<div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Just want to follow up and confirm what Daniel said. <br><br>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.<br><br>I hope Daniels advice proves fruitful for you though! :) </div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">n</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div>
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On Thursday, January 29th, 2026 at 11:39 AM, Daniel Vinci <me@danielvinci.com> wrote:<br>
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<div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>If both of the cards are on M.2s, try swapping between systems as an experiment. </div><div><br></div><div>On Thu, Jan 29, 2026, at 11:25 AM, Bill Thorson wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt" style=""><div class="qt-moz-cite-prefix">On 1/29/26 10:48, Daniel Vinci wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div>What WiFi card does bob have? </div></blockquote><div><span class="font" style="font-family:monospace;">klr:<br> 00:0c.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCH
CNVi WiFi (rev 03)<br> Subsystem: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCH CNVi WiFi<br> Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi<br> Kernel modules: iwlwifi<br> <br> bob:<br> 01:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter<br> Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE
802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter<br> Kernel driver in use: rtw_8821ce<br> Kernel modules: rtw88_8821ce<br><br></span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><br></div><div>On Thu, Jan 29, 2026, at 10:36 AM, Bill Thorson wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt-qt" style=""><div>NCLUGers,</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>I don't buy expensive boxes so this is what I have.</div><div><br></div><div>Desktop named "klr" - 3+ years</div><div> <a href="https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/zbox-ci338-nano-windows" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">Zotac Zbox CI329 Nano</a> (~$300)</div><div> Debian Mate GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)</div><div><br></div><div>Laptop named "bob" - 1 month</div><div> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/TRHRO-Inch-Traditional-Laptop-Computers/dp/B0FVL485QG" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">Amazon.com: TRHRO 14 Inch Traditional
Laptop</a> ($230)</div><div> Debian Mate GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)</div><div><br></div><div>Here's a speed test from <a class="qt-qt-moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.speedtest.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">www.speedtest.com</a></div><blockquote><img alt="" width="741" height="645" class="qt- proton-embedded" id="imageSelected0" src="cid:part1.avpWPO8c.sl3uVFng@tstorms.com"><br></blockquote><div>And here is a couple simple ping tests:</div><div> Desktop:</div><blockquote><span class="font" style="font-family:monospace;">bill@klr:~$
ping -c 10 google.com<br> PING google.com (142.251.46.142) 56(84) bytes of data.<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=7.23 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=9.36 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=7.26 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=10.2 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=5 ttl=117 time=10.8 ms<br> 64 bytes from ncdena-aa-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=6 ttl=117 time=8.35 ms<br> 64 bytes from ncdena-aa-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=7 ttl=117 time=9.22 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=8 ttl=117 time=6.79 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=9 ttl=117 time=8.16 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=10 ttl=117 time=9.70 ms<br> <br> --- google.com ping statistics ---<br> 10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time
9013ms<br> rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.794/8.713/10.820/1.297 ms<br> bill@klr:~$ </span></blockquote><div> Laptop:</div><blockquote><span class="font" style="font-family:monospace;">bill@bob:~$
ping -c 10 google.com<br> PING google.com (142.251.46.142) 56(84) bytes of data.<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=9.16 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=5.83 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=427 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=73.7 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=5 ttl=117 time=677 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=6 ttl=117 time=221 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=7 ttl=117 time=312 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=8 ttl=117 time=164 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=9 ttl=117 time=360 ms<br> 64 bytes from dfw28s35-in-f14.1e100.net (142.251.46.142):
icmp_seq=10 ttl=117 time=210 ms<br> <br> --- google.com ping statistics ---<br> 10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time
9013ms<br> rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 5.832/245.939/676.631/196.908 ms<br> bill@bob:~$ </span></blockquote><div>Any idea on how to speed up my very nice and cheap laptop?</div><div><br></div><div>Bill</div><div>Only Linux on my desktops/laptops since 1992 starting with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">SLS</a></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div id="qt-sig151485415"><div class="qt-signature">Daniel Vinci</div><div class="qt-signature">em: <a href="mailto:me@danielvinci.com" class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">me@danielvinci.com</a></div><div class="qt-signature">mx: @xylobol:amber.tel</div></div><div><br></div></blockquote></blockquote><div><br></div><div id="sig151485415"><div class="signature">Daniel Vinci</div><div class="signature">em: <a href="mailto:me@danielvinci.com" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">me@danielvinci.com</a></div><div class="signature">mx: @xylobol:amber.tel</div></div><div><br></div>
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