Arch Linux

jneidel

Member

Registered: 2019-08-10

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

SOLVED: It was a hardware issue

lspci -k

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 (rev 78)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265
        Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
        Kernel modules: iwlwifi

iwconfig

wlp3s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"Neidel's Netz"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.26 GHz  Access Point: 44:4E:6D:A4:46:1D   
          Bit Rate=390 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=27/70  Signal level=-83 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:135  Invalid misc:226   Missed beacon:0

dmesg | grep -e wlp3s0 -e wifi

Using Network-Manager and latest Kernel (6.2.1).

Signal is never better than -80. Connection only works in the same room as the router and even there it has a hard time establishing and maintaining the connection.

My Fritzbox is reporting 65 Mbit/s, where other 5 GHz devices are doing >600 Mbit/s.

Last edited by jneidel (2023-03-05 09:49:24)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 38,735

Re: [SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

Connection only works in the same room as the router and even there it has a hard time establishing and maintaining the connection.

No wonder with

Signal is never better than -80.

That's terrible and -83dBm is borderline dead.

Do you get a better signal on 2.4GHz?
What kind of hardware is this? Notebook?
If yes: did you at some point open the case?
If not: did you forget to attach the antennas to the board?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Your xinitrc is broken

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,245

Re: [SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

That has the smell of an antenna selection problem.   Some of what I am going to ask for below will be redundant with what you have already posed.

What are the output of:
iw wlp3s0 station dump
iw phy

Edit:  Although I am finding iwlwifi has no antenna select paramaters.  You might try the suggestions offered here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ss#iwlwifi

Last edited by ewaller (2023-03-04 16:23:51)

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

jneidel

Member

Registered: 2019-08-10

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

Do you get a better signal on 2.4GHz?

I don't know how to test that.

What kind of hardware is this?

A refurbished Thinkpad X270 from ebay, which I did not open.

did you forget to attach the antennas to the board?

I assume laptops wouldn't have/need an antenna.

$ iw wlp3s0 station dump

Station 44:4e:6d:a4:46:1d (on wlp3s0)
	inactive time:	2957 ms
	rx bytes:	13170671
	rx packets:	11620
	tx bytes:	916625
	tx packets:	6954
	tx retries:	6390
	tx failed:	57
	beacon loss:	0
	beacon rx:	3587
	rx drop misc:	71
	signal:  	-88 [-88, -91] dBm
	signal avg:	-86 [-86, -90] dBm
	beacon signal avg:	-87 dBm
	tx bitrate:	390.0 MBit/s VHT-MCS 4 80MHz short GI VHT-NSS 2
	tx duration:	0 us
	rx bitrate:	65.0 MBit/s VHT-MCS 1 80MHz short GI VHT-NSS 1
	rx duration:	0 us
	authorized:	yes
	authenticated:	yes
	associated:	yes
	preamble:	long
	WMM/WME:	yes
	MFP:		no
	TDLS peer:	no
	DTIM period:	1
	beacon interval:100
	short slot time:yes
	connected time:	371 seconds
	associated at [boottime]:	19.097s
	associated at:	1678005540993 ms
	current time:	1678005912121 ms

iw phy

You might try the suggestions offered here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ss#iwlwifi

Did not affect the signal strength.

What making this worse is that my girlfriend has the same machine (same wifi card) running the same Arch setup without problems.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 38,735

Re: [SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

I don't know how to test that.

Connect to some 2.4GHz AP, check the signal.

I assume laptops wouldn't have/need an antenna.

No, that's exclusive the ATX (and similar) boards.

Did not affect the signal strength.

The only parameter there that might actually impact the signal is the bt coexistence - but not on 5GHz (BT is 2.4 GHz)

A refurbished Thinkpad X270 from ebay, which I did not open.

Hardware issue w/ 99% confidence.
They removed or misplaced or miswired the antenna or shielded it otherwise or perhaps it broke (crosses the hinge)
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/soluti … nkpad-x270
Ideally the antenna(s) are just not properly attached to the wifi-card, funmbling w/ the lid is probably nasty

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Your xinitrc is broken

jneidel

Member

Registered: 2019-08-10

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

Hardware issue w/ 99% confidence.

Yeah, that's what I thought. They also stripped some screws so I'll have a hard time doing this myself.

Thanks for the sanity check!

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 38,735

Re: [SOLVED] Bad wifi signal and slow connection

To raise that to 100% you could boot some life distro w/ a different kernel/software stack and check the signal quality there - but I'd not be too hopeful

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Your xinitrc is broken