Ubuntu – Connection dropouts with RealTek RTL8188CE

I'm an Ubuntu rookie with an unresolved wireless internet connection issue. I've spent a lot of time fiddling around in my never-ending quest to get my connection working properly, but my inexperience is beginning to show and I need a little extra help.

The issue in brief: slow speed (Ookla clocks in at ~5-8Mbps download speed – it should be ~20) and connection dropouts occur every ten minutes.

OS: Ubuntu 14.04
Kernel: 3.13.0-32-generic

I've done some homework and tried a lot of solutions from these forums. I think ultimately the problem is going to be with the driver rtl8192ce. I've tried changing it to rtl8188ce using FreedomBen's tutorial, but I can't fathom how to use script for the automatic installation (I have problems with manual installation too, but I don't want to ask two questions in one post, so I'll save them for later). Can anyone help me out? I think I have the .zip downloaded if that's important.

I've included outputs to various Terminal commands below that may also prove helpful.

lshw

description: Wireless interface
            product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
            vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
            physical id: 0
            bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
            logical name: wlan0
            version: 01
            serial: bc:ee:7b:e4:e8:22
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
            capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
            configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192ce driverversion=3.13.0-32-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.41 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn    

lsmod | grep rtl

rtl8192ce              52806  0 
rtl_pci                26314  1 rtl8192ce
rtlwifi                52835  2 rtl_pci,rtl8192ce
rtl8192c_common        47340  1 rtl8192ce
mac80211              546051  3 rtl_pci,rtlwifi,rtl8192ce
cfg80211              409394  2 mac80211,rtlwifi

iwconfig

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"virginmedia0147357"  
      Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: A0:21:B7:D6:9B:E2   
      Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
      Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
      Power Management:off
      Link Quality=46/70  Signal level=-64 dBm  
      Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
      Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:1   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

lspci

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)

Sorry if I've missed something obvious, I'm green as grass but, as you can see, willing to suffer a lot of hassle to avoid returning to Windows.