Wifi speed seems slow

Thu Jan 29 18:38:56 UTC 2026

Realtek cards tend to be like that, and that's not a particularly capable one of their cards. You may want to experiment with the card's power management/savings settings. Because the card is only 802.11ac, it might be falling back to 2.4ghz. Not sure how to check that on your particular setup. 

If both of the cards are on M.2s, try swapping between systems as an experiment. 

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026, at 11:25 AM, Bill Thorson wrote:
> On 1/29/26 10:48, Daniel Vinci wrote:
>> What WiFi card does bob have? 
> klr:
>    00:0c.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCH CNVi WiFi (rev 03)
>       Subsystem: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCH CNVi WiFi
>       Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
>       Kernel modules: iwlwifi
> 
> bob:
>    01:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
>       Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
>       Kernel driver in use: rtw_8821ce
>       Kernel modules: rtw88_8821ce
> 
>> 
>> 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
>> 

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