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I'm running Ubuntu 22.04 and Windows 7 on a laptop and the wireless performance is about 7-10x better on Windows, measuring using an internet speed test. There's no problem with the internet connection, since I measure it directly over wire using a Raspberry Pi. The WiFi access point (router) is 2.4 GHz 802.11n only.

Wired, Laptop and Raspberry Pi
  • 95 Mbit/s consistently, up and down
Wireless, Laptop, Ubuntu (typical)
  • Download: 3,272 Mbit/s
  • Upload: 1,024 Mbit/s

Sometimes, spuriously, it can reach around 13 Mbit/s.

Wireless, Laptop, Windows
  • Download: ~26 to 42 Mbit/s
  • Upload: ~29 to 35 Mbit/s

It doesn't matter if the laptop is right next to the access point or a few meters away -- same result in both OSes.

Conclusion:

It's not the internet connection -- it's stable. It's not the access point -- other devices perform well with it (iPhone 8, Macbook Air) and the same device also performs well in Windows 7. Then it must be Ubuntu in combination with this Wifi card.

I followed a suggestion in another question about how to determine a good MTU, but couldn't conclude anything other than the currently used 1500 was correct.

Is there a way to fix this or is Ubuntu simply not suitable for this machine?

  *-network                 
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0
       version: 01
       serial: 94:db:c9:af:a1:7d
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=5.15.0-27-generic firmware=N/A ip=172.20.10.3 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:17 memory:f7d00000-f7d7ffff memory:f7d80000-f7d8ffff
Andreas
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  • Your numbers seem to indicate that Ubuntu performs better (Ubuntu 3,272 Mbit/s > Windows 42 Mbit/s) ? – Enterprise May 13 '22 at 03:32
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    @Enterprise Andreas is probably in a country where ',' is used as a decimal marker instead of '.' So in the US, we'd say he's getting 3.272 Mbit/s. – KBurchfiel Jun 16 '23 at 13:44

1 Answers1

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Updating the kernel seems to have solved the issue. Speeds are now 10x faster and on par with Windows.

Updating from 5.15.0-33 to 5.15.0-35 as part of regular Ubuntu updates seems to have fixed the issue.

There are three mentions of ath9k on https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/5.15.0-35.36+22.10.1, but I'm unsure how related those items are to the problem.

Andreas
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  • I am happy that you found a solution. Please edit the answer and be a little more specific. Was the kernel update part of the regular Ubuntu updates? If not, how did you update the kernel? Which version worked? – user68186 Jun 14 '22 at 22:02
  • @user68186 Good idea. I'll add that. – Andreas Jun 14 '22 at 22:04
  • Don't forget to accept your answer with a green check mark ✅. This will help others. – user68186 Jun 18 '22 at 20:39