Really slow wireless internet on ubuntu 11.10

[bjarnovikus]

Hello whoever this reads,

A few days ago I installed Ubuntu 11.10 trough the wubi installer (I didn't feel well to partition my laptop so it seemed to be a good solution). However it seems that my internet connection is terrible slow:



On windows I got a really fast internet connection and it is the same laptop, so the same hardware.

I tried to fix it by googling my problem, but when I rebooted my computer this time, my internet connection was painfull slow (see above) and I lost track of every page.

I don't know where to start, so I'm going to give some basic information:

bjarno@ubuntu: sudo iwconfig
[sudo] password for bjarno:
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"xxxxxxxxxxxxx"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=14 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=44/70  Signal level=-66 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:1947  Invalid misc:335   Missed beacon:0

If I need to enter more information please tell me...

(sorry for any bad English structure, most of the time I'm talking in Dutch )

Thanks,
Bjarnovikus

[wildmanne39]

Hi, please post the results of:

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net

lsmod

here by clicking on new reply and click # and paste the information between the brackets.
Thank you

[bjarnovikus]

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net gives me the following:

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: AzureWave Device [1a3b:1089]
    Kernel driver in use: ath9k
--
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1063] (rev c0)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:1820]
    Kernel driver in use: atl1c

lsmod gives me the following:

Module                  Size  Used by
nls_iso8859_1          12713  2 
nls_cp437              16991  2 
vfat                   17585  2 
fat                    61475  1 vfat
rfcomm                 47946  0 
bnep                   18436  2 
bluetooth             166112  10 rfcomm,bnep
parport_pc             36962  0 
ppdev                  17113  0 
lp                     17799  0 
parport                46562  3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
binfmt_misc            17540  1 
vesafb                 13809  1 
joydev                 17693  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     32040  1 
snd_hda_codec_idt      70553  1 
snd_hda_intel          33390  7 
snd_hda_codec         104802  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              13668  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                96755  5 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
uvcvideo               72711  1 
videodev               93004  2 uvcvideo
v4l2_compat_ioctl32    17083  1 videodev
snd_seq_midi           13324  0 
psmouse                73882  0 
snd_rawmidi            30547  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     14899  1 snd_seq_midi
arc4                   12529  2 
serio_raw              13166  0 
snd_seq                61896  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
ath9k                 127538  0 
fglrx                2929009  276 
mac80211              310872  1 ath9k
ath9k_common           13839  1 ath9k
ath9k_hw              312866  2 ath9k,ath9k_common
ath                    24067  2 ath9k,ath9k_hw
snd_timer              29991  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14540  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
cfg80211              199587  3 ath9k,mac80211,ath
video                  19412  0 
snd                    68266  22 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
asus_laptop            19722  0 
sparse_keymap          13890  1 asus_laptop
mei                    41480  0 
soundcore              12680  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         18529  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
usb_storage            57901  2 
uas                    18027  0 
usbhid                 47198  0 
hid                    95463  1 usbhid
ahci                   26002  1 
libahci                26861  1 ahci
atl1c                  41643  0

[wildmanne39]

Hi, you can try this please:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo rmmod -f ath9k
sudo modprobe ath9k nohwcrypt=1
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Run the commands one at a time and do not restart your computer, if this works we will need to make it permanent.

Also those wireless card's usually do not have good signal strength in linux so try not to get to far from your router.
Thank you

[bjarnovikus]

root@ubuntu:~# ifconfig wlan0 down
root@ubuntu:~# rmmod -f ath9k
root@ubuntu:~# sudo modprobe ath9k nohwcrypt=1
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/bad_list, it will be ignored in a future release.
root@ubuntu:~# ifconfig wlan0 up
root@ubuntu:~#

Executed the commands above and this was the result (one warning, is this a problem?). (I executed "sudo -s" for a root ).

It worked, now my connection speed is A LOT faster.



But what precisily did these commands do, I understand the first one and the last one but the other two are one mystery for me.

How to make this permanent?

[wildmanne39]

Hi, it added a parameter to your driver which switched encryption from hardware to software.

Let's make it permanent:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

Add a single line:

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

Proofread carefully, save and close gedit then Reboot.

Would you please go to the top of the page and mark this thread solved by clicking on thread tools. Thank you so much.

[sparticus2311]

Helped me out too, thanks!

[wildmanne39]

Hi, your welcome!
Enjoy

[Hausi]

Hi, could this be a bug? I have the same situation in 2 laptops. One has an Intel WiFi Link 1000 and the other one an Intel 3945. Unloading/loading the module gives me something like factor 10 of improvement.
Q: can I use this solution (hwcrypt) for the Intel HW too?
thanks _Hans

[konstant100]

Hi, it added a parameter to your driver which switched encryption from hardware to software.

Let's make it permanent:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

Add a single line:

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

Proofread carefully, save and close gedit then Reboot.

Would you please go to the top of the page and mark this thread solved by clicking on thread tools. Thank you so much.

Hi guys,
I so hoped it would help me too, but my Terminal said it can not find ath9k file/directory on my Sony Vaio VGN-FW180D, when i wanted to apply wildmanne39's code. Could you please help me with this one. I am just new to Ubuntu. It is my first day. Many thanks in advance.