Is it common for ssh access to the Raspberry Pi 3 to be extremely sluggish when access via ssh?
I have found this to be a pattern. There is zero issues when I connect via the ethernet port.
Don’t know that it’s common because I used wired ethernet with this platform. Typically, wireless doesn’t compete well with wired ethernet. For me, wireless is always a known compromise.
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If you are using the on-board WiFi, yes it’s a lot less responsive than ethernet. If you use a USB WiFi adapter it will probably improve.
Many thanks. Makes good sense. I think I have an extra cable so will just switch back to a wired connection. I think I will use the “ed” editor… 
Vim will be way too slow!
The current WiFi 802.11ax is very competitive with Gigabit Ethernet. The hardware has been out a couple of years, but is still pricey. A USB dongle is about $100 and an access point or router is about $300 for entry level stuff. I’ve tested speeds on the virtually empty 6GHz band and I’m seeing near 2 Gigabit speeds. That being said, I returned the equipment for credit and decided to wait for 802.11be hardware in 2025 to upgrade my network. 10 GBE is overkill for a home network.
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However, for ssh you don’t really need much speed, you just need a reliable connection. The problem with WiFi isn’t raw speed, it’s range/coverage and interference from neighbor’s WiFi. You can work the range and coverage aspect yourself, but you can’t do much about interference from a neighbor’s WiFi (except maybe enclosing your house in a metal box!).
Other solutions that have been mentioned before on here are using the requisite adapters for ethernet over power lines or ethernet over coax I’m not sure about power lines (because both ends should be on the same circuit and same phase in order to work well). However, if you have an unused coax cable run that is convenient to your RPi and router that might work.
Are you also using Bluetooth on that RPi - for example to connect a mouse or keyboard?
Have you tried moving the WiFi to a different channel?
RaspiOS seems to default to powersave ON for on-board wireless interfaces. One thing to try:
If the command
sudo iw wlan0 get power_save
returns on try turning it off with the command
sudo iw wlan0 set power_save off
log out and back in to check if the connection is still sluggish.
Many references to Pi wireless powersave and ssh, I found the one in this link to be useful for turning it off and keeping it off.
Many thanks! Will give it a try!
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