poor wifi connection

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:40 am

I built a new PC last year and am using Mint as my OS. I have an MSI Z370 motherboard with Wifi built in.

I was previously using 18.3 and updated to 19.1 last week.

The Wifi is always poor and flaky. Is there anything I can do to make it stable? I had the same problem on 18.3 and just kind of lived with it but it seems to be worse on 19.1.

I have a NAS connected to my router downstairs and move files to it. Sometimes the transfer will be 9-10Mbs, other times it will drop to 2-3Mbps and sometimes below 1Mbps and just disconnects.

I get a lot of packet loss to the router as well.There are numerous other Windoes and Android devices connected to the Wifi without any problems.

Is there anything I can do to improve the Wifi? It's practically unusable at the moment.

As an example I just did a ping directly to my router and am getting 24% packet loss:

273 packets transmitted, 205 received, 24% packet loss, time 280475ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.658/1178.637/10549.471/2192.823 ms, pipe 11

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mash@cantona ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: cantona Kernel: 4.15.0-43-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.0.9 
           Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: Z370M GAMING PRO AC (MS-7B44) v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.60 date: 11/19/2018 
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i5-8400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Kaby Lake rev: A L2 cache: 9216 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 33696 
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1356 2: 1343 3: 1235 4: 1023 5: 1236 6: 1429 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics (Coffeelake 3x8 GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           Device-2: Logitech ClearChat Pro USB type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 1-5:2 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-43-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f040 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
           IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-2: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-3: virbr0-nic state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 101.85 GiB (43.7%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 960 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 212.93 GiB used: 101.51 GiB (47.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 
           ID-2: /boot size: 471.6 MiB used: 349.3 MiB (74.1%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 15.91 GiB used: 768 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0 C mobo: 29.8 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 288 Uptime: 1d 23h 20m Memory: 15.54 GiB used: 3.76 GiB (24.2%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 7.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.19 inxi: 3.0.27

Pjotr · Post by **Pjotr** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:22 am

Try this:

Update Manager - panel: View - Linux kernels

Install the latest kernel from the 4.18 series. Then reboot.

If that doesn't help (enough), please post the output of:

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iwconfig

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:50 am

thanks for the reply.

I have installed the latest Kernel

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Linux cantona 4.18.0-13-generic #14~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 6 14:09:52 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I will see how it goes with this for the next few days and report back.

output of iwconfig is below in case there is something obvious there.

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mash@cantona ~ $ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

virbr0    no wireless extensions.

virbr0-nic  no wireless extensions.

eno1      no wireless extensions.

wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"BTHub6-392F"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.18 GHz  Access Point: F4:6B:EF:1B:D0:C5   
          Bit Rate=433.3 Mb/s   Tx-Power=22 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=49/70  Signal level=-61 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:103   Missed beacon:0

docker0   no wireless extensions.

lordmax · Post by **lordmax** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:55 am

Hi,

if the signal is weak there's little you can do.

I suggest a wifi antenna for your pc
something like these:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i ... 9A97612DJL

Pjotr · Post by **Pjotr** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:59 am

Disable power management for your Wifi chipset, like this:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... html#ID2.1
(item 2.1)

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:00 pm

lordmax wrote: ⤴Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:55 am Hi,

if the signal is weak there's little you can do.

I suggest a wifi antenna for your pc
something like these:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i ... 9A97612DJL

I'm using other devices including a windows laptop in the same room. If I run speedtests they are fine.

It's only the Linux Desktop that has wifi issues.

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:05 pm

Pjotr wrote: ⤴Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:59 am Disable power management for your Wifi chipset, like this:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... html#ID2.1
(item 2.1)

Done:

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wlp2s0    IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"BTHub6-392F"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.18 GHz  Access Point: F4:6B:EF:1B:D0:C5   
          Bit Rate=780 Mb/s   Tx-Power=22 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=47/70  Signal level=-63 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:56   Missed beacon:0

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:06 pm

I will report back on how it goes from here.

Changes made so far:

Updated Kernel to 4.18
Turned off Wifi Power Management

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:16 am

been a week now and I've been keeping an eye on it, doing regular speed tests. Seems rock solid now.

Thanks for the pointers

AZgl1800 · Post by **AZgl1800** » Sun Feb 03, 2019 10:40 am

May I interject a thought here?

My laptop has disconnect problems occasionally.

Of late, I have tracked this down to "times of the day"....
If I am the only WiFi user thru the day, my laptop stays connected.

Later, when other users get active and join the WiFi crowd, my laptop tends to get lost, and I have to reset the WiFi manager again and again. ( 3 laptops, 1 SmartTV, 1 DISH Hopper, 2 Dish Joey receivers )

I have applied all the suggested remedies, nothing works permanently.

Trying to analyze this, I have decided that the biggest problem is a 10-15 year old Buffalo WiFi router that only supports 2g. I highly suspect that it does not handle multiple connects well at all. I also have a WiFi analyzer app that monitors the Field Strength of a specified WiFi router channel..... the Power Level jumps occasionally from -90dBm to -40dBm, and then settles back to -90dBm... it repeats that action forever.

I have just now, purchased a new Netgear WiFi router online that specifies that it has 16 different radios so that it can handle multiple devices simultaneously without dropouts.

When the local Best Buy store opens at 10:00 a.m., I will be there to get that new WiFi router.

I fully suspect that will end my problems.

Might your problem also be the WiFi router?

tmg · Post by **tmg** » Mon Feb 04, 2019 2:53 pm

No I don't think so, we have a BT Home hub router, it's pretty solid. There's only the two of us that live here right now so only two phones, 1 laptop and 1 desktop and a couple more gadgets. Nothing else has problems.

Since I made the listed changes my connection has been solid since with no issues so far but I'm keeping an eye on it.

Alhough the connection quality never goes above around 58%

AZgl1800 · Post by **AZgl1800** » Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:41 am

As a Follow up, on my particular WiFi dropout problem.

the brand new Netgear AC1000 Nighthawk cured the problem 100%
I have not had a single dropout now since installing it about 3 pm Sunday, and this is now 6 a.m. Monday morning.

The old WiFi router is a Buffalo that is now 15 years old, forget the model number, irrelevant anyway.... it only has one RF transceiver that was having to service the TV, the Dish Hopper, 3 laptops and 2 cellphones and 2 Android tablets plus an Arlo video camera system.
I think it was just grossly overloaded.

the new router has 16 radios, each assigned to one device as it logs on.

also, the Buffalo only operated on Ch 11, and there are 2 other WiFi signals near me on ch 11.
I assigned the Netgear to channel 6

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