Librem Mini WiFi speed

Hardware
1

Sitting in my home office, connected to my 5ghz wifi, my Librem mini speedtests at 28mbs while my android phone tests at 500mbs in the same location.

Is there a limiting factor on the wifi in the mini?

Thanks,

2

It’s 802.11‍n only for a start.

Use the ethernet and be happy?

Without knowing the layout of your home … have you tried 2.4GHz WiFi instead? Is it better? worse?

How are you doing the speedtest?

1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply.

So I think the main point is that where I’m sitting is the same distance from the router. I’ve been using Ookla Speedtest for my benchmarking.

From this desk, while the Librem Mini indicates less than 30mbs, I get results between 360 and 500 mbs with my Android phone, my work iPad, my work Windows laptop, any device. The Mini is the only device registering such low throughput.

4

Speed depend on many factors of Hardware and Software, so you are trying diferent hardware and software, that is why.

5

So testing with the internet? Using an app or a web site consistently? (These are bad but given the stark difference in WiFi bandwidth achieved, let’s ignore that.)

I assume by this you mean “Mbit/sec” i.e. bits, not bytes.

If you are getting 500 Mbit/sec with the internet then I assume that you are in an urban area with very good internet. (Whether you are in an urban area matters because it will affect how many neighbours are also attempting to use the WiFi bands.)

Am I right in thinking that the Mini has no external antenna? So whatever antenna it has is internal? How many antennae does it have I wonder.

The main differences will be 802.11n in the Mini v. later WiFi standards (802.11ac or 802.11ax) and the number of antennae.

Even so, for a desktop-like device that does have ethernet, I would use ethernet. If nothing else, you should test the ethernet. That will fault isolate the tardy performance as to whether it is something generic in the Mini or something specific to the WiFi in the Mini.

If you want to investigate further then the next thing to check would be how the WiFi in the Mini is connected e.g. is it on a USB bus? If so, what USB version i.e. bus speed?

And, again, I would suggest testing 2.4 GHz WiFi to see whether it makes a difference. (2.4 GHz will have a stronger signal than 5 GHz even though the potential bandwidth is lower, and even though the potential for congestion from neighbours is worse.)

6

Thanks very much for the thoughtful replies, I will consider and test these suggestions.