Arch Linux

nordmoen

Member

Registered: 2010-09-25

Posts: 37

[Solved] Slow wireless connection with NetworkManager

I have just installed Arch for the first time so if this is a really simple problem please be patient with me.

So the problem is that the wireless connection seem slow with NetworkManager, when testing with a local site I get about 1/3 of my total speed(which I get in openSuse or Ubuntu) and when I run a torrent program even googling takes several minutes. When I installed Arch I only had wireless working, and configured it manually with iwconfig, when downloading KDE from a local mirror I got the speeds I'm supposed to be getting, but after I installed NetworkManager the speed seem to have dropped, even as far as when I ping my router it can use several 100 milliseconds when using Ktorrent.

My rc.conf looks like this:

#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
#eth0="dhcp"
#wlan0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0 !wlan0)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)

# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng hal dbus network networkmanager netfs crond alsa)

Any pointers to where the problem could occur?

Last edited by nordmoen (2010-09-26 17:18:19)

Sakura

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] Slow wireless connection with NetworkManager

Check your /etc/resolv.conf to see if it has been modified by networkmanager. Sometimes, networkmanager will pick name servers for you. If your resolv.conf has been generated by networkmanager, this could very well explain your slow speeds. After seeing to this, install namebench from the AUR, and run it. It will take a good 5 minutes to complete and it will generate a nice report for you, telling you what name servers you should be using.

When you're done, post the output of,

less /etc/resolv.conf

and

namebench

.
Alternatively, if you're having trouble making heads or tails from the report, attach that too. After namebench is done running, it will list where it stored the report (it's an html file).

Last edited by Sakura (2010-09-26 02:35:42)

nordmoen

Member

Registered: 2010-09-25

Posts: 37

Re: [Solved] Slow wireless connection with NetworkManager

Thanks for the fast response. It seems this wasn't Arch fault, we have had some problems on the local network which coincided with me installing Arch. But namebench did give me a suggestion which should be 30% faster than the default 192.168.2.1, how do I add it to resolv.conf when networkmanager overwrites it?

skunktrader

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-02-14

Posts: 1,543

Re: [Solved] Slow wireless connection with NetworkManager

Try putting it in /etc/resolv.conf.head

Sakura

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 20

Re: [Solved] Slow wireless connection with NetworkManager

But namebench did give me a suggestion which should be 30% faster than the default 192.168.2.1, how do I add it to resolv.conf when networkmanager overwrites it?

If you're having problems with your network, wait until everything is resolved before changing anything. Then, test using namebench again. Networkmanager is going to be overwriting your /etc/resolv.conf, so look at this thread for how to fix that.

As for adding name servers, everything you need to know is covered here.