Arch Linux

LauJensen

Member

Registered: 2010-06-01

Posts: 4

Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

Hi all,

First time writer.

I've recently purchased a new laptop: Lenovo G550, Intel Wireless 5100AGN. On it I first installed Ubuntu 10.04 along side Windows 7 and immediately I noticed that while Windows on average upholds a download speed of 435 kb/s Ubuntu would only pull about 80kb/s through the wire. I tested on another laptop and sure enough the speed was 435 kb/s there as well. I installed Arch instead of Ubuntu and installed the this firmware:

core/iwlwifi-5000-ucode 8.24.2.12-2
    Intel wireless firmware for Intel's 5100BG, 5100ABG, 5100AGN, 5300AGN and 5350AGN wireless devices

But the speed was still slow. I tried enabling the testing-repo and updated everything incl. the kernel, but the speed remains painfully slow.

Its an open unencrypted network which I connect to using netcfg and this simple profile:
CONNECTION='wireless'
DESCRIPTION='Home'
INTERFACE='wlan0'
SECURITY='none'
ESSID='wireless'
IP='dhcp'

I've spent several days trying to sort out this issue and have no more tricks up my sleeve, help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Lau

1LordAnubis

Member

Registered: 2008-10-10

Posts: 253

Website

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

I'm not sure what to do here, but have you tried a different router, can you turn off qos on your router?

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Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
-Benjamin Franklin
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw

LauJensen

Member

Registered: 2010-06-01

Posts: 4

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

I'm not sure what to do here, but have you tried a different router, can you turn off qos on your router?

At present I dont have another Wireless router to try, but I couldn't understand how it could be the router since the speed is normal both on Windows (meaning the hardware is OK on the laptop) and on another laptop running Ubuntu 9.04 (meaning the router is ok?).

ks1

Member

From: Atlanta, Georgia

Registered: 2006-03-26

Posts: 62

Website

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

It could be ipv6 giving you problems.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IPv … the_Module

LauJensen

Member

Registered: 2010-06-01

Posts: 4

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

It could be ipv6 giving you problems.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IPv … the_Module

I already disabled ipv6, but as I understood that only gives problems in the dns lookup phase. My problem is from boot to shutdown, an entire download will run at 80 kb/s.

But thanks for the suggestion - Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!

LauJensen

Member

Registered: 2010-06-01

Posts: 4

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

I've narrowed it down to signal strength. From the same physical location, these are my benchmarks

Windows: Strength: 28%, Ping: 10ms, Dl: 435kb/s
Linux:       Strength:   8%, Ping: 22ms, Dl:   75kb/s.

So the Linux 5100AGN driver is seemingly not using the card correctly, since Windows gets 350% more signal out of it from the same location - And in both instances I've measured the strength from the routers interface.

Where do I go from here? Is there some proprietary driver I can use?

Staerseus

Member

From: Prague

Registered: 2009-11-07

Posts: 109

Website

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

Wov... It is weird.. I have also 5100AGN a it works for me, sometimes it drops the connection, but I it think it is because the weather and distance....

There is no proprietary driver for Intel wireless cards

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Thanks for the GNU/Linux. EDIT:Thanks for the GNU/Linux, Linux guru, for the manuals and wikis.

klama

Member

Registered: 2009-01-16

Posts: 2

Re: Wireless slow in Arch2010.05/Ubuntu10.04 but fast in Windows 7

I have also 5100agn, ipv6 disabled.
G mode - 30mbps - download speed
N mode   < 10 mbps download speed, 40mbps upload. I don't know how fix this N mode is very slow.

Under winXP - G same, N ~ 80mbps

You can try add

options iwlagn 11n_disable=0 11n_disable50=1

to modprobe.conf, it's ugly solution

Last edited by klama (2010-07-01 19:22:17)