Slow WiFi on Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
 

This is my first post here. I've been using linux in my professional life for years but I am by no means an expert.

The machine in question is a ThinkPad W530 with an Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 [8086:4238] (rev 3e)

When booting to Windows 10, the wireless performance is excellent. However, when booting to Ubuntu the speeds seem to be "capped" at 2MB/sec. SpeedTest.net confirms I am getting about half the download speed under linux.

Link to wireless info script output: http://pastebin.com/NcfznVBg

There are many old posts related to this card. Some of the solutions seem to be outdated, others simply don't seem to work.

Any wizards here with ideas on how to fix this is appreciated. The machine is usable, just not practical with the "speed cap".

EvanShaw,

Welcome to LQ.

Thanks for the wifi info script with plenty of details. This makes a pleasant change!

There are two main things you can do to speed up your Intel Centrino Ultimate N 6300. The second mod will probably have more effect.

First install gedit and gksu.

Open a Terminal and type:

Press Enter, give your password (nothing displayed for security reasons) and press Enter again.

Press Enter.

Your Power Management is on, so proceed as follows to disable powersave.

Copy and paste this line into a Terminal:

Press Enter, ignore any warnings and in the text file:

Change the existing 3 to 2 so that the file reads:

File > Save > File > Quit and reboot laptop.


Next copy and paste this line into Terminal:

Press Enter, give your password and press Enter again.

Reboot.

Check the wifi speed.

If you have problems, then remove the modification:

Then reboot.

Good luck.

You, sir, have solved my problem that has been causing me to pull my hair out for many months. Thank you so very much. If you don't mind, I'd like to know what exactly I just did.

I understand that the card was in powersave mode, so we disabled that. Then we added the line "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=8" to the config file for the NIC. Does this mean we disabled the Wireless N support? Is this a "hack"?

Thank you again.

EvanShaw,

Glad you fixed your wifi problem.

1. Wireless N support is not disabled.

2. You can call it a hack if you wish.

The purpose of the modification is to re-enable TX AMPDU aggregation which always used to be ON by default in the iwlwifi driver.

In recent times the default setting of TX AMPDU is OFF, so all we are doing is putting it back to its original default setting (ON) of yesteryear.

Well that went over my head. Thanks again, I am extremely grateful!

Worked!
 

This also solved my issue with old System76 laptop on Linux Mint 18.1

If you're unsure whether or not you're using Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 for wireless, here is how I figured it out:

Thank you!

Excellent fix, thanks beachboy2. I just installed Lubuntu on an HP Elitebook 8440p and my wifi wasn't working at all. I googled around for a solution, came across this thread and took a major leap of faith by following the same instructions exactly... and now I have wifi. Awesome!

namecaps,

First of all, welcome to LQ.

I am glad to have been of assistance.

Just remember to leave a large tip!

First post.
 

Thank you so much for this thread! I have been searching for a solution to this problem for months.

I am also not new to Linux, but I am still learning much about it.

I attempted this same procedure, unfortunately it did not increase the speed.

I was wondering if you had any advice. Thank you again.

Knonada,

At the end of the recommended procedure, did you reboot?

Post #2 on this thread has also been useful to some Intel 6300 users:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1656061

and then modify existing line to read:

Good luck.

@beachboy2

Thank you for your help.

I think it is running a bit better, and more consistently now.

Have a great day.

The Linux community is really great... The "11n_disable=8" solution increased my WiFi speed from 30Mb to 95Mb/s. Thank you, @beachboy2.

Artur_,

Welcome to LQ.

I am glad to have been of help to you.

Hello,

I am a new user of Deepin, with almost no experience with Linux. I noticed my connection was poor and found this thread. Unfotunately, it did not helped me yet.

after I enter
and type my password, an empty .txt-like file opens. At first, i was pasting

and after rebooting there was no connection and then I installed Deepin again. I tried this 4 times.

jlinguistica,

Welcome to LQ.

I have no knowledge of Deepin, but it appears from this review that its hardware support can be problematical:
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/deepin-15-4.html

My suggestion would be to try another distro such as Linux Mint MATE and see whether that helps matters.

Good luck.