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idgar
Asked: 2012-09-23 00:50:22 +0800 CST

How to know which standard my Wi-Fi connection is currently using

  • 772

My laptop has capabilities for 802.11n connections.

With my previous router, I could transer data faster than 54Mb/s. Now I have D-Link router and for some reason the maximum connection speed is 54Mb/s, which implies that the connection was established with 802.11g.

How can I check which standard (g or n) has been established? Is there any command to get that information? (nm-applet does not give any information about that in the connection information window).

wireless

5 Answers

  1. The utility iw shows the used bitrate and indicates the used IEEE 802.11 standard by its listed capabilities.

    Read your interface name from the iw dev output, and use it within <name>.

    iw dev <name> link

    Example output when associated with a legacy (non-802.11n) AP:

        tx bitrate: 36.0 MBit/s

    "MCS index", indicating a 802.11n AP:

        tx bitrate: 300.0 MBit/s MCS 15 40Mhz short GI

    "VHT", indicating support for 802.11ac:

        tx bitrate: 86.7 MBit/s VHT-MCS 8 short GI VHT-NSS 1

    Compare this with the Linux driver 802.11n table. You'll see how the example "MCS 15 40Mhz short GI" 300 MBit/s corresponds to a row within the "HT40 rates" for the "short 400ns GI" column.

    To see what your Wi-Fi adapter is generally capable of, independent of the AP link, run iw phy0 info (synonymous to iw list) and look for keywords like HT (802.11n) / VHT (802.11ac, (Very) High Throughput), MCS (Modulation and Coding Schemes) index number and long/short GI (Guard Interval).

    For more explanations, continue with this Super User answer.

    • 12
    1. try lshw -C network
    2. try iwconfig and search for Bit Rate
    3. try lspci | grep -i wireless
    4. wavemon is the ultimate tool for wireless
    • 3

  3. With sudo lshw -C network you should be able to see which modes you wifi adapter supports. But since your problem seems to be the router find out your wifi adapters name using iwconfig (should be something like wlan0 or eth0). Then try a iwlist wlan0 scan (replace wlan0 with your adapters name). It will list the supported bit rates. If the highest is is 54Mbit/s your router doesn't seem to support the n standard.

    This way you can find out if you should be able to connect with the n standard. Sadly I know no way to find out what standard the present connection uses.

    • 1

  4. this question was already answered: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/62265/linux-find-wifi-networks-protocola-b-g-n-version-of-all-available-access-point

    in short issue: iw dev wlan0 scan and the output should indicate which access point has what capabilities around you.

    More details are in the mentioned link.

    • 0

  5. You can install WiFi Radar which is a utility for managing, scanning, and auto-connecting to WiFi profiles.

    https://wifi-radar.tuxfamily.org/

    It appears to be in the Ubuntu repository

    https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=wifi-radar

    sudo apt install wifi-radar
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