Wifi speed seems slow

[Nick Lang]

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
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