wi-fi connection question

[David]

My wi-fi adapter on my Gigabyte motherboard:

Device-3: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi

I am staying in a very crappy motel, so the wi-fi is lousy.

I am using my Rawhide Gnome 40 install, on primary NVMe.

NetworkManager finds the motel wi-fi and several others ( including the
hot-spot on my very crappy iPhone / cheap cell-provider ).     But
NetworkManager will
not connect to the motel's wi-fi.      It will connect to the hot-spot on
my iPhone, ( which I am using
now to type this. )

I have not updated Fedora in about two weeks, so I am still on Gnome 40 RC1
and some
Beta packages.

I am too scared to update, since I have a poor hot-spot signal.

Any suggestions ?

I am thinking about getting a bigger antenna to put on the wi-fi.
However, my
iPhone, has no problem connecting to the motel's wi-fi.

My other option, is that I have a new wi-fi card adapter, somewhere, that
works
great, but I will have to hunt for it, and so I can't do that today.

David Locklear

[Dave Stevens]

On Sat, 27 Mar 2021 13:52:57 -0500
David  wrote:
> My wi-fi adapter on my Gigabyte motherboard:
>    Device-3: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi
>
> I am staying in a very crappy motel, so the wi-fi is lousy.
>
> I am using my Rawhide Gnome 40 install, on primary NVMe.
>
> NetworkManager finds the motel wi-fi and several others ( including
> the hot-spot on my very crappy iPhone / cheap cell-provider ).     But
> NetworkManager will
> not connect to the motel's wi-fi.      It will connect to the
> hot-spot on my iPhone, ( which I am using
> now to type this. )
>
> I have not updated Fedora in about two weeks, so I am still on Gnome
> 40 RC1 and some
> Beta packages.
>
> I am too scared to update, since I have a poor hot-spot signal.
>
> Any suggestions ?
>
> I am thinking about getting a bigger antenna to put on the wi-fi.
> However, my
> iPhone, has no problem connecting to the motel's wi-fi.
>
> My other option, is that I have a new wi-fi card adapter, somewhere,
> that works
> great, but I will have to hunt for it, and so I can't do that today.
>
> David Locklear

I don't know enough about your setup to make a solid suggestion but
there's an old saying, "if at first you don't succeed, cheat!" that
comes to mind. Is the motherboard on the floor inside a steel case? can
you put the box on a table to see if that helps? It has sometimes for
me. Also what about a bit of tinfoil or a cookie sheet behind the unit
to act as a reflector? I've had luck with that. Nothing to do with
Fedora of course.

A couple of other suggestions:

https://www.wikihow.com/Boost-a-Wifi-Signal

and that article mentions a range extender, I used one of these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33040379517.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5...

and it was the best $10 I ever spent. Can easily be thrown in a travel
bag.

D

[Samuel Sieb]

On 3/27/21 11:52 AM, David wrote:
> NetworkManager finds the motel wi-fi and several others ( including the
> hot-spot on my very crappy iPhone / cheap cell-provider ).     But 
> NetworkManager will
> not connect to the motel's wi-fi.      It will connect to the hot-spot 
> on my iPhone, ( which I am using
> now to type this. )

Try telling NetworkManager to forget the wifi connection and try again. 
  Run "sudo journalctl -fa" in a terminal and see what's going wrong 
when you try to connect.

I don't know if iphones support it, but maybe you can USB or bluetooth 
tether to your iphone while it's connected to the wifi.
> I have not updated Fedora in about two weeks, so I am still on Gnome 40 
> RC1 and some
> Beta packages.
>
> I am too scared to update, since I have a poor hot-spot signal.

There's no risk.  Nothing will happen until everything is downloaded.

[Ed Greshko]

On 28/03/2021 02:52, David wrote:
> I am thinking about getting a bigger antenna to put on the wi-fi.     However, my
> iPhone, has no problem connecting to the motel's wi-fi.

If your phone has no problem to connect to the wifi, and it is stable, then why not
try configuring your phone as a wifi hotspot and have your system connect
to it?

[Joe Zeff]

On 3/27/21 12:52 PM, David wrote:
> I am too scared to update, since I have a poor hot-spot signal.

Go to a library, visitor's center or other public place with good WiFi 
and try there.

[Ed Greshko]

On 28/03/2021 03:27, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 28/03/2021 02:52, David wrote:
> > I am thinking about getting a bigger antenna to put on the wi-fi.     However, my
> > iPhone, has no problem connecting to the motel's wi-fi.
>
> If your phone has no problem to connect to the wifi, and it is stable, then why not
> try configuring your phone as a wifi hotspot and have your system connect
> to it?

What I meant to say....

If your phone's cellular data connection works well....and you don't have to pay/byte...
turn your phone into a hotspot.

[David]

I fixed my problem, as far as I can tell.

When I first clicked on the list of wi-fi sources, it only listed the name
of the "motel" but on my
iPhone, their network service listed two motel wi-fi's, one for the
guest.        For some reason, when I tinkered with some
things, NetworkManager listed both of the motel's wi-fi.      The problem
then, was that each read the same
thing, "Bob's Motel."      So I assumed the "guest" was the second choice,
and "way lah," that worked.

So now my only problem, is that the motel's weak signal that I am getting
is too weak.

I seldom update with wi-fi.    I always wait until I can find an ethernet
connection.

So any suggestions about updating with a weak wi-fi signal.    Should I
just update one package at a time ?

I did a wireless speed check using the classic-benchmark of P*rnhub, and
got choppy results.   LOL !

David Locklear

On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 2:08 PM Dave Stevens  wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Mar 2021 13:52:57 -0500
> David  wrote:
> > My wi-fi adapter on my Gigabyte motherboard:
> >    Device-3: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi
> >
> > I am staying in a very crappy motel, so the wi-fi is lousy.
> >
> > I am using my Rawhide Gnome 40 install, on primary NVMe.
> >
> > NetworkManager finds the motel wi-fi and several others ( including
> > the hot-spot on my very crappy iPhone / cheap cell-provider ).     But
> > NetworkManager will
> > not connect to the motel's wi-fi.      It will connect to the
> > hot-spot on my iPhone, ( which I am using
> > now to type this. )
> >
> > I have not updated Fedora in about two weeks, so I am still on Gnome
> > 40 RC1 and some
> > Beta packages.
> >
> > I am too scared to update, since I have a poor hot-spot signal.
> >
> > Any suggestions ?
> >
> > I am thinking about getting a bigger antenna to put on the wi-fi.
> > However, my
> > iPhone, has no problem connecting to the motel's wi-fi.
> >
> > My other option, is that I have a new wi-fi card adapter, somewhere,
> > that works
> > great, but I will have to hunt for it, and so I can't do that today.
> >
> > David Locklear
>
> I don't know enough about your setup to make a solid suggestion but
> there's an old saying, "if at first you don't succeed, cheat!" that
> comes to mind. Is the motherboard on the floor inside a steel case? can
> you put the box on a table to see if that helps? It has sometimes for
> me. Also what about a bit of tinfoil or a cookie sheet behind the unit
> to act as a reflector? I've had luck with that. Nothing to do with
> Fedora of course.
>
> A couple of other suggestions:
>
> https://www.wikihow.com/Boost-a-Wifi-Signal
>
> and that article mentions a range extender, I used one of these:
>
> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33040379517.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5...
>
> and it was the best $10 I ever spent. Can easily be thrown in a travel
> bag.
>
> D
>
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[Matthew Miller]

On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 03:05:53PM -0500, David wrote:
> I seldom update with wi-fi.    I always wait until I can find an ethernet
> connection.
>
> So any suggestions about updating with a weak wi-fi signal.    Should I
> just update one package at a time ?

I would just use "dnf offline-upgrade" and let it download slowly in the
background, and then apply when they're all ready.

[George N. White III]

On Sat, 27 Mar 2021 at 17:06, David  wrote:
> I fixed my problem, as far as I can tell.
>
> When I first clicked on the list of wi-fi sources, it only listed the name
> of the "motel" but on my
> iPhone, their network service listed two motel wi-fi's, one for the
> guest.        For some reason, when I tinkered with some
> things, NetworkManager listed both of the motel's wi-fi.      The problem
> then, was that each read the same
> thing, "Bob's Motel."      So I assumed the "guest" was the second choice,
> and "way lah," that worked.
>
> So now my only problem, is that the motel's weak signal that I am getting
> is too weak.
>
> I seldom update with wi-fi.    I always wait until I can find an ethernet
> connection.
>
> So any suggestions about updating with a weak wi-fi signal.    Should I
> just update one package at a time ?
>
> I did a wireless speed check using the classic-benchmark of P*rnhub, and
> got choppy results.   LOL !

With offline-upgrade running, packages download faster while guests who
watch videos
are asleep.  It usually helps to improve signal strength with a better
antenna or better
placement of the existing antenna.   A small change in antenna location can
make a big
difference.

I have had problems upgrading over very slow and intermittent connections
when new
packages became available before last week's upgrades were finished
downloading.

[Samuel Sieb]

On 3/27/21 1:05 PM, David wrote:
> So any suggestions about updating with a weak wi-fi signal.    Should I 
> just update one package at a time ?

There's no risk here.  It won't do the update until all packages are 
downloaded.  And they are cached, so if the download is interrupted, the 
next time it will only get the ones that haven't been downloaded yet. 
Using offline-upgrade is a good option, but you can also use the 
"--downloadonly" option to download all the packages and then once they 
are all downloaded, you can do the actual upgrade.  That way you can 
download the packages in the background and it won't suddenly start 
running the upgrade process when you're trying to use the computer.