Asus G46VW with Slow WiFi Connection on Ubuntu 12.10

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Asus G46VW with Slow WiFi Connection on Ubuntu 12.10

I have recently found a brain teaser on the Asus G46VW-BSI5N06 gaming ultrabook with Ubuntu 12.10 installed. The problem stems from its slow wireless connection to some routers. The laptop has an "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230" network card. Based on my experience, the slow connection persists on my 802.11g and 802.11n routers, but did not on two other unknown routers that I have access to. For example, here are the ping times to another LAN computer:

64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=251 ttl=128 time=56.8 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=252 ttl=128 time=78.9 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=253 ttl=128 time=101 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=254 ttl=128 time=21.6 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=255 ttl=128 time=43.8 ms

What's funny is that if you uninstall the driver and reinstall it on the command-line, the ping time immediately improves. On Ubuntu 12.10, that is done with the following command sequence:

  sudo modprobe -rfv iwlwifi
  sudo modprobe -v iwlwifi

The first command removes the Intel wireless driver, while the second line puts its back. Notice that configuration has not been touch at all between removing and inserting the driver. The following ping sequence shows the drastic improvement change:

64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=12 ttl=128 time=118 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=13 ttl=128 time=38.8 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=14 ttl=128 time=61.0 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=15 ttl=128 time=83.5 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=16 ttl=128 time=105 ms
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
...
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=25 ttl=128 time=202 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=26 ttl=128 time=3.10 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=27 ttl=128 time=3.58 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=28 ttl=128 time=4.81 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.247: icmp_req=29 ttl=128 time=3.19 ms

The "Network is unreachable" messages occurs when the driver is being removed and reinstalled. Notice that after installing the driver, ping time immediately improves down to the single digit range. Why removing and reinstalling the Intel driver improves the performance of the card is a real mystery.

Jake
Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:00:46 +0300

For now, the best work around I have is to put the uninstall and install sequence into /etc/rc.local file. That way, it'll uninstall and re-install itself after every boot. A delay is necessary for this to work. I use thirty seconds. The following is what I put into the /etc/rc.local file:

sleep 30
modprobe -rfv iwlwifi
modprobe -v iwlwifi

Jake
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:54:43 +0300

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