring are both solid wired alternatives that avoid drilling.

Fix 3: Set a Custom DNS Server

ISP-provided DNS servers are frequently the slowest link in a gaming connection — every time your PS5 Pro connects to a game server, it first queries DNS to resolve the hostname, and slow DNS adds latency to every lookup. Switching to a faster public DNS server is free and takes under two minutes:

1. Go to Settings → Network → Settings → Set Up Internet Connection
2. Select your current connection and choose Advanced Settings
3. Under DNS Settings, select Manual
4. Enter your preferred servers:

• Cloudflare (recommended): Primary 1.1.1.1 — Secondary 1.0.0.1
• Google: Primary 8.8.8.8 — Secondary 8.8.4.4

After saving, run the PS5 network test at Settings → Network → Test Internet Connection to confirm the console connects cleanly with the new DNS settings.

Fix 4: Optimize MTU Settings

MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is the size of the largest data packet your connection sends in a single transfer. The default of 1500 is correct for most cable and fiber broadband connections. On a PPPoE connection — common with DSL and some fiber ISPs — the correct MTU is 1480. Using 1500 on a PPPoE line causes packets to be fragmented, which triggers retransmissions, raises ping, and reduces download throughput in ways that are hard to diagnose.

To check and change MTU on the PS5 Pro:

1. Go to Settings → Network → Settings → Set Up Internet Connection
2. Select your current connection and choose Advanced Settings
3. Scroll to MTU Settings and note the current value
4. If on PPPoE, change the value to 1480; otherwise leave it at 1500

Match the MTU setting in your router’s WAN configuration as well. For more detail on how packet size affects gaming, see our guide on what jitter is and why it matters for gaming.

Fix 5: Fix NAT Type for Open Online Play

NAT type controls how easily your PS5 Pro can reach other players and servers online. NAT Type 1 (Open) allows the most direct connections; NAT Type 2 (Moderate) works for most gaming scenarios; NAT Type 3 (Strict) restricts peer connections, limits party sizes, and causes matchmaking failures. Check your NAT type at Settings → Network → Test Internet Connection.

Option A: Enable UPnP on Your Router

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) lets the PS5 Pro automatically request the port openings it needs from your router without manual configuration. Log into your router’s admin panel (typically at 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1), locate the UPnP or NAT settings section, enable it, save, and restart the console. This resolves NAT Type 3 in most home network setups.

Option B: Manual Port Forwarding

For routers where UPnP is unreliable, manual port forwarding produces more consistent results. First, assign a static IP address to your PS5 Pro via Settings → Network → Settings → Set Up Internet Connection → Advanced Settings → IP Address Settings → Manual. Then forward the following ports to that IP in your router’s port forwarding section:

• TCP: 80, 443, 1935, 3478–3480
• UDP: 3074, 3478–3479

Save the rules, restart your router, and test NAT type again. If you are behind CGNAT — where your ISP assigns a shared public IP to multiple customers — neither UPnP nor port forwarding will achieve Open NAT. See our guide on fixing CGNAT for solutions specific to that scenario.

Fix 6: Power Cycle Your Router and Console

A full power cycle clears stale connection tables, flushes the router’s ARP cache, and renews DHCP leases. Unplug the router from power for 30 seconds, then plug it back in and wait for it to fully reconnect before testing. On the PS5 Pro, hold the power button until you hear two beeps to perform a cold shutdown rather than entering rest mode. This combination resolves a surprising number of persistent slow-speed and high-ping complaints that cannot be fixed with any settings change alone.

Still Slow? It May Be Your Router

If you have worked through every fix above and speeds are still disappointing, the bottleneck is likely your router rather than the PS5 Pro. Older WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 routers cannot provide the 6 GHz band the PS5 Pro is designed for, and even a good WiFi 6 router can struggle to handle the multi-device loads of a busy household efficiently. To take full advantage of the PS5 Pro’s WiFi 7 hardware, you need a WiFi 7 or at minimum a WiFi 6E router. Check our best routers for gaming in 2026 guide for current recommendations at every budget, and run a speed test from a laptop placed next to the console to determine whether the router or the ISP connection is the actual ceiling before spending money on an upgrade.