WiFi speed on 'Active Network Connections' bouncing between 1Mb/s and 54Mb/s, with Bodhi 5.0
 

I have installed Bodhi 5.0.0 on my netbook (see signature line) and the WiFi is behaving quite differently than on my previous 3.x installation.

However, a direct comparison is difficult, because the older Bodhi version was on a model 701SD, and this has a different brand of WiFi card and of course, that would mean a different driver.

On the older Bodhi on the 701SD, once the WiFi connection is made, the speed 'snaps' right up to 54Mb/s, and stays there. On the 701, with Bodhi 5.0, when I first check, the speed is 1Mb/s! Strangely, during loading a web page (any browser) the speed usually 'jumps up to' 54Mb/s (the normal speed that I've always seen).

When I check again, the speed may be somewhere in between these two extremes, perhaps 18Mb/s. Then, often after a period of decreased network-load traffic, I may see it again back at 1Mb/s. Sometimes it seems to vary for no reason at all, as far as I can see.
? Is this considered normal behavior? Any other information needed?

What should I do to troubleshoot it, or get the speed to stay at the maximum? Web pages sometimes freeze partly-loaded, and I'm suspecting the speed drop could be causing this.

Incidentally, my USB WiFi adapter, when plugged into the same 701 shows a normal and steady 54Mb/s connection speed. Also, the 701's WiFi card was removed and re-socketed, after using contact cleaner on the contact fingers and the antenna terminals.

One of my thoughts was to try an older driver, but is this even possible? I understand the ath5k driver is 'baked into' the kernel (on Bodhi 5.0 Legacy, the kernel version is 4.9.0-6-686).

Hi RonCam.

I had a similar (but not exactly the same) issue when I installed Manjaro on my wife's 2008 MacBook. The WiFi was connecting and then disconnecting, then reconnecting, and so on.

I pinned this down to the fact that my WiFi router was set up to provide networks on two different frequencies, with identical SSID and password on each frequency, but unfortunately the card in the MacBook could only connect to the 2.4 GHz network. The system was bouncing between the two networks, attempting to get the best connection, but each time is switched to the 5 Gig frequency, the connection dropped.

This might be similar to what's happening to you. Your card might be being switched between two frequencies offered by your router.

I solved it by going into the router control panel and separating the 2.4 and 5 gig networks from each other; giving each one a different name and password. I could then select just the 2.4 frequency and the connection has been rock solid. I later discovered that I didn't need to split the networks; I could have just double-clicked on the WiFi device and selected the 2.4 frequency from the dialog window. However, I haven't reverted the router, since in some ways it's handy to be able to specify which frequency network I want to connect any device.

So, I think it would be worth playing with your WiFi cards settings, and in particular just choosing one frequency and seeing if that helps.

huh, never knew that was possible. thanks.

I didn't know it was possible either, until I bumped up against the issue.

Thanks for the tip for a possible cause
 

Hi bobl01
Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly double-check my wireless router settings, for this possibility.

Another thing that crossed my mind was, I wonder if the speed indication in the Active Network Connections window accurately reflects what's actually happening? Or, does the driver 'throttle' the card's speed, when it senses a deceased load?

Never heard of this before.

What I'm doing now is to find some other (not Bodhi) 'live' OS's that I can load for testing purposes, to see if the speed bounces up and down with them, too. But, there's never been a disconnect, although the speed sometimes has dropped to as low as 1 Mb/s.

Thanks for the tip for a possible cause
 

Hi bobl01
Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly double-check my wireless router settings, for this possibility.

Another thing that crossed my mind was, I wonder if the speed indication in the Active Network Connections window accurately reflects what's actually happening? Or, does the driver 'throttle' the card's speed, when it senses a deceased load?

Never heard of this before.

What I'm doing now is to find some other (not Bodhi) 'live' OS's that I can load for testing purposes, to see if the speed bounces up and down with them, too. But, there's never been a disconnect, although the speed sometimes has dropped to as low as 1 Mb/s.

I give up ...
 

It's either some undocumented interaction between the driver and this particular card, or a defective card.

I tested by running Parted Magic on the netbook, and the connection speed goes up-and-down in the same manner. I tested using this utility both with the original wireless router, and then with another. With both, the speed remains steady on the other ASUS netbook, the 701SD -- which is also running Bodhi but has a different brand of card, and is about a year newer than the 701.

Results from internet speed tests on the 701 are not so bad, surprisingly, in spite of the strange numbers the connection speed shows. That I can't figure out.

The next step could be to replace the wireless card but this is a 32-bit machine and I see the time when a diminished selection of operating systems and software will become the limiting factor in the life of the hardware. I had to drop Opera already, when they stopped 32-bit support for their browser updates.

Unless there are any other ideas, I suppose I'll have to put up with it until I find a replacement netbook of similar dimensions and portability.