Cloud gaming on a Mac shouldn’t stutter. Every few seconds AirDrop grabs the Wi‑Fi radio and your GeForce NOW stream hitches. Ping Warden holds that interface down while you play, shows live latency, and hands AirDrop back when you need it.
The dashboard is free. A license unlocks Ping Protection.
One paid feature, and everything around it is free.
The license unlocks Ping Protection in the prebuilt app. The dashboard, diagnostics, updates, and source cost nothing. Game Mode and the widget need a license or an active transition to turn protection on.
Keeps awdl0 down with an event-driven privileged helper, to reduce the latency spikes associated with that traffic.
Tracks latency, jitter, probe failures, and history, and counts every helper intervention. Targets include public services, discovered GeForce NOW regions, your gateway, and hosts you add.
FreeWith a license or an active transition, turns protection on for recognized fullscreen games once you grant Screen Recording access, and off when you quit.
Uses your protection licenseRestores AirDrop, AirPlay, and Handoff for 10 minutes from the menu bar, then returns to whatever protection state you had before.
FreeA system toggle in Control Center on macOS 26 or newer. Turning protection on requires a license or an active transition and opens Ping Warden in the background.
Uses your protection license · macOS 26+Sparkle delivers signed updates for free, forever. Diagnostics export writes a local support snapshot you review before you share it. No analytics, ever.
FreeSet up Ping Protection in four steps.
The app and your key arrive together. Gumroad emails the receipt, the download, and the license key the moment the purchase clears.
The signed DMG is attached to your purchase. Open it from your receipt or your Gumroad library and drag Ping Warden to Applications.
Open Settings → License, paste the key from your receipt, and click Verify. Activate before you turn on protection.
Click Turn On Ping Protection in the welcome window, or Finish Setup in Settings → General. Approve Ping Warden in System Settings when prompted.
Flip Ping Protection on from the menu bar or Control Center. Use the dashboard to see whether protection improves latency on your network.
One price. No subscription, no ads, no analytics.
Ping Warden: Fix Mac Wi-Fi Lag Spikes for Cloud Gaming
$15 once · all future updates included
Secure checkout through Gumroad, which handles tax as merchant of record. For refund questions, email oliver@ames.consulting.
Always free
If protection was enabled with an approved helper when you first launched version 4, it stays available for 90 days from that launch. Check Settings → License for the remaining time. Updating again keeps the original deadline. After it ends, enter a license key to continue using protection.
After two years of free builds, donations covered only a fraction of the work. Developer ID signing, Apple notarization, testing across macOS releases, and release engineering all cost real time. A one-time $15 license for the one feature that needs the privileged helper keeps that work going without subscriptions, ads, or analytics. The tradeoff that defines the app stays exactly the same, and the source stays auditable under MIT.
If you donated through Buy Me a Coffee before version 4, email oliver@ames.consulting with your receipt and I will honor it as a full license.
Questions before you install.
Yes. The app and its source are MIT-licensed. You only pay to enable Ping Protection inside the prebuilt, signed app. The source is free to build and modify under MIT. An unchanged build includes the same license policy.
Right here. The signed, notarized build is attached to your purchase, so it is in your receipt and in your Gumroad library any time you need it again.
Yes. Any official build accepts the key from this purchase. Buying here bundles the download, the key, and updates in one place, but the key itself works wherever you got the app.
The Macs you own, desktop and laptop, with no seat counting. Enter the same key under Settings → License on each one.
After a successful verification, Ping Protection works offline for up to 14 days. Connect to the internet to verify again before that window ends. The app re-checks about every 6 hours and at launch, and the dashboard stays available if protection expires.
AirDrop, AirPlay, Handoff, and other nearby-device features that depend on AWDL, for as long as protection is on. The 10-minute pause brings them back without losing your setting.
No. $15 once, and every future update is included. There is no renewal, no tier, and no feature drip.
Then AWDL was not your bottleneck, and you should not pay for a fix you do not need. Email oliver@ames.consulting for help or a refund request. The free dashboard remains available.
Latency history, protection state, settings, and intervention counts stay on your Mac. The app checks Gumroad for your key, checks the public appcast for updates, and asks GeForce NOW for its region list. Crash reporting is off unless you turn it on.