Installed PCI Board for Wireless Connection.

Normally I use a wired connection due to better signal strength, but while visiting a friend for several weeks I encountered the following: (1) My friend did not have a wired connection in the room we were living in. (2) Slow internet, Wi-Fi, service. (3) A brick wall (among two walls), and a long distance, from the router caused a weak signal.

So,instead of a dongle, I decided to install a wireless PCI in the computer to obtain the maximum Wi-Fi signal strength. This was my first attempt in installing a PCI adapter in my computer so I was hesitant.

After an internet search for a PCI board that would be compatible with my Linux 19.1 OS, I decided to install a, "TP-link, 300 Mbps, wireless N, PCI Express Adapter, TL-WN991ND." I did notice that on the PCI adapter box it had this notice, "Linux Support."

After the physical installation, the TP-link PCI Express Adapter worked perfectly with my Linux 19.1 OS.

Here is the ~$lshw -businfo:

root@alan-HP-Slim-Desktop-290-p0xxx:~# lshw -businfo
Bus info          Device      Class          Description
========================================================
                              system         HP Slim Desktop 290-p0xxx (3LB96AA#ABA)
                              bus            843F
                              memory         64KiB BIOS
                              memory         4GiB System Memory
                              memory         4GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2666 MHz (0.4 ns)
                              memory         DIMM [empty]
                              memory         128KiB L1 cache
                              memory         512KiB L2 cache
                              memory         2MiB L3 cache
cpu@0                         processor      Intel(R) Celeron(R) G4900 CPU @ 3.10GHz
pci@0000:00:00.0              bridge         Intel Corporation
pci@0000:00:02.0              display        Intel Corporation
pci@0000:00:12.0              generic        Cannon Lake PCH Thermal Controller
pci@0000:00:14.0              bus            Cannon Lake PCH USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
pci@0000:00:14.2              memory         RAM memory
pci@0000:00:14.5              generic        Intel Corporation
pci@0000:00:15.0              bus            Intel Corporation
pci@0000:00:15.1              bus            Intel Corporation
pci@0000:00:16.0              communication  Cannon Lake PCH HECI Controller
pci@0000:00:17.0              storage        Cannon Lake PCH SATA AHCI Controller
pci@0000:00:1c.0              bridge         Intel Corporation
pci@0000:01:00.0  enp1s0      network        RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
pci@0000:00:1c.5              bridge         Intel Corporation
pci@0000:02:00.0              network        RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
pci@0000:00:1c.7              bridge         Intel Corporation
pci@0000:03:00.0  wlp3s0      network        RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
pci@0000:00:1e.0              communication  Intel Corporation
pci@0000:00:1f.0              bridge         H370 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller
pci@0000:00:1f.3              multimedia     Cannon Lake PCH cAVS
pci@0000:00:1f.4              bus            Cannon Lake PCH SMBus Controller
pci@0000:00:1f.5              bus            Cannon Lake PCH SPI Controller
                  scsi0       storage        
scsi@0:0.0.0      /dev/sda    disk           500GB ST500DM002-1SB10
scsi@0:0.0.0,1    /dev/sda1   volume         511MiB Windows FAT volume
scsi@0:0.0.0,2    /dev/sda2   volume         732MiB EXT4 volume
scsi@0:0.0.0,3    /dev/sda3   volume         464GiB EFI partition
                  scsi2       storage        
scsi@2:0.0.0      /dev/cdrom  disk           DVDRW  GUD1N
                              power          Standard Efficiency

Hopefully this success in obtaining a good wireless signal in a challenging Wi-Fi environment will help others considering installing a PCI board.

If there is any other coding information, or other information, needed for your information please let me know.

I've got almost exactly the same wifi PCIe card in my machine. That said, it would probably be better if you ran the following command to give better info;

lspci -nnk | grep -A2 -i net

which should give you something like;

00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82578DC Gigabit Network Connection [8086:10f0] (rev 06)
        DeviceName:  Intel(R) 82578DC Ethernet
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82578DC Gigabit Network Connection [8086:0036]
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e
        Kernel modules: e1000e
--
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9227 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:002d] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Qualcomm Atheros AR9227 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0300]
        Kernel driver in use: ath9k
        Kernel modules: ath9k

It's what's in bold that's the info I'm talking about - so you could just omit what's above that for whatever ethernet interface your machine has.

jsbjs001,

Thank you. Here is my coding information:

alan@alan-HP-Slim-Desktop-290-p0xxx:~$ lspci -nnk | grep -A2 -i net
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 15)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [103c:843f]
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:c821]
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [103c:831a]
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:818b]
	Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8196]
	Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ee
	Kernel modules: rtl8192ee