Slow WiFi with Intel AC 9560 on Asus GT-AX6000

[sfx2000]

This is usually a pretty solid card - throughput booster should be disabled, band pref should be 5GHz - try disabling MU-MIMO on the router itself.

Make sure you're using WPA2, not WPA/WPA2 Mixed mode...

160MHz isn't going to do much for you on this card/router combo, FWIW...

 

[Farley]

Do us both a favor and fetch from https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=302 a suitable image, burn it straight (raw) to a thumb drive, boot it, and test the wifi that way.

I did this today... On Linux the laptop can read a large file from the NAS at almost 31 MB/s, roughly twice the speed it gets under Windows 10. So this suggests a Windows problem?

What drives are in your Synology and cable type is connected between the router and the NAS?

I missed this question, but it can read from the NAS at about 65 MB/s over ethernet, so I assume the NAS is not the bottleneck. The NAS is connected to the router by a short Cat5e cable, and the drive is a Seagate 4TB IronWolf NAS SATA 6Gb/s 3.5".

Thanks for all the responses. I am somewhat philosophical about it, seeing as the laptop has stable WiFi, and I can use other devices for moving large files. It was much more annoying on an earlier laptop that used to get dropouts!

 

[L&LD]

@Farley, you may want to try the following to test the issue further.

Plug in the laptop to AC power. Be sure the Windows Power Setting is on the highest Performance setting (Settings, System, Power & Battery for Win11, it may be slightly different on Win10 today).

Open Lenovo Vantage. Go To Device, Power. Do you have a Power and Performance setting there? Put it to the maximum.

Now, perform a Restart of the computer. Do not just shut it down and then power it up. This is not the same thing as a Restart.

After the computer boots back up, still connected to AC power, be sure to double-check the settings you changed above, then do your tests again after about 15 minutes of letting the laptop sit idle (and be sure it doesn't go to sleep while you're waiting).

When you're doing your testing, be sure you're not too close to the router. 10' to 15' away, and line of sight, should give you the maximum speeds possible.

The speeds should be improved, but how much, I'd be curious to hear from you!

 

[bbunge]

Just did a test from my DS218J that has two WD Red Plus 8 TB drives (new this week). NAS uses DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 1.
PC used is a Dell Optiplex with 8th gen i3 processor and an Intel AC9260 WIFI and a SSD hard drive. Window 11 PC does connect at 160 MHz WPA3.
Copied a 2.5 GB video file from the NAS to the PC with an "average" transfer rate of 74 MB/s. Same file copies to a wired PC at 95 to 100 MB/s.
Router AX86U. PC is on the other side of a wall (two wallboard layers) about eight feet away.

I believe the OP is using a single drive in the NAS. I feel that dual drives give better performance and WD performs better than Seagate.

 

[L&LD]

@bbunge, I may agree with you about the drives, but with wired PC he gets much higher speeds. The issue is elsewhere (i.e. not the drives or the number of them). And, he is testing by transferring large (1GB and larger) files.

 

[Spartan]

22.190.0.4 (from Intel)

I am using those and they were fine for my Intel AX210.

Try the latest 22.200 which were compiled from Windows update.

Do not forget to right-click on the file you just downloaded, go to Properties, then check the unblock button at the bottom if it says it was blocked because it came from the internet. If you don't do this, it will lead to erroneous installation as the installer wouldn't have the proper privileges.

WLAN = http://download.windowsupdate.com/d..._8895841d4ea533fd49995df0916f52a57bd73d0b.cab (you need to unzip them using a compression program such as WinRAR or 7-ZIP or Bandizip

Bluetooth = https://mega.nz/file/xdElSD7Y#-Rz95s9HCeVRFZrZ8-J9t5fgLWNylY53q0DVcvLJssw

After extracting the files, go to device manager and update both the WLAN and Bluetooth by pointing them to the folder where you extracted the drivers.

Note, In my experience, the 22.190.0 gave me faster performance on my Intel AX210 but worth a shot.

If that didn't improve things, try 22.170.0, that's what Dell has ton their approved drivers list for my laptop, again, don't forget to unblock the files you downloaded before you try to install them in case they were blocked.

Wireless = https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...i-fi-drivers-for-intel-wireless-adapters.html

Bluetooth = https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...-bluetooth-for-windows-10-and-windows-11.html

 

[bbunge]

@bbunge, And he is testing by transferring large (1GB and larger) files.

Did you read that I used a 2.5 GB file? His issue may be with Windows 10. Time to upgrade?

 

[L&LD]

The difference between 1GB and 2.5GB when transferring files is minimal, if any.

 

[glens]

His issue may be with Windows 10. Time to upgrade?

He's got the upgrade now on a thumb drive, ready to install.

 

[drinkingbird]

Happy New Year everyone...

I have a Lenovo T490 with an Intel AC 9560 WiFi card. My main router is an Asus GT-AX6000, running the latest Merlin firmware.

My internet connection is only 100/20 FTTN/VDSL, but I regularly do large file transfers between the laptop and an (admittedly, old) Synology DS213j NAS, which is plugged directly into the router. On WiFi I am only able to get speeds of 15 MB/s or so between the laptop on 5GHz and the NAS, even if the laptop is in the same room as the router. If I plug the laptop into a LAN port on the router, I get something like 65 MB/s, which seems OK in view of the age of the NAS.

But the WiFi speed seems too slow to me, just looking at the speed of a file transfer in Windows Explorer. The WiFi adapter is using the latest Intel driver.

I tried a few different settings, including 160Mhz on the laptop, which made it slightly worse. WiFi 6 is enabled on the router, but disabling it didn't help. My previous router was an RT-AC86U, and the speed was actually a bit better on that one (averaging maybe 22 to 23 MB/s).

Is this definitely too slow? If so, should I be looking at settings on the laptop or the router? Or is the Intel AC 9560 just slow?

What link speed is showing for the connection between the laptop and router? I'm assuming it is a 2 stream card with 80mhz so 866? Card is capable of 160 but if you can't even get reasonable speeds on 80 no sense in trying to get 160 to work (depending on interference in your area, may not even be able to get it to stay at 160 and could just be worse as you noticed).

Sounds like you've already gotten better speeds from another laptop so that would narrow it down to this particular laptop. Have you pulled the cover and made sure one of the antennas hasn't popped off the card? On the T490 (as long as it isn't the slim T490S) the card is replaceable and they're cheap, so it may just be a dead card. While checking the antenna, take the card out, clean the contacts with a Q tip and a dab of rubbing alcohol, but probably won't help.

EDIT sorry looks like the T490 is now soldered too. Previously it was only the "S" versions. But still check the antennas. You may have to resort to using an AC or AX USB adapter, you can find some nice small ones. Assuming you don't want to replace the whole motherboard (or have pretty decent soldering skills).

Those speeds are so slow it is unlikely to be some driver or setting tweak. I guess you could try wiping and reinstalling windows from scratch, maybe something is interfering, old driver or something. Doesn't seem likely though. I'd try making an ubuntu bootable USB key, boot into that, and see how your transfer rates are. That would at least narrow down if it is OS or driver related.

My Intel 8260 AC card (M.2 card, I believe PCI-e 3.0 x2 on my particular laptop) connected to my old Asus AC-1900 router can get 60-65MB/sec in both directions to a wired PC. Both PCs do have SSDs but even a spinning drive can do much better with a large file transfer, which you've confirmed already with hardwiring the laptop and trying another PC. If I disable antivirus and firewall on both I can bump it up another few MB/sec but that's about the limit of what an 866 link speed can do.

 

[glens]

I'd try making an ubuntu bootable USB key, boot into that, and see how your transfer rates are. That would at least narrow down if it is OS or driver related.

Already suggested, tried, & confirmed; though the throughput still seemed somewhat low (even at twice that of under MS).

 

[drinkingbird]

Already suggested, tried, & confirmed; though the throughput still seemed somewhat low (even at twice that of under MS).

Ah missed that part, was hidden in a response. The fact that it doubled the speed but still 50% of what it should be is odd. Still recommend checking the antenna connections in the laptop. Could try loading the latest intel driver in Ubuntu and see if that helps. If that bumps it to where it should be, then probably as easy as wiping and reinstalling windows, or even uninstalling all the drivers and installing the latest one fresh in the current windows install.

 

[glens]

Yeah, some work lies ahead regardless the track taken.

Speed reported under Mint was likely in keeping with a USB2 port used for the test, as a guess.

Edit: add that I don't disagree with the notion "an antenna's off" as being a possibility. I'd just do everything I could before risking all the plastic clips.

 

[drinkingbird]

Yeah, some work lies ahead regardless the track taken.

Speed reported under Mint was likely in keeping with a USB2 port used for the test, as a guess.

Oh, yeah should definitely be testing like for like, linux should have been able to access the main HD and transfer the same file as a test.

If USB2 was being used (or even USB3 since most thumb drives aren't that fast) then most likely this is a windows issue. Personally if it has been a while, I'd just wipe and install the latest win 10 image or 11 if the laptop supports it.

But if OP doesn't want to go that far, copy the latest intel driver to a thumb drive, disable all network connections on the laptop, uninstall all wifi drivers (may take several uninstalls to get rid of all the versions), reboot, and install just the latest one. Even after uninstalling them all windows may reinstall the generic one on reboot but that's ok, just overwrite it with the Intel one, reboot again, and re-enable wifi.

I've never seen an issue using the Intel wifi driver over the OEM, typically they work better and have more features, and the airplane mode etc works fine, that is no longer proprietary to the OEM.

If that doesn't work then probably time to just do the full wipe and reinstall, unless you want to keep trying random stuff to troubleshoot.

 

[glens]

I'd like to see the outputs under GNU/Linux of "iw list", "iwconfig", and "iw wlp2s0 (or whatever, see "iwconfig") link"

 

[Farley]

@Farley, you may want to try the following to test the issue further.

Plug in the laptop to AC power. Be sure the Windows Power Setting is on the highest Performance setting (Settings, System, Power & Battery for Win11, it may be slightly different on Win10 today).

Open Lenovo Vantage. Go To Device, Power. Do you have a Power and Performance setting there? Put it to the maximum.

Now, perform a Restart of the computer. Do not just shut it down and then power it up. This is not the same thing as a Restart.

After the computer boots back up, still connected to AC power, be sure to double-check the settings you changed above, then do your tests again after about 15 minutes of letting the laptop sit idle (and be sure it doesn't go to sleep while you're waiting).

When you're doing your testing, be sure you're not too close to the router. 10' to 15' away, and line of sight, should give you the maximum speeds possible.

The speeds should be improved, but how much, I'd be curious to hear from you!

Sadly, this didn't make any difference to the amazingly consistent 15 MB/s download speed. For a moment, after I looked at the laptop's power settings, I thought I'd made a schoolboy error, because the Windows power scheme for "on battery" included "Moderate" power savings for the WiFi (even though I had already gone into the Advanced settings for the WiFi adapter and ensured that it was set to "Performance". But changing the Windows power scheme to maximum performance for the WiFi, rebooting, plugging in the AC adapter, waiting 15 minutes etc., seemed to make no difference at all.

Speed reported under Mint was likely in keeping with a USB2 port used for the test, as a guess.

Oh, well spotted. The only handy flash drive I found that wasn't "in service" is an old USB2 drive... So it sounds like the Mint test is worth repeating with a faster drive. I've since found a spare Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SATA drive, which I can use with a USB to SATA adapter. There might even be a spare bay inside the laptop for installation of a SATA SDD, which would be handy if I want to try Ubuntu, but I can't quite remember without opening it up.

But if OP doesn't want to go that far, copy the latest intel driver to a thumb drive, disable all network connections on the laptop, uninstall all wifi drivers (may take several uninstalls to get rid of all the versions), reboot, and install just the latest one. Even after uninstalling them all windows may reinstall the generic one on reboot but that's ok, just overwrite it with the Intel one, reboot again, and re-enable wifi.

So you are saying that even if I thought I successfully installed the latest Intel driver using the standard Intel download tool, it might not "stick"? Device Manager still reports version 22.190.0.4, which looks right to me.

Slightly out of left field, I am wondering if I might have shot myself in the foot when I upgraded (Merlin) firmware on the AX-GT6000 from 386 to 388. I was full of good intentions that I'd re-enter all settings by hand, but then on a whim I used the "restore JFFS" option, thinking that it would only reinstall a couple of scripts that I use (Diversion and connmon). To my surprise, it also restored all of my static IPs on the LAN, so I am vaguely wondering if some setting has been corrupted, or even brought over from the previous router. On the previous router (RT-AC86U) I did have the T490 laptop set to a lower QoS priority, so I wonder if it might be worth resetting the router to factory defaults and reentering all settings by hand. I'm probably clutching at straws, but this is easier for me than some of the other tasks that have been proposed...

 

[Farley]

What link speed is showing for the connection between the laptop and router? I'm assuming it is a 2 stream card with 80mhz so 866?

It does report 866 when it's in the same room as the router. In other rooms the link speeds (and dBm values from the router) look solid compared to other devices on the LAN, so this seems to suggest there is nothing wrong with the antennas, or do I misunderstand something?

 

[drinkingbird]

Oh, well spotted. The only handy flash drive I found that wasn't "in service" is an old USB2 drive... So it sounds like the Mint test is worth repeating with a faster drive. I've since found a spare Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SATA drive, which I can use with a USB to SATA adapter. There might even be a spare bay inside the laptop for installation of a SATA SDD, which would be handy if I want to try Ubuntu, but I can't quite remember without opening it up.

Don't use USB at all other than booting into linux. After booting into linux, your internal hard drive should be accessible, linux can read NTFS drives, just drop a file on the root of that drive from your NAS (then try sending it back to the NAS from there).

So you are saying that even if I thought I successfully installed the latest Intel driver using the standard Intel download tool, it might not "stick"? Device Manager still reports version 22.190.0.4, which looks right to me.

Slightly out of left field, I am wondering if I might have shot myself in the foot when I upgraded (Merlin) firmware on the AX-GT6000 from 386 to 388. I was full of good intentions that I'd re-enter all settings by hand, but then on a whim I used the "restore JFFS" option, thinking that it would only reinstall a couple of scripts that I use (Diversion and connmon). To my surprise, it also restored all of my static IPs on the LAN, so I am vaguely wondering if some setting has been corrupted, or even brought over from the previous router. On the previous router (RT-AC86U) I did have the T490 laptop set to a lower QoS priority, so I wonder if it might be worth resetting the router to factory defaults and reentering all settings by hand. I'm probably clutching at straws, but this is easier for me than some of the other tasks that have been proposed...

Yes sometimes old drivers can still interfere. It isn't "wildly common" but enough that I've seen it several times before, i.e. a newer driver either can't overwrite one or two files from the older one, or it uses a newer file name for one file but windows is still referencing the older one.

Who knows, the windows portion of wireless or some other networking function could be corrupted or messed up too, in which case the driver won't help and a format and reinstall might be the only solution. Or the IPv4 or IPv6 stack could be corrupted, who knows. If you can get decent (50 to 60 meg) speeds in linux using the hard drive, definitely pointing to something in Windows.

Seems unlikely that restoring the JFFS and some other settings would have caused this since another laptop is working fine, unless you had some QOS settings or something specific to this laptop on the router previously. I guess to test you could do a factory reset and see how it goes before restoring or resetting anything. But JFFS should only contain those static IP mappings and scripts etc, shouldn't affect the core settings of the router.

 

[glens]

Oh, well spotted. The only handy flash drive I found that wasn't "in service" is an old USB2 drive... So it sounds like the Mint test is worth repeating with a faster drive. I've since found a spare Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SATA drive, which I can use with a USB to SATA adapter. There might even be a spare bay inside the laptop for installation of a SATA SDD, which would be handy if I want to try Ubuntu, but I can't quite remember without opening it up.

The USB2 thing would only really be a factor depending on where you were writing the file on the laptop. When moving a test file, I'll do "scp elsewhere:/file /dev/null" so writes on "my" end aren't a factor.

I'm replying just now only having read so far to this point & see yet another post after, so prior apologies if necessary. But now I'm all giddy at the prospect of yet another even casual user! (Been using GNU/Linux exclusively since about the time Windows 95 was fixin' to come out.)

Certainly being able to add, or change to from a spinning drive, an SSD is worthwhile.

If you're able to add a drive to an available, empty, wired bay then it's a no-brainer to install Mint there and dual-boot. Even if you can't do that, the installer has a utility to shrink properly-unmounted Windows partitions to make room. It's been 100% failsafe in my experience.

If you're contemplating re-installing Windows anyway, you might could just demolish the partition into two and create new appropriate filesystems to populate. That would save considerable time over "shrinking" a partition. (Oh, be sure to "defrag" a spinning drive beforehand when "shrinking" - also saves time)

 

[Farley]

Don't use USB at all other than booting into linux. After booting into linux, your internal hard drive should be accessible, linux can read NTFS drives, just drop a file on the root of that drive from your NAS

Right, that's what I was doing, and it made no difference to the speed of reading from the NAS when I booted Linux Mint off a faster USB drive (still 31 MB/s). What did help to some extent was choosing the FTP option in Linux to read off the NAS instead of "file sharing" (presumably SMB). Using FTP, it was able to read at 43 to 44 MB/s.

Getting a bit off topic: I used to use Unix on big computers at work, but haven't done much with Linux. I'm impressed with how easy Mint was to use for an habitual (if skeptical) Windows user. It was trivially easy to connect to WiFi and network drives, and it even found the Canon printer without any prompting from me.

Certainly being able to add, or change to from a spinning drive, an SSD is worthwhile.

My only spinning drives these days are two old 4TB drives in the NAS (the Seagate mentioned earlier, and a WD Red). But having noticed how easy it is to use Mint (and probably other Linux flavours too) I am now trying to think of ways I might be able to use it, perhaps even replacing Windoze on a 10 year-old laptop that runs a bit slowly.