Any network experts please ?

[kc1di]

1st step I would install linssid

sudo apt install linssid

Then run it and look at 1 the power levels and 2 the congestion on the channel your card is using. if it's very congested try a different channel.
2nd would be to turn off the network managers power save feature by
Going to /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf
open it in a text editor (kate) and change the line that reads
wifi.powersave = 3
to
wifi.powersave = 2

Reboot see if that helps.

[fatbloke]

Ok so it's like this..........

small "network" icon bottom right looks ok when I log in, but after a while, I get a dialogue that says it knows it's connected but with limited connectivity. I've mulled it all over and started to try and understand this issue. Other devices that connect to the BB router (from SKY) don't seem to be affected. Just my older style PC (an HP tower). I prefer cabled connections to this device (but It can do bluetooth/wireless as well), I use powerline networking and to rule that out, I replaced the powerline kit - which seems to be working fine (as far as I can tell).

I don't believe it (the tower) is being disconnected, just that there seems to be some sort of intermittent issue.

My network card is RealTek based, and some reading suggests that they sometimes have issues - I've done all the updates that I know how to do, but to no avail - other than to tell me everything is up to date.

The bit of reading that I've done says about network cards are better if they're using intel chips as those ones work from the kernel and not with some extra driver of some sort.

Can anyone suggest how I might be able to examine the performance of my current network card ?

I've got no issue about replacing a network card physically, but a quick look at Amazon and there's many different makes that use intel chips and I have no way of knowing whether brand X is better than brand Y, or whether I could stick to a cheaper model or whether I would need a higher end/more premium make/model

As ever, any guidance you may be able to offer is very much appreciated.......