[SOLVED] Very slow WiFi connection

dlanced · 02-20-2019, 03:14 PM

Until a week ago (around the time I briefly put in my WiFi interface into Monitor mode), I was getting good connection speeds to my router. There's nothing wrong with my router or ISP connection - other wireless devices in the house are still getting good speeds.
Since then things have slowed down a lot (from 2-3 mbps to well below 1 mbps) and I'm getting high Tx excessive retries numbers from iwconfig - even after I turned Power Management off (and, of course, put the interface back into Managed mode). This holds true no matter which of my four or five USB WiFi adaptors I use - although, why I have four or five USB WiFi adaptors is a different question.

I'm running Ubuntu 18.04. Here's what iwconfig has to say about that interface:

Code:

wlx9cefd5fe6a19  IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"Primus-2532"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:23:6A:78:25:34   
          Bit Rate=43.3 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short  long limit:2   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=55/70  Signal level=-55 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:336990  Invalid misc:18482   Missed beacon:0

business_kid · 02-21-2019, 10:07 AM

Explain why you have five WiFi devices - we could use a good laugh

Choose one that takes your fancy and does 802.11n, not just b, or g and stick with it, unless they're all crap.

I would look at your wifi setup. 2-3 mbps is slow for me. I'm getting 6.19 MegaBytes per sec. Is 2-3 mbps good in your area?

dlanced · 02-21-2019, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Explain why you have five WiFi devices - we could use a good laugh

I'm not even sure how I picked up such a collection, but it probably mostly dates back to moving to a new house a few years back and not having the patience to run cable through the walls to feed all the desktops we've got.

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Choose one that takes your fancy and does 802.11n, not just b, or g and stick with it, unless they're all crap.

Two or three of them are excellent - the one I'm using now is a Panda, which I think is the best of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

I would look at your wifi setup. 2-3 mbps is slow for me. I'm getting 6.19 MegaBytes per sec. Is 2-3 mbps good in your area?

I can live happily with 2-3 mbps through the LAN. It's enough. I'm getting upwards of 20 mbps from my ISP to the router. But my main workstation is just too slow.

rokytnji · 02-21-2019, 10:46 AM

Service providers in the USA also determine speed connections.
Just google search Comcax sucks or what ever your internet provider name is and read the feed back.

I get killer wifi speeds now at my steel walled motorcycle shop to the wifi router behind a lead wall < old xray room > since I mounted my defunct Direct tv dish antenna to the wall of the shop and ran the wireless N usb dongle I strapped good so it is water and sun tight. Usb armored cable from dongle, drilled hole through wall of steel wall of shop, plugged into IBM old server from city hall,

Before. My wifi setup was crap for the shop.

dlanced · 02-21-2019, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Service providers in the USA also determine speed connections.
Just google search Comcax sucks or what ever your internet provider name is and read the feed back.

I get killer wifi speeds now at my steel walled motorcycle shop to the wifi router behind a lead wall < old xray room > since I mounted my defunct Direct tv dish antenna to the wall of the shop and ran the wireless N usb dongle I strapped good so it is water and sun tight. Usb armored cable from dongle, drilled hole through wall of steel wall of shop, plugged into IBM old server from city hall,

Before. My wifi setup was crap for the shop.

As bad as my house is for reception, I don't think it's even close to what you had to deal with in your shop! Those are great tips.
But right now I'm primarily interested in getting my workstation performance up to what I'm getting with all the other wireless devices in the house. And I still strongly suspect that the problem is somehow connected to my software configuration.

business_kid · 02-22-2019, 04:00 AM

Presuming you're fit & able (unlike me) why don't you divide & conquer?

Bring your router to your workstation if the cable reaches; otherwise bring your workstation to your pc. If your pc does 2-3 Mbps, and your phone or some other box does 20MBps in the same spot, obviously there's a problem. Do the tests 2-3 feet from the router & report back. Your isp or router could also be the issue.So could the frequency. Most folks are on 2.4Ghz, but if you're on 5Ghz, it may not travel as far. I find transmitting encrypted stuff is slower. Tests over a home network with file transfers prove that.

dlanced · 02-22-2019, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Presuming you're fit & able (unlike me) why don't you divide & conquer?

Bring your router to your workstation if the cable reaches; otherwise bring your workstation to your pc. If your pc does 2-3 Mbps, and your phone or some other box does 20MBps in the same spot, obviously there's a problem.

The problem is not the location: my laptop can sit right next to my workstation and still get much better download speeds. In fact, when I boot my workstation to a live USB session, I also get much higher speeds. So there must be a software-based problem in my current workstation configuration somehow.

rokytnji · 02-22-2019, 12:07 PM

If me. Here is what I would try.

Disable Network Manager in startup services in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I would not uninstall it in synaptic. Leave it alone. But not before I install wicd first.
Go to synaptic and install

Code:

harry@shop1:~
$ apt search wicd
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
python-wicd/oldstable 1.7.2.4-4.1 all
  wired and wireless network manager - Python module

wicd/oldstable 1.7.2.4-4.1 all
  wired and wireless network manager - metapackage

wicd-cli/oldstable 1.7.2.4-4.1 all
  wired and wireless network manager - scriptable console client

wicd-curses/oldstable 1.7.2.4-4.1 all
  wired and wireless network manager - Curses client

wicd-daemon/oldstable 1.7.2.4-4.1 all
  wired and wireless network manager - daemon

wicd-gtk/oldstable 1.7.2.4-4.1 all
  wired and wireless network manager - GTK+ client

wicd-kde/oldstable 0.3.1-1 amd64
  Wired and wireless network manager - plasmoid

The wicd of your choice. Put Wicd in startup in place of network manager to run the connection you will have to set up again.
I know Ubuntu has wicd .
Double check Network manger tick box in startup is now checked also by this time.

If speed improves. Good. If not. No harm no foul. You can disable wicd in startup. Uninstall it. Re enable network manager in startup services.

I'd reboot also after installing and setting up wicd connection to make sure.

rokytnji · 02-22-2019, 12:09 PM

I mention this because network manager gave me fits in MX Linux. I used my above post to fix it.

dlanced · 02-22-2019, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

If me. Here is what I would try.

Disable Network Manager in startup services in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I would not uninstall it in synaptic. Leave it alone. But not before I install wicd first.
Go to synaptic and install
[...]
I'd reboot also after installing and setting up wicd connection to make sure.

Interesting idea. I'll try to dig into that over the weekend.
Thanks,

dlanced · 02-24-2019, 02:01 PM

I seem to have fixed the problem by purging and reinstalling the wpasupplicant package - although I somehow brought down Network Manager and other packages in the process. But when all the dust had settled, I was getting the download speeds I expected.