Is there a way to make Linux wireless more reliable?

[Red Squirrel]

One thing I noticed with Linux is wifi SUCKS. The packet loss is through the roof, and the speed is very random. One day it can be good, the next day it can be bad. For example I have this HP probook 6450b laptop at work that I use for surfing the net or what not during night shift, I put Kubuntu on it and the wireless performance is just terrible. Here's an example:

 ping -f 192.168.2.1 -c 10000
PING 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................      
--- 192.168.2.1 ping statistics ---
10000 packets transmitted, 9727 received, 2% packet loss, time 81289ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.500/8.590/3153.076/77.106 ms, pipe 7, ipg/ewma 8.129/3.835 ms

At times it's actually closer to 100 packet loss but even 2% is unacceptable for a local network. It seems to vary a lot. When I'm browsing the internet I tend to have to click links several times before the page loads as often the requests get lost and the page wont load.

Is there any way to make this more stable and consistent? Is this one of those things where I need a proprietary driver? How do I get it? I don't see any option under "additional drivers".

On my phone I get 2609/1612 if I do a speed test but on this laptop in Linux most of the time it wont actually load. If I can manage to get it to load, I get a fraction of a kb both ways.

 

[lxskllr]

Maybe try this?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1953173&highlight=Intel%AE+Centrino%AE+Advanced-N+6200

 

[Red Squirrel]

Found that post while googling but I don't have the intel-6200.conf file. Though is there maybe another place I'm suppose to put that line? I do happen to have that actual controller card.

44:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (rev 35)

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think I may have found something. Ended up adding that line:

options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1

but in /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf instead of the other file it says (which does not exist) to see what happens, rebooted, and it seems good now. Though it's still early to tell, since this problem comes and goes.

 

[smakme7757]

It's all down to the hardware. Some wifi cards are better supported than others. It's a bit hit and miss, but i think it's more the hardware vendors not publishing the code than Linux sucking at wifi.

The Intel Advanced N 6205 is what i use in my laptop and it works really well. The broadcom/atheros junk i had before that was a nightmare.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

What I hated was that the wifi chip in my old Vista HP laptop didn't have a 'free' driver and only 3rd party commercial options were available. As a result, I didn't bother to recycle the laptop (off of Vista and onto LM) and it sits collecting dust.

 

[MrColin]

I've had some luck with installing the package called "linux-firmware." Its a bundle of kernel modules required by some devices that don't come with the main kernel and isn't installed by default in some cases.

if you can get the device name from lspci or lshw and run aptitude search <devicename>, you might find a missing driver that way.

 

[FrankRamiro]

Myself i've been pretty lucky with linux special ubuntu and debian based distros with wireless,i have 3 pcs running wireless and never had issues even an old aple G5 runs good wireless,.
most people that have problems many times the cause is their routers or provider.
I have Verizon 3Gb DSL and i can take all my pcs out in the yard far from my access point and still have good signal,while my Son has Cable and he has hard time to get signal a few yards outside the house,

 

[Red Squirrel]

I know it was to the router since everything else was working fine. The issue only started when I replaced XP with Linux. Though I think that change I made may have fixed it, but it's too early to tell so I'll have to monitor it before I can determine anything. This problem seems to come and go randomly.

 

[FrankRamiro]

I know it was to the router since everything else was working fine. The issue only started when I replaced XP with Linux. Though I think that change I made may have fixed it, but it's too early to tell so I'll have to monitor it before I can determine anything. This problem seems to come and go randomly.

Well the other day i found this E-machines desktop that someone threw out on the side of the street due to a power sup fault, so i brought it home repaired the power sup,and it had wireless card that worked good with xp which i got rid of and installed Xubuntu 14.04 and some time it would be cutting off,now the wireless card had these inputs for antennas,i had a Router in my scrap that had a removal antenna, i put it in one of the inputs and wireless signal became 90%,