I have installed Zorin on a computer to replace Windows 10. Happy with things so far and have managed to install some programs and start to use the OS. The computer is in an upstairs room and I connect to the Internet through a TP Link dongle, the router is downstairs about 10m from the computer. Initially the Wifi was good, around 20Mbps, but lately it is very poor and is down to 2Mbps for downloads. I should also point out that my remaining Windows 10 computer in the same room has the same setup and is showing 20+Mbps. Being a newbie I don't want to go messing around and lose the Wifi completely but I would appreciate any pointers or quick checks I can do (I am happy using the terminal) to find the problem. Thanks in anticipation.
Hi, welcome to Zorin OS 
Can you share the specs of the network card? Easiest is to open up a terminal and run:
lshw -C network
Result of command.
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
logical name: enp5s0
version: 15
serial: d4:5d:64:52:ea:c5
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=6.8.0-87-generic firmware=rtl8168h-2_0.0.2 02/26/15 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:29 ioport:f000(size=256) memory:fcd04000-fcd04fff memory:fcd00000-fcd03fff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 9
bus info: usb@1:9
logical name: wlxb4b02495ee1f
serial: b4:b0:24:95:ee:1f
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8xxxu driverversion=6.8.0-87-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.164 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
I also ran iwconfig and this is what I got
wlxb4b02495ee1f IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"TALKTALK45CF87"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: D0:6E:DE:45:CF:84
Bit Rate=6.5 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=35/70 Signal level=-75 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:434 Missed beacon:0
Hope this helps.
Would you mind sharing the make/model of the wireless dongle? You might need to install a modified driver for it as the default one that comes with the Linux kernel might simply not be fully compatible with your device.
Here's a good reference to check for compatibility:
It's a TP-Link Archer T2UB Nano WiFi Dongle, AC600 it plugs into a USB port
[TP-Link Archer T2UB Nano WiFi Dongle, AC600 Bluetooth 4.2 USB hight speed wifi Adapter for PC/Laptop, Dual Band Wireless usb Bluetooth Dongle, Supports Windows 11/10/8.1/7 for bluetooth, WPA3 Security : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories] . I'll try the wiki link as well.
I looked at the wiki but my model was not listed. So I have bought a Linux compatible dongle but it has three folders each with an install.sh file and I don't know which one to run. If I just run the one for the latest Linux version should it pick up the correct 'drivers'?
What brand/model is the dongle? What are the names of the three folders?
I have managed to get it to work now, the driver was a Realtek and it was a cheap Amazon USB dongle similar to the TP Link one. I didn't need to use the install.sh as I rebooted the computer with the new dongle attached, the only thing is I have a duplicate entry (see picture) for my router in the list but I think I can live with that for now unless there's a quick fix
. So my Linux journey continues!! Thanks for all the help.
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I think you should be able to expand that duplicate Wi-Fi entry (the one you are not connected to) and click on forget. It's probably a remnant from the previous network adapter. Otherwise, if it still bothers you we can dig a bit deeper but we'll probably have to run a few commands in the terminal. If you're up for that, let me know.
For now, I'm marking this last post on the thread as solved.
Are those 2 entries referring to wifi 2.4GHz and wifi 5GHz connections?
Sorry I've been a little tardy. The duplicate entries disappeared next time I used the computer so all is well. Thanks for all your posts.