Extremely slow and unstable WiFi connection using TP-Link TL W727N

Question

The TP-Link TL W727N(V3) WiFi adapter works extremely slow while using Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04. I always see a weak connection, and it tends to get disconnected at times. I have a dual booted Windows 10 on my PC, but the adapter works perfectly fine there. I have turned the power management for this adapter, but that did not seem to help much. Those problems still persist. Please suggest me what to do.

Here is the dump for iwconfig-

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Riad Rezaul Wi-FI"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: EC:08:6B:30:53:62   
          Bit Rate=60 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=29/70  Signal level=-81 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:443  Invalid misc:804   Missed beacon:0

And the dump for sudo lshw -C network-

*-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 2
       bus info: usb@2:1.1
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 90:f6:52:0d:bd:84
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800usb driverversion=3.13.0-106-generic firmware=0.29 ip=192.168.0.105 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

Answer 1

Searching for the message in your log:

rt2800usb_txdone: Warning - Got TX status for an empty queue 2, dropping

...returns many hits and no real solution. I suggest that you check the settings in the router. WPA2-AES is preferred; not any WPA and WPA2 mixed mode and certainly not TKIP. Second, if your router is capable of N speeds, you may have better connectivity with a channel width of 20 MHz in the 2.4 GHz band instead of automatic 20/40 MHz, although it is likely to affect N speeds. I also have better luck with a fixed channel, either 1, 6 or 11, rather than automatic channel selection. Also, be certain the router is not set to use N speeds only; auto B, G and N is preferred. After making these changes, reboot the router. In many cases, rt2800xx devices seem to work much better with the router set to B and G speeds only. After trying these changes, in each case, reboot the router.

Next, I recommend that your regulatory domain be set explicitly. Check yours:

sudo iw reg get

If you get 00, that is a one-size-maybe-fits-all setting. Find yours here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2 Then set it temporarily:

sudo iw reg set IS

Of course, substitute your country code if not Iceland. Set it permanently:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/crda

Use nano or kate or leafpad if you don't have the text editor gedit.

Change the last line to read:

REGDOMAIN=IS

Proofread carefully, save and close the text editor.

Next, I'd set IPv6 to Ignore in Network Manager: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/Installation_Guide/images/netconfig/network-connections-ipv6-ignore.png This example is for ethernet, but you want wireless.

If these changes do not help, please try:

sudo modprobe -r rt2800usb
sudo modprobe rt2800usb nohwcrypt=Y

If it helps, make it permanent:

sudo -i
echo "options rt2800usb nohwcrypt=Y"  >>  /etc/modprobe.d/rt2800usb.conf
exit