How to Increase broadband internet speed in Ubuntu 12.04

Bought a new HP dv6 I7 laptop from OfficeMax recently. It is a flashy laptop, with fingerprint reader, beats audio, and all. Having been a linux addict, I had vowed not to start installing linux straight away, but Microsoft didn't let me be. Within a week of regular windows updates, the headphone jack suddenly stopped working after a regular update.

While I was busy getting annoyed and researching about the solutions, the Linux devil inside me was dancing and doing back flips. Within a few hours, I was frantically writing the Ubuntu iso to a flash drive, and 20 minutes later, was logging in to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu was a treat to the eyes and looked gorgeous in the dv6. It was all that they said in the various Ubuntu reviews all over the internet. However, it was not without its share of problems.

@ beats audio could not be enabled, although the default audio was good enough. (Adding model=ref in alsa conf made it worse, so had t revert back.)

@ fingerprint reader was not recognized, not even by fprint.

@ internet was dead slow; I was getting 3MBPS in a 20MBPS line. This was a deal breaker.

Although I could do nothing about the first two issues, I searched around to improve the internet speed, and came across this wonderful post.

http://www.hitxp.com/articles/software/ubuntu-fix-slow-wireless-internet-connection-speed-upgrading-11-04-natty-narwhal/

It said that the problem was that Ubuntu was managing power to the wireless interface. The reduction in speed was because of the low power supply to the adapter.

I followed the instructions and turned off power management in iwconfig, and voila! The speed was suddenly up from a weak 3 MBPS to a vicious 19MBPS!!

The world became a wonderful place again. Peace.