diff --git a/hosts/FredOS-Macbook.nix b/hosts/FredOS-Macbook.nix
index e5a2dd8..6040e1b 100644
--- a/hosts/FredOS-Macbook.nix
+++ b/hosts/FredOS-Macbook.nix
@@ -20,6 +20,13 @@
 
     nix.settings.max-jobs = 0;
 
+    # max-jobs = 0 means an update is pure substitution, and nix's default
+    # 25 parallel HTTPS streams saturate the link hard enough that the
+    # out-of-tree broadcom_sta (wl) driver drops association mid-build —
+    # only a manual wifi reconnect brings it back. Cap the concurrency.
+    nix.settings.http-connections = 8;
+    nix.settings.max-substitution-jobs = 4;
+
     services.tlp.enable = false;
     services.power-profiles-daemon.enable = true;
     # Quickshell's battery widget reads org.freedesktop.UPower over DBus