WiFi speed is pretty low when compared to LAN

A kernel update can have an effect on device drivers.

This is one reason a common piece of advice is “try a different kernel version”.

Well, I tried the LTS kernel today.

bineeth@Workstation-10SRCT01WW ~]$ uname -a
Linux Workstation-10SRCT01WW 5.10.60-1-lts #1 SMP Fri, 20 Aug 2021 21:04:02 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[bineeth@Workstation-10SRCT01WW ~]$ speedtest
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from BSNL (59.92.167.219)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Asianet Broadband (Thiruvananthapuram) [0.88 km]: 138.785 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 0.72 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 1.82 Mbit/s

It also has the same issue.

Did you try disabling N in your router?

Edit:
If there is a way to check if duplex mode is turned on in NetWork manager. Check auto negotiate. Try on and off.

Wait…

Your mobile data connection is 14Mbps? Are you tethering with USB or connecting to your phone’s wifi hotspot using your laptop’s wifi?

I tried both tethering and hotspot. Both showed identical results. I checked the same by connecting to my office laptop running Windows 10 and recently bought raspberry pi 4. All showed similar results (with 1 or 2 Mbps variation).

And, something else happened today. I removed the custom iwlwifi configuration (removed /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf), enabled advanced firewall protection, changed the WiFi authentication from WPA-PSK to WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, changed encryption mode to TKIP/AES, and changed the channel to 20Mhz/40Mhz at my router and also updated my Endeavour.

I also removed my old laptop from near the WiFi router.

And below is my latest WiFi speed.

[

bineeth@Workstation-10SRCT01WW ~]$ speedtest

Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...

Testing from BSNL (117.216.23.36)...

Retrieving speedtest.net server list...

Selecting best server based on ping...

Hosted by Keralavision Broadband (Trivandrum) [4.66 km]: 26.244 ms

Testing download speed................................................................................

Download: 88.15 Mbit/s

Testing upload speed......................................................................................................

Upload: 81.50 Mbit/s

I till don’t know what solved the issue :slight_smile:.
May be the updated router configuration, or it can be the latest update.
I also suspect the old laptop being the culprit for interfering with the WiFi signal.

Following is the log entry for today from pacman.log.

[2021-08-27T19:45:28+0530] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syu'
[2021-08-27T19:45:28+0530] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2021-08-27T19:45:37+0530] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2021-08-27T19:48:22+0530] [ALPM] transaction started
[2021-08-27T19:48:22+0530] [ALPM] upgraded alsa-card-profiles (1:0.3.33-1 -> 1:0.3.34-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:22+0530] [ALPM] upgraded bubblewrap (0.4.1-2 -> 0.5.0-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire (1:0.3.33-1 -> 1:0.3.34-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded flatpak (1.11.2-1 -> 1.11.3-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-media-session (1:0.3.33-1 -> 1:0.3.34-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugin-pipewire (1:0.3.33-1 -> 1:0.3.34-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded libssh (0.9.5-1 -> 0.9.6-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded libx86emu (3.1-1 -> 3.2-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] upgraded upower (0.99.12-2 -> 0.99.13-1)
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] running '20-systemd-sysusers.hook'...
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload.hook'...
[2021-08-27T19:48:23+0530] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-udev-reload.hook'...
[2021-08-27T19:48:24+0530] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2021-08-27T19:48:24+0530] [ALPM] running 'dbus-reload.hook'...

So, the problem is solved (at least for now) :slight_smile:.

Thank you very much for your help and your time @jonathon.
I also thank @manuel and @ricklinux for spending their precious time helping me.

It could have been this WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. But it also could have been one of the other things also. Glad it’s working for you and you didn’t give up on it.

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In which case wifi on the laptop is working fine.

That’s a lot of changes in one go, which means it’s impossible to know which one was the solution. It’s even possible that someone had cracked the WPA password and was using your wifi, or that just rebooting the router helped. :man_shrugging: