- Some HP laptops with the Realtek WiFi chipset card RTL8723BE have just one antenna on that card designed for two (stingy HP, anyone?). This has caused many problems for Linux users, as the default antenna is usually the missing one…
But thanks to Larry Finger and the good people at Realtek you can do some testing with a module parameter that allows for antenna selection. As follows:
a. Launch a terminal window.
b. First unload the currently active module with this command
sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723be
Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that’s normal. In Mint this has changed: you’ll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.
c. Then reload it with the instruction to use antenna number 2, with this command:
sudo modprobe rtw_8723be ant_sel=2
Press Enter.
d. Then check the signal strength with this command:
iwlist scan | egrep -i ‘ssid|quality’
Press Enter.
e. Then test the the other antenna (number 1), to find out which one has a stronger signal. For this, execute the following three commands:
sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723be
sudo modprobe rtw_8723be ant_sel=1
iwlist scan | egrep -i ‘ssid|quality’
f. If ant_sel=2 gives the best signal (which is usually the case), do this
echo “options rtw_8723be ant_sel=2” | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/rtw_8723be.conf
Reboot your computer.
*If ant_sel=1 gives the best signal (unusual, but not impossible), do this (this is one line, [use copy/paste]
echo “options rtw_8723be ant_sel=1” | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/rtw_8723be.conf
Copy and pasted from website