Slow internet speeds while using EndeavourOS compared to Windows 10 (Intel AX200S)

General system Newbie
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Hiya, so I’ve been using EndeavourOS for a while now, and I recently got an Intel AX200S PCI-e WiFi card (I was USB tethering with a smartphone for internet up until now.) I’m running into an issue where my internet speeds are very slow on EndeavourOS (about 20Mbps) compared to Windows 10 (150Mbps as my internet speed should be.) I had a look on some forums online to see others having the same issue, however none of the fixes I have tried have solved this problem for me (Disabling fast startup in Windows 10, disabling power saving for the WiFi card, adding options to configuration files) and I’m getting exhausted trying to find solutions to I have come here asking for help from this great community.

I’m using the Network Manager that comes with EndeavourOS by default, my kernel version is 6.16.10-arch1-1 (64-bit), and my wireless backend is iwlwifi.

I have this post marked as newbie, but only because there’s still a lot about how Linux handles network connections that I don’t fully understand yet, but I’ll provide all of the information than I can. Any help at all would be appreciated :slight_smile:

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Hi, welcome to the forum!

You’re right that on an AX200 one common cause of slow speeds is power saving. You mentioned you already tried disabling it, but just to be sure let’s go through it again.

First, install iw if you haven’t already:

sudo pacman -S iw

Then, get the name of your WiFi interface with:

iw dev

(for me it’s wlan0).

Next, run:

iw dev wlan0 link

(replace wlan0 with your actual interface name if different). Do this multiple times, both while idle and while under load, and share the results. For example, mine looks like this:

Connected to xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (on wlan0)
SSID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
freq: 5500.0
RX: 22821085 bytes (20236 packets)
TX: 2103174 bytes (4508 packets)
signal: -32 dBm
rx bitrate: 866.7 MBit/s VHT-MCS 9 80MHz short GI VHT-NSS 2
tx bitrate: 866.7 MBit/s VHT-MCS 9 80MHz short GI VHT-NSS 2
bss flags: short-preamble short-slot-time
dtim period: 2
beacon int: 100

Pay special attention to the bitrates and VHT-NSS value. On the AX200 it should show VHT-NSS 2. If it only shows 1, you’ll be limited to much lower speeds, but with 2 you’ll get full performance.

After that, check the power save status:

iw dev wlan0 get power_save

Make sure it’s off with:

sudo iw dev wlan0 set power_save off

and confirm again with the previous command.

Then wait a few seconds, run some speed tests, and check iw dev wlan0 link again to see if anything has changed.

I’m not sure if this will help, but it’s worth a try. It’s the only thing I can think of for now. Regards and welcome again :wink:

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Thank you so much for responding!! So I tried the stuff you suggested, this is my iw dev wlan0 link.

While Idle

Connected to xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (on wlan0)
        SSID: XXXXXXXXX
        freq: 5220.0
        RX: 266109297 bytes (301040 packets)
        TX: 50243687 bytes (208689 packets)
        signal: -58 dBm
        rx bitrate: 54.0 MBit/s
        tx bitrate: 54.0 MBit/s
        bss flags: short-slot-time
        dtim period: 1
        beacon int: 100

Under load (with speedtest-cli)

Connected to xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (on wlan0)
        SSID: XXXXXXXXX
        freq: 5220.0
        RX: 274476286 bytes (307561 packets)
        TX: 50695294 bytes (212116 packets)
        signal: -58 dBm
        rx bitrate: 54.0 MBit/s
        tx bitrate: 54.0 MBit/s
        bss flags: short-slot-time
        dtim period: 1
        beacon int: 100

I’ve noticed I seem to be missing the VHT-NSS values on the rx and tx bitrates. Am I missing a dependency? Also, the rx and tx bitrates don’t seem to budge and don’t accurately portray the internet speeds i’m getting. I did try the power saving off stuff, but nothing has changed. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can try. :slight_smile:

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That output seems to mean that your card is not negotiating HT (802.11n), VHT (802.11ac), or HE (Wi-Fi 6). Instead, it’s falling back to a basic 802.11a/g mode, which is limited to 54 Mbps. This usually points to a driver or firmware issue — for example, the iwlwifi driver not loading the correct firmware for your card variant, or failing to bring it up in modern modes.

Make sure you have the linux-firmware package fully up to date, or consider trying different kernel/firmware versions. Another useful test would be to boot a live USB of another distro (no need to fully install it) to see if the same issue happens there — that helps confirm if it’s system-specific.

Also check your router settings mode, channel width, and region (iw reg get).

That said, I won’t lie to you: fixing this at this point might not be straightforward, and I know you’re probably tired of wrestling with it. I once had a similar issue myself and it drove me half crazy. Maybe another forum member will be able to suggest something I haven’t thought of.

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I’ve tried installing the newest firmware for the WiFi card but with no luck and I’ve tried Linux and Linux-lts for different kernel versions and that hasn’t worked either.

I’ve tried a live install of EndeavourOS and it seems to be running at full speed, so I think the problem is my current installation. Honestly for now, I’m just going to do a fresh install. Thanks for the help but I’m at my wits end with this and I think doing a clean install is probably going to be faster than trying to figure out whatever is going on with my old installation.

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A full reinstall can make sense if you suspect something in your system configuration is broken after a lot of tweaking.

But just a heads up — since the live USB works fine but your updated system doesn’t, this could actually be a regression rather than something wrong in your install. The live ISO you tested is running kernel 6.13.7 with linux-firmware from March, while your system has kernel 6.16.10 and much newer firmware.

A clean reinstall will give you the same newer kernel/firmware, so the issue might come back right after updating. It might be worth testing by downgrading linux-firmware (and/or trying an older kernel) before you wipe everything, just to confirm whether it’s a regression. If it is, it could be useful to report it upstream.

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If you really go to reinstall, should give a lts-kernel a try?
And before I would try another iso / distro, Cachy for Ex. or MX, both I found running very well here. Only the live-medium for a test.

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I tried rolling back the firmware, but it didn’t seem to want to work as there were a lot of applications relying on the kernel version (I think)

I ended up re-installing EndeavourOS, and now my internet speeds are how they should be again! Weirdly, the version my new installation is on (6.12.50-1-lts) seems to be working fine, but when I was using the lts version of my previous installation (exact same kernel version) I DIDN’T have my faster internet. I probably just messed something up…somehow… but what I’ll do for now is create snapshots so IF my internet speeds start going slow again I can go back and maybe diagnose what I did that made it slow again. Thanks for helping out with everything, perhaps I gave up a little earlier than I should have but right now I do not have the patience. Consider this thread closed I guess.

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I tried lts-kernel with the same results as before. I’m going to see how my new EndeavourOS installation goes, if anything goes awry or catastrophic, I’ll give Cachy and MX a spin :slight_smile:

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