Wifi speed seems slow

Thu Jan 29 19:32:41 UTC 2026

For what it's worth, unless the laptop's manufacturer is really mean, you should be able to just swap cards from different vendors. I think I have a spare Intel card (their networking hardware has never failed me) I can give you at the next NCLUG/HS if you attend.

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026, at 12:03 PM, Nick Lang wrote:
> Just want to follow up and confirm what Daniel said. 
> 
> With cheap laptops/desktops, one of the ways they cut costs is by going with cheap, low or under powered wireless cards, bad antenna, or poorly placed antennas.
> 
> I hope Daniels advice proves fruitful for you though! :) 
> 
> n
> 
> 
> Sent with Proton Mail <https://pr.tn/ref/R7V46H25> secure email.
> 
> On Thursday, January 29th, 2026 at 11:39 AM, Daniel Vinci <me at danielvinci.com> wrote:
>> 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
>> 

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