Slow WiFi with Intel AC 9560 on Asus GT-AX6000

[Farley]

I'd like to see the outputs under GNU/Linux of "iw list", "iwconfig", and "iw wlp2s0 (or whatever, see "iwconfig") link"

Here's the output of the first two commands (with the signal readings taken a room or so away from the router, with at least one brick wall in between). Sorry, I don't understand the third command.

Farley paste1 - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

pastebin.com

 

[glens]

Ubuntu is what I'd long installed on others' computers, and just started using it myself so I'd be familiar to handle any questions. Can't really remember any such need to speak of.

At any rate, still on semi-rural dial-up, I was curious how Gnome was progressing and saw that Ubuntu was both offering that desktop environment and to mail a physical CD at no charge. I registered my mailing address and was directed to a notice that it didn't really cost them more to send multiple discs for me to hand out, how many would I like?

Stuck with them 'til a few years ago when they went to using "snaps".

Mint is pretty much Ubuntu without the snaps, and as you see, it's well-conceived and executed overall.

For something 10 years old, unless it was particularly state-of-the-art, you may find a lighter-weight desktop env. to your liking. XFCE (I think - if not it's close to that, and I thought I'd seen it as a Mint option) has historically been pretty lightweight yet functional, though I think some pretty good strides have been made making even the "heavier" stuff a little lighter on its feet.

 

[glens]

don't understand the third command.

Haven't yet looked at the files, but "iwconfig" lists all the interfaces up, and for a wireless one gives a bunch of status. The interface is indicated and that "name" (used to be "wlan0" etc. but has become "wlp2s0" etc.) is passed as the first argument to "iw", so for example

"iw wlp0s20f3 link"

 

[Farley]

Seems unlikely that restoring the JFFS and some other settings would have caused this since another laptop is working fine, unless you had some QOS settings or something specific to this laptop on the router previously.

Oh, it was just that... I did previously (on the old router) set the T490 to low priority in the QoS settings, and then I think I noticed at some stage that I had accidentally carried it over to the new router. Even though I fixed it in the router gui, I wonder if maybe something is still wrong. I didn't keep detailed notes of every step, so I can't recall exactly at which stage I last noticed that (e.g., before or after upgrading from 386 to 388 firmware).

There is another niggly little router issue that I hope will be corrected by a reset, so even if it doesn't help the laptop there's a chance that I'll get some joy out of it.

 

[Farley]

Haven't yet looked at the files, but "iwconfig" lists all the interfaces up, and for a wireless one gives a bunch of status. The interface is indicated and that "name" (used to be "wlan0" etc. but has become "wlp2s0" etc.) is passed as the first argument to "iw", so for example

"iw wlp0s20f3 link"

Makes sense now... https://pastebin.com/cjYTHGEd

 

[Tech Junky]

snaps

You can purge that crap and the only thing that's runs in it is Firefox. Without snap installed everything installs as normal.

 

[Tech Junky]

XFCE

Sddm is a good option as well.

 

[drinkingbird]

Oh, it was just that... I did previously (on the old router) set the T490 to low priority in the QoS settings, and then I think I noticed at some stage that I had accidentally carried it over to the new router. Even though I fixed it in the router gui, I wonder if maybe something is still wrong. I didn't keep detailed notes of every step, so I can't recall exactly at which stage I last noticed that (e.g., before or after upgrading from 386 to 388 firmware).

There is another niggly little router issue that I hope will be corrected by a reset, so even if it doesn't help the laptop there's a chance that I'll get some joy out of it.

I'd try the factory reset. I guess the default driver in Ubuntu could be slowing it down but that's a lot of coincidences, it should be able to achieve perfectly good throughput even if it isn't 100%.

If factory reset doesn't fix it then time to start looking at the hardware on that laptop, the antennas or the card itself.

 

[drinkingbird]

Sadly, this didn't make any difference to the amazingly consistent 15 MB/s download speed. For a moment, after I looked at the laptop's power settings, I thought I'd made a schoolboy error, because the Windows power scheme for "on battery" included "Moderate" power savings for the WiFi (even though I had already gone into the Advanced settings for the WiFi adapter and ensured that it was set to "Performance". But changing the Windows power scheme to maximum performance for the WiFi, rebooting, plugging in the AC adapter, waiting 15 minutes etc., seemed to make no difference at all.

Moderate power savings is fine, only happens when on battery and should automatically allow full power/full speed when you're doing a big transfer. Just reduces the link rate when you're doing less intense stuff. Wouldn't explain speeds as low as you're seeing.

 

[glens]

Hey Farley, if you haven't reset the router yet, try the laptop with assigning it a different MAC. That'll kick it out of whatever the router's doing to it if that's what's happening, and you'll know that's what it was.

 

[Farley]

Hey Farley, if you haven't reset the router yet, try the laptop with assigning it a different MAC. That'll kick it out of whatever the router's doing to it if that's what's happening, and you'll know that's what it was.

Thanks, and it made no difference, so I guess (as I suspected) I was clutching at straws.

I also opened up the laptop to have a closer look at the WiFi card, which was indeed on the motherboard. To my untrained eye, there was nothing wrong with the connections to the antennas.

Laptop is only just over two years old, and I haven't loaded a huge amount of software onto it, but for all I know the WiFi has always been slow since I bought it. In our previous house I wasn't concerned about WiFi speed (just coverage), because I had network ports in all the main rooms. I might try a fresh install of Windows at some stage, since that seems to be almost the only idea left (but I'm not in a hurry to do that).

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks, and it made no difference, so I guess (as I suspected) I was clutching at straws.

I also opened up the laptop to have a closer look at the WiFi card, which was indeed on the motherboard. To my untrained eye, there was nothing wrong with the connections to the antennas.

Laptop is only just over two years old, and I haven't loaded a huge amount of software onto it, but for all I know the WiFi has always been slow since I bought it. In our previous house I wasn't concerned about WiFi speed (just coverage), because I had network ports in all the main rooms. I might try a fresh install of Windows at some stage, since that seems to be almost the only idea left (but I'm not in a hurry to do that).

So even after factory reset of the router, speeds are still bad? If you're seeing pretty consistent speed in both windows and linux it does seem to be a hardware issue. Odd that you were able to get double the speed in Linux (but still half what it should be). Maybe the inbuilt linux driver isn't optimal but again, that's a lot of coincidences.

If you don't want to replace the motherboard or embark on some pretty complex soldering, you could try a wipe and reformat of windows, or you could get a small nano USB3 wifi adapter.

Just to rule out some odd incompatibility between that card and your router, have you tried the laptop on another router/AP?

 

[Farley]

So even after factory reset of the router, speeds are still bad? If you're seeing pretty consistent speed in both windows and linux it does seem to be a hardware issue. Odd that you were able to get double the speed in Linux (but still half what it should be). Maybe the inbuilt linux driver isn't optimal but again, that's a lot of coincidences.

If you don't want to replace the motherboard or embark on some pretty complex soldering, you could try a wipe and reformat of windows, or you could get a small nano USB3 wifi adapter.

Just to rule out some odd incompatibility between that card and your router, have you tried the laptop on another router/AP?

No, I haven't tried the router reset yet, after @glens reminded me that I could trick the router by giving the laptop a different MAC address. I will probably still try it when I have a bit of time.

My old router was an RT-AC86U, and speeds were about 50% better with that, doing the same read from the NAS (about 22-23 MB/s on average).

If I want to test a non-Asus router that's better than the ancient Technicolor one I have in a cupboard, my best option might be to wait until next week. All being well, I am scheduled to get an upgrade from FTTN to fibre on Saturday, so the router that is currently being used as a modem in bridge mode would be worth trying in router mode. It is also Technicolor, but it's much newer than the one in the cupboard, and supposedly it has reasonably good AC WiFi.

I am a bit reluctant to wipe Windows at this stage, because I am not particularly good at this stuff, and I usually make mistakes and end up wasting a lot of time! But I agree that a nano USB3 WiFi adapter could be appealing.