Wifi speed seems slow

[Daniel Vinci]

What WiFi card does bob have? 

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026, at 10:36 AM, Bill Thorson wrote:
> NCLUGers,
> 
> I am trying to see why my laptop network speed seems slow and get ideas for if/how I can fix it.  These are a couple test I ran on the same network with my desktop and laptop right next to each other and WIFI'ed to the same router connected to Fort Collins Connexion.
> 
> I don't buy expensive boxes so this is what I have.
> 
> Desktop named "klr" - 3+ years
>    Zotac Zbox CI329 Nano <https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/zbox-ci338-nano-windows> (~$300)
>    Debian Mate GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
> 
> Laptop named "bob" - 1 month
>    Amazon.com: TRHRO 14 Inch Traditional Laptop <https://www.amazon.com/TRHRO-Inch-Traditional-Laptop-Computers/dp/B0FVL485QG> ($230)
>    Debian Mate GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
> 
> Here's a speed test from www.speedtest.com
>> 
> And here is a couple simple ping tests:
>     Desktop:
>> bill at klr:~$ ping -c 10 google.com
>> PING google.com (142.251.46.142) 56(84) bytes of data.
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=7.23 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=9.36 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=7.26 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=10.2 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=5 ttl=117 time=10.8 ms
>> 64 bytes from ncdena-aa-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=6 ttl=117 time=8.35 ms
>> 64 bytes from ncdena-aa-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=7 ttl=117 time=9.22 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=8 ttl=117 time=6.79 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=9 ttl=117 time=8.16 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=10 ttl=117 time=9.70 ms
>> 
>> --- google.com ping statistics ---
>> 10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9013ms
>> rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.794/8.713/10.820/1.297 ms
>> bill at klr:~$ 
>     Laptop:
>> bill at bob:~$ ping -c 10 google.com
>> PING google.com (142.251.46.142) 56(84) bytes of data.
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=9.16 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=5.83 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=427 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=73.7 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=5 ttl=117 time=677 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=6 ttl=117 time=221 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=7 ttl=117 time=312 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=8 ttl=117 time=164 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=9 ttl=117 time=360 ms
>> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142): icmp_seq=10 ttl=117 time=210 ms
>> 
>> --- google.com ping statistics ---
>> 10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9013ms
>> rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 5.832/245.939/676.631/196.908 ms
>> bill at bob:~$ 
> Any idea on how to speed up my very nice and cheap laptop?
> 
> Bill
> Only Linux on my desktops/laptops since 1992 starting with SLS <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System>

Daniel Vinci
em: me at danielvinci.com
mx: @xylobol:amber.tel
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