Slow download speed with Intel Pro Wireless 3945 ABG on Ubuntu 10.10 HP dv2000

[Rybo85]

I've done a clean install of Ubuntu 10.10 on my HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop. I can connect to my wireless network just fine, but the download speed hasn't been all that it could be.

I've performed a couple download speed tests which are below.

speakeasy speedtest: around 1.5 Mbps

speedtest net: around 1 Mbps


When I enabled the wireless on my iMac(Mac OS X 10.6.x) and performed the same tests, I got the following results.

speakeasy speedtest: around 20 Mbps

speedtest net: around 13 Mbps


With my wired connection enabled instead on my Ubuntu machine, I was getting download speed test results more like with the wireless on my iMac.


1. Has anyone else run into a situation similar to mine, but was able to increase the download speed performance somehow? If so, how?

2. Should I think about trying the Ndiswrapper solution? The thing with this though is that the Ubuntu Ndiswrapper guide doesn't mention Ubuntu 10.10 yet.

3. I went to the ubuntu packages site and noticed there was a Package linux-backports-modules-wireless-maverick-generic entry, which I guess is the newest version of the ubuntu wireless packages described in the linuxwireless website. Would it be worth it to try and install this package?

Machine Brand and Model:
HP Pavilion dv2000

Wireless Brand/Model:
05:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 135b
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 44
        Memory at d4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: iwl3945
        Kernel modules: iwl3945

iwconfig:
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:"[insert real name here]"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:14:6C:6F:42:08   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=14 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-38 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Wireless Modules:
lsmod | grep "iwl3945"
iwl3945                85550  0 
iwlcore               127415  1 iwl3945
mac80211              231541  2 iwl3945,iwlcore
cfg80211              144470  3 iwl3945,iwlcore,mac80211

Potentially Relevant Kernel Boot Messages:
dmesg | grep "iwl3945"
[   11.310787] iwl3945: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG/BG Network Connection driver for Linux, in-tree:s
[   11.310791] iwl3945: Copyright(c) 2003-2010 Intel Corporation
[   11.310880] iwl3945 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   11.310895] iwl3945 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   11.351408] iwl3945 0000:05:00.0: Tunable channels: 11 802.11bg, 13 802.11a channels
[   11.351413] iwl3945 0000:05:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 3945ABG
[   11.351570] iwl3945 0000:05:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[   11.848891] iwl3945 0000:05:00.0: loaded firmware version 15.32.2.9

Network Configuration:
sudo lshw -C network
  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:18:de:05:64:d1
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 driverversion=2.6.35-22-generic firmware=15.32.2.9 ip=192.168.1.5 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
       resources: irq:44 memory:d4000000-d4000fff

Kernel Architecture:
uname -mr
2.6.35-22-generic i686

[Rybo85]

Just in case anyone else was interested in this one, it looks like it's known bug 621265 at the ubuntu launchpad site.

[oz]

Thanks for the update and bug alert!