Poor Wireless Reception (Ubuntu 11.10)

x360539 · 01-23-2012, 03:45 PM

Hello,

I recently purchased a Lenovo W520, which came with Windows 7 installed, and I created a dual-boot system with Ubuntu 11.10.

The Lenovo W520 wireless card is a Real Tek 8188ce.

I have great wireless reception in Windows 7. However, the reception in Ubuntu is very poor, basically unusable. The Unity/Gnome wireless reception icon shows the reception strength at two of the little waves, which means things load very, very slowly or not at all because the browser times out.

As a result, I'm forced to use Windows 7, which makes me rather unhappy.

Thinking that maybe Ubuntu didn't have the latest driver, since this is a new computer, I downloaded the latest Real Tek driver for Linux from Real Tek and installed it. I make sure Ubuntu was seeing the new driver, but it made no difference.

I would think that maybe this Real Tek card is just crap, but it works great in Windows.

Any ideas? Anyone else had this issue?

I've searched around, but I can't find anyone who has quite this same problem.

Thanks.

Didier Spaier · 01-23-2012, 04:39 PM

Hello,

I would first check the signal level with following command (e.g.)

Code:

iwlist wlan0 scan

in my case, wireless interface's name is wlan0.

To check its name you can use the "iwconfig" command.

All that has to be done as root, so type "sudo " before as you use Ubuntu.

x360539 · 01-23-2012, 09:49 PM

Thanks so much for the reply.

"iwlist wlan0 scan" outputs the following. The connection I'm using (my home wireless) is ESSID "2WIRE709":

Quote:

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1A:C4:EC:92:91
Channel:2
Frequency:2.417 GHz (Channel 2)
Quality=32/70 Signal level=-78 dBm
Encryption key

n
ESSID:"2WIRE066"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000000433e1181
Extra: Last beacon: 476ms ago
IE: Unknown: 00083257495245303636
IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
IE: Unknown: 030102
IE: Unknown: 0706555320010B1B
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
Cell 02 - Address: 00:23:51:04:AA:F9
Channel:4
Frequency:2.427 GHz (Channel 4)
Quality=30/70 Signal level=-80 dBm
Encryption key

n
ESSID:"2WIRE998"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=000007de2fa8c7d4
Extra: Last beacon: 492ms ago
IE: Unknown: 00083257495245393938
IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
IE: Unknown: 030104
IE: Unknown: 0706555320010B1B
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: 2A0102
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
Cell 03 - Address: 34:EF:44:FE:2C:31
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=34/70 Signal level=-76 dBm
Encryption key

n
ESSID:"2WIRE709"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=000007c13b51ba2f
Extra: Last beacon: 12ms ago
IE: Unknown: 00083257495245373039
IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
IE: Unknown: 030106
IE: Unknown: 0706555320010B1B
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: 2A0102
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C

Didier Spaier · 01-24-2012, 12:43 AM

Well I suppose that this:

Code:

Quality=34/70 Signal level=-76 dBm

shows a poor reception quality.

I don't know why you have that though but it seems that you are not alone, as shows a quick search in Google or linuxquestions' forums for "RealTek 8188ce", see http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...archid=5090916.

x360539 · 01-24-2012, 08:40 PM

Well, good news! The latest Ubuntu 11.10 kernel upgrade seems to have solved the issue.

Didier Spaier · 01-24-2012, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by x360539

Well, good news! The latest Ubuntu 11.10 kernel upgrade seems to have solved the issue.

Good!