Low Internet Speeds on Fedora 44

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

Device: Dell XPS-15
Fedora Version: F44 x86_64
Kernel Version: 7.0.4-200

My internet speed has been very slow after switching to Fedora. When I run a speed test on Windows 11 I get between 400-500Mb/s from my 500Mb Wi-Fi. However, on Fedora 44 I get 30Mb/s if I’m lucky. I have scoured a bit on the internet for driver issues or router issues and have tinkered with general settings as well as router settings to no avail. I have reset everything back to their default state.

I am not using ethernet, but a wireless network and with both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz connections both speeds never surpass 50MB/s.

Results of hostnamectl

     Static hostname: AM
           Icon name: computer-laptop
             Chassis: laptop 💻
          Machine ID: 3a53adada2f446d9b83ba691f88de111
             Boot ID: b3ee5b1518d64523a3ccbc9be0784ba1
    Operating System: Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)
         CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:44
      OS Support End: Wed 2027-05-19
OS Support Remaining: 1y 1w                                       
              Kernel: Linux 7.0.4-200.fc44.x86_64
        Architecture: x86-64
     Hardware Vendor: Dell Inc.
      Hardware Model: XPS 15 9530
        Hardware SKU: 0BEB
    Hardware Version: A00
    Firmware Version: 1.29.0
       Firmware Date: Wed 2025-12-24
        Firmware Age: 4month 2w 2d

Results of lspci -nnk | grep -Ei 'net'

0000:00:14.3 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake PCH CNVi WiFi [8086:51f1] (rev 01)

Results of ip a

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: wlp0s20f3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether d2:7e:94:9b:16:95 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 6c:f6:da:40:48:54
    altname wlx6cf6da404854
    inet 192.168.0.9/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute wlp0s20f3
       valid_lft 2906sec preferred_lft 2906sec
    inet6 fe80::24b7:64de:6124:c9df/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Speed testing was done with ookla. Results from a test I have done is here.

I am entirely new to the linux community, if there was anything I have missed or anything else needed in order to help please let me know.

Thank you!

[bryanmoore]

I wonder if it’s a power management issue; I had one of those a while back.

Does running sudo iw dev wlp0s20f3 set power_save off make anything better? That command turns off power management for your wifi adapter. You can verify it took by running iw dev wlp0s20f3 get power_save.

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

Just tried that and restarted the system, no change after re-verifying that power-saving was off.

[bryanmoore]

Setting that and then restarting likely undid the change… If you run the power_save off command and then check your speeds without rebooting, is there any change?

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

I added to a config file that sets it in the NetworkManager in /etc. After running iw dev wlp0s20f3 get power_save it returned

Power save: off

Additionally, restarted NetworkManager with sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager, and when running the previous command confirmed that power saving was off.

[bryanmoore]

Got it… And the speeds are still “ugh?”

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

Unfortunately yes

[bryanmoore]

What does dmesg | grep iwlwifi | head -20 give you?

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

@bryanmoore

dmesg | grep iwlwifi | head -20

Running that returns

[    6.693802] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    6.699427] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected crf-id 0x400410, cnv-id 0x80400 wfpm id 0x80000020
[    6.699482] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: PCI dev 51f1/4090, rev=0x370, rfid=0x2010d000
[    6.699485] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz
[    6.752040] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: loaded firmware version 89.735b75a4.0 so-a0-gf-a0-89.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[    7.362197] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_UMAC_PD_NOTIFICATION: 0x20
[    7.362201] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: RFIm is deactivated, reason = 4
[    7.362246] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_LMAC2_PD_NOTIFICATION: 0x1f
[    7.362295] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_AUTH_KEY_0: 0x90
[    7.362303] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: CNVI_SCU_SEQ_DATA_DW9: 0x0
[    7.362358] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Detected RF GF, rfid=0x2010d000
[    7.452044] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: base HW address: 6c:f6:da:40:48:54
[    7.486898] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3 wlp0s20f3: renamed from wlan0
[    8.386442] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_UMAC_PD_NOTIFICATION: 0x20
[    8.386489] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_LMAC2_PD_NOTIFICATION: 0x1f
[    8.386539] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_AUTH_KEY_0: 0x90
[    8.386647] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: CNVI_SCU_SEQ_DATA_DW9: 0x0
[    8.387762] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: RFIm is deactivated, reason = 4
[    8.682202] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_UMAC_PD_NOTIFICATION: 0x20
[    8.682261] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: WFPM_LMAC2_PD_NOTIFICATION: 0x1f

[bryanmoore]

Hmm… Nothing weird there.

What does iw dev wlp0s20f3 link give you?

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

@bryanmoore

iw dev wlp0s20f3 link

It returns

Connected to 9c:34:26:44:46:00 (on wlp0s20f3)
        SSID: Humble
        freq: 2462.0
        RX: 1858545 bytes (2089 packets)
        TX: 263863 bytes (1432 packets)
        signal: -59 dBm
        rx bitrate: 104.0 MBit/s MCS 13
        tx bitrate: 130.0 MBit/s MCS 15
        bss flags: short-preamble short-slot-time
        dtim period: 1
        beacon int: 100

[bryanmoore]

A quick search tells me that freq: 2462 is channel 11 on 2.4 GHz; that may be the culprit, since 2.5 GHz is pretty slow.

Is your router set up to broadcast both 2.4 & 5? If so, is the 5 GHz band a different SSID? If not, maybe your router is forcing you to connect the 2.4 GHz for some reason.

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

I am currently connected to the 2.5GHz, it does provide both 5GHz and 2.5GHz. Both speeds are extremely slow. I just connected to 5GHz, here is the test.

Running the previous command:

Connected to 9c:34:26:44:46:05 (on wlp0s20f3)
        SSID: Fast-Humble
        freq: 5180.0
        RX: 17747763 bytes (41272 packets)
        TX: 98241757 bytes (24918 packets)
        signal: -56 dBm
        rx bitrate: 390.0 MBit/s VHT-MCS 9 80MHz VHT-NSS 1
        tx bitrate: 780.0 MBit/s VHT-MCS 9 80MHz VHT-NSS 2
        bss flags: short-slot-time
        dtim period: 1
        beacon int: 100

[computersavvy (Jeff V)]

Notice that the latter connection on the 5G band provides about 4X the speed of the 2.4G band. (rx & tx bitrates)
Try the speed test while connected to 5G.

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

Test is linked above as well as here. The download is at 7MB/s, upload is at 44MB/s.

[bryanmoore]

Well, that’s irritating… The good news is your signal strength is solid. Your wifi card is capable of 6E speeds; does your router not do that?

You could try tuning the iwlwifi module options…
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf and add

options iwlwifi power_save=0 uapsd_disable=1
options iwlmvm power_scheme=1

to that file. You then need to rebuild initramfs and reboot (sudo dracut --force && sudo reboot).

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

Unfortunately, no luck.

[bryanmoore]

Let’s make sure the power save is actually off with:
iw dev wlp0s20f3 get power_save and cat /sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/power_save.
If both return off or 0, that’s not the issue.

How about we also check for RX stuff. Try downloading something and run:
watch -n1 "iw dev wlp0s20f3 link | grep bitrate"

The bitrate should climb and if it doesn’t, we should be able to troubleshoot from there.

[salami (Salem AL-Hadrusi)]

Results from iw dev wlp0s20f3 get power_save

Power save: off

Results from cat /sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/power_save

N

When running watch -n1 "iw dev wlp0s20f3 link | grep bitrate"

  rx bitrate: 130.0 MBit/s MCS 15
  tx bitrate: 130.0 MBit/s MCS 15

rx at times dips below 130 but neither have exceeded 130.

[bryanmoore]

I wonder if the router forced you back to 2.4GHz; can you run iw dev wlp0s20f3 link?