Slow or Erratic Wi-Fi in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS? Try Wicd

Ever since I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Wi-Fi connection has become a pain in the neck. In my laptop, though the network-manager detects my router and easily connects to it through Wi-Fi, internet connection itself was really slow and erratic. On the other hand, Wi-Fi connection itself started dropping very often in my netbook.

Slow Internet Over Wi-Fi Issue in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Both my the laptop and netbook had Wi-Fi speed and connectivity related issues after upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and above (netbook is running Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 1). Either Wi-Fi kept dropping or it became painfully slow. I had to do all kinds of stuff to reconnect it again and sometimes, even a full system restart won't make it connect to Wi-Fi.

Then I came to know about Wicd from this reddit thread. All the time I was thinking like this is some sort of issue caused by faulty network driver, never did I suspect Ubuntu's default Network Manager itself. So I decided to give Wicd (an alternate network manager available in default Ubuntu 12.04 repositories) a try. I installed Wicd and removed network-manager afterwards. Much to my amazement, everything started to work great afterwards.

How to Fix Slow/Erratic Wi-Fi Problem in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS?

• First, you need to install Wicd from Ubuntu Software Center.

• CLICK HERE to install Wicd network manager from Ubuntu Software Center.

• After Wicd installation is complete, search for 'network-manager' in Ubuntu Software Center and remove it before going any further.

• Now, open Wicd from Unity Dash (see screenshot above). Wicd will automatically detect the available networks around. Simply enter the credentials and CONNECT.

• And when you tick "Automatically connect to this network" option, Wicd will be added to your Startup Applications list. And you're good to go.

• OR if you prefer command line, all you need to do is the following:

sudo apt-get install wicd
sudo apt-get purge network-manager

If this is indeed a network-manager related issue, I wonder how such a serious problem went unnoticed for a long-term support (LTS) release. I hope it gets fixed soon. Until then, you can always use Wicd. Thanks for reading.