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    Wireless much worse than Windows

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by Rezabrya, Jan 22, 2014.

  1. Rezabrya

    Rezabrya Notebook Consultant

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    I have a Thinkpad T430 that I dual boot Windows 7 and Xubuntu 13.10 on. My university wi-fi is not great by any means, but when I am in class and I boot into windows, everything works perfectly. If I try to boot into Linux moments later, the wifi will be connected and showing a good signal strength but it has trouble pulling up any webpages. Any idea why this could be?

    Edit: it says in my sig, but I have an Intel 6300 wireless card.
     
    Rezabrya, Jan 22, 2014
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  2. Mr.Koala

    Mr.Koala Notebook Virtuoso

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    Does "hardly" mean it works well some times, or not at all?

    Check which driver your WiFi card is using.
     
    Mr.Koala, Jan 23, 2014
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  3. Rezabrya

    Rezabrya Notebook Consultant

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    It works in some buildings, but not in others. The weird thing for me is when windows connects perfectly but Linux won't load any webpages.
     
    Rezabrya, Jan 23, 2014
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  4. ALLurGroceries

    ALLurGroceries  Vegan Vermin Super Moderator

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    Have you looked at /var/log/syslog or /var/log/daemon.log for clues?

    Is power management enabled in Linux?
    Code: 
    iwconfig wlan0 | grep -i management
    Is it enabled in Windows?
     
    ALLurGroceries, Jan 23, 2014
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  5. 3an1V

    3an1V Newbie

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    First check the drivers on the wifi card, you may not have the proper drivers for the Linux side.

    Sometimes Linux Thinkpad owners run into problems like this because the power management on the Linux side is switching the Wifi off too quickly in an effort to save power. You can try completely disabling the power management on the wifi:

    - thinkpad - How to fix slow wireless on machines with Intel wireless cards? - Ask Ubuntu
    - Why is my wireless significantly slower on Ubuntu 12.04, as compared to windows 7? - Ask Ubuntu
    - [SOLVED] Disable wlan0 power management

    Hope that helps!!
     
    3an1V, Feb 5, 2014
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  6. optix

    optix Newbie

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    Do you receive all of the parameters (IP, Gateway, DNS) via DHCP? I used to have a similar problem, didn't receive the DNS parameter. Try connecting to an IP instead of hostaname.
     
    optix, Feb 16, 2014
    #6