Ubuntu 20.04 - Wifi keeps disconnecting

[nemethda]

Hello everyone!

Few months ago when I bought my new laptop (Acer Nitro AN515-43-R40X) I decided to install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on it. So I'm a Linux novice

At the beginning I didn't have any network/WiFi issues, then roughly a month ago my WiFi connection started to drop. The connection is always up and working when I start the laptop but after few minutes of surfing the net, it gets disconnected. It happens almost instantly if I start to download something. Turning the wifi off and on from the GUI or issuing

sudo service network-manager restart

does always the trick to go back online. And then I get disconnected again.. Also, the issue is only with the WiFi, the net is stable using Ethernet cable.

I've tried few suggestions like, changing the powersafe to 2 (in /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf) and the suggestion to send ARP requests by a cron job, mentioned here https://askubuntu.com/questions/1230...reless-adaptor. Nothing helped so far.

I've run the wireless-info script mentioned here in the forum, let me attach the result of it.*

Could you please help me with this issue? Many thank in advance!
Daniel


*For some reason the pastebin thing didn't work for me: it seems to me that

ping -nc 3 -w 6 -i 0.2 paste.ubuntu.com

produces bad timing interval error for me.

[jeremy31]

Can you change the encryption on the router to WPA2 AES only without TKIP?

[nemethda]

Thanks so much for the response! Yes, I think I've just managed to do that: WPA2-PSK is the one, correct? It comes up as encryption:AES after the change. Let me try if the issue goes away!

[nemethda]

Unfortunately the issue still exists. After few minutes I get "the site cannot be reached" followed by "No Internet" in the browser. Annoyingly in the top right corner the WiFi signs show that I'm connected and as per the Wi-Fi settings my signal strength is "Good".

[tlee]

I came across this thread because I was having a similar issue. Attempting jeremy31's suggestion, I looked into my router's encryption settings and saw three options: none, WPA2-PSK, and WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. (I didn't see anything about AES or TKIP.) The second one was checked, so on a whim, I switched it to the third one: WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. And so far, this has been working for me. It's been a couple hours and the connection hasn't dropped.

FWIW my router is a Netgear, and I'm running 20.04 on an old Macbook Air with a Broadcom BCM43224. The connection problem started for me yesterday, possibly the day before, I think after a kernel upgrade (to 5.4.0-52).

Hope this helps--

[nemethda]

Thanks, but for me it was originally WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK and then I changed it to WPA2-PSK as per jeremy31's suggestion - but the issue still persists.

With regards to AES vs TKIP: these are encryption types and as far as I know WPA2-PSK with AES encryption is more secure (and faster) and should be preferred over WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK which probably uses TKIP + AES encryption (WPA2-PSK is mandated to use AES but WPA-TSK is not).

[saaim]

Hi Im having the same issue did you solve it somehow?

[chili555]

Your wireless may be dropping because of power management; that is, the feature where the card partially powers down to save battery power during periods of inactivity and then, ideally, powers back up seamlessly when activity resumes. Let's disable pwer saving to see if it helps. From the terminal:

sudo sed -i 's/3/2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/*

Your wireless may be dropping because the channel to which it was connected has suddnely changed.

Please 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 recommend 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.

Your wireless may be dropping because there are two wireless access points with the same name and password. This is typical when you have a 2.4 gHz segment and a 5 gHz segment of the same router. Your wireless may be roaming, looking for a better connection. If this is the case, I suggest that you rename the access points; something like myrouter2.4 and myrouter5.

After making these changes, 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:

sudo nano /etc/default/crda

Change the last line to read:

REGDOMAIN=IS

Proofread carefully, save and close the text editor.

Is there any improvement?

[valbux]

I have the same issue, I followed chilli555's suggestions; will let you know if it works.

[nemethda]

Thanks for the suggestions chili555! Unfortunately I've tried all those things and the situation didn't get better at all.. After browsing the net for days I'm thinking the problem is with my wifi driver - I have a Qualcomm QCA6174 wifi chip and this type of problem seem to be recurring for a lot of users. I posted into this thread too: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2446430.

I've tried to install new firmware to fix (https://askubuntu.com/questions/8704...reless-network) but I wasn't sure which files to rename and gave it up at some point. I feel hopeless at this point, but I'll try to look into this again. In the meantime if you have any other suggesstions that would be much appreciated!!

Thanks a lot!