slow internet speed [Solved]

[ancer]

I have a 100 Mbps/10 Mbps asymmetric internet. Wifi speed goes to about half (download) and full upload. After installing latest MX KDE it worked fine at the beginning, but recently a strange thing is happening. I've noticed a couple of times about 5 to 10 minutes after starting the computer it disconnects and reconnects cable internet, which is not a problem. The problem is that the download speed has dropped from 100 Mbps to about 10 Mbps (not necessarily caused by the connection break), upload is not affected. I also have a USB Wifi dongle which I plug (desktop computer) and with it the max. speed is about 40 Mbps (expected for my home Wifi network) - so cable 10 (instead of 100) wifi 40!
I have a multi boot computer and in MS Windows 10 the download speed is normal (90 to 100 Mbps) on cable, so it can't be anything to do with the hardware.
Tested in browser - Ookla Speed Test
What to do to get the available speed back?
Thank You

Code: Select all

System:
  Host: <filter> Kernel: 5.10.0-5mx-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
  root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.14.5 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: MX-19.4_kde_x64 patito feo March 31  2021 
  base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME A520M-K v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1004 date: 08/13/2020 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 
  type: MT MCP arch: Zen family: 17 (23) model-id: 60 (96) stepping: 1 
  microcode: 8600106 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 88632 
  Speed: 1908 MHz min/max: 1400/3700 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1908 
  2: 3249 3: 1641 4: 1723 5: 2542 6: 2527 7: 1635 8: 1721 9: 2062 10: 2964 11: 2455 
  12: 1893 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds status: Not affected 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
  STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Renoir vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.0 
  chip ID: 1002:1636 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa compositor: kwin_x11 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD RENOIR (DRM 3.40.0 5.10.0-5mx-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.4 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.1 
  chip ID: 1002:1637 
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK PRIME B450M-A 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 08:00.6 chip ID: 1022:15e3 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: ASUSTeK PRIME B450M-A driver: r8169 v: kernel port: f000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Ralink MT7601U Wireless Adapter type: USB driver: mt7601u bus ID: 5-2:2 
  chip ID: 148f:7601 serial: <filter> 
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 8.94 GiB (0.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Apacer model: AS2280P4 256GB size: 238.47 GiB 
  block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 
  serial: <filter> rev: S0614B0 scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: HDWD110 size: 931.51 GiB block size: 
  physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm 
  serial: <filter> rev: A8R0 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: 97.66 GiB size: 95.62 GiB (97.92%) used: 8.91 GiB (9.3%) 
  fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 40.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 31 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
  1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
  1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
  2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
  1: deb http://it.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
  2: deb http://it.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster ahs
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:
  Processes: 272 Uptime: 28m Memory: 7.16 GiB used: 1.80 GiB (25.1%) Init: SysVinit 
  v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in 
  running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[JayM]

Did you install a driver for that wifi device and if so which one and where did you get it?

[ancer]

No, I didn't install anything, it uses generic drivers - the point is not the wifi, which I plugged in only after detecting the problems with cable internet speed which dropped from 100 to 10 Mbps (90 % reduction)

[agnivo007]

Maybe something related to device power management? MX team can investigate better...

[ancer]

I owe a comment - there is a temporary solution to my problem (I've just recently noticed). when my download speed drops from 100 to approx. 10 Mbits i simply disconnect the cable and reconnect it and by some magic the speed is back at it's normal values. After about 10 sessions I repeat the routine. If I reset the Router it doesn't help - only disconnecting the cable from the network card on the motherboard and putting it back seem to do the trick

[timkb4cq]

That could be caused by a flaky ethernet cable. NICs are by default set to auto-negotiate the speed with the router. If your cable glitches just a little it can cause renegotiation to a slower speed.
Next time, instead of unplugging, try this command which resets the network card speed to 100 Mb/sec:

Code: Select all

sudo ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full

If the speed comes back (it may take up to 30 seconds) then that's what is happening.

[ancer]

Thank You timkb4cq, I'll try that.
What puzzles me is if I reboot to Windows OS after having this problem, I have a normal speed.

[ancer]

Thank You, timkb4cq, You are absolutely right - I've just used the command You provided and after reestablishing a connection full speed is back! So no more disconnecting the cable :-)

[ancer]

I owe one more commentary on this topic:
The problem was solved a year ago - kind of. After that my internet connection was interrupted re-established while working too many times which became really annoying.
The problem was the cable as Mr. timkb4cq correctly pointed out. The final solution - NEW cable - now it works like it's supposed to do

[Huckleberry Finn]

@ancer Thank you for the feedback :)