wifi adapter issues

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Zargut
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wifi adapter issues

Post by Zargut »

I have an intel 3168 dual band wifi card. And lately its acting strange. (win10)

It will never load on startup after the computer has been turned off for say, overnight. It usually loads on a restart but not always. Sometimes a second reboot is needed.

Sometimes it says there is no wifi adapter installed, other times it loses the "connect automatically" and I have to manually make it connect.

I've tried turning off its power management, did a full uninstall and delete of drivers, tried driver rollback, updating drivers. All to no avail.

This morning I notice there are 6 of my 5g networks. mynetwork-5g, mynetwork2-5g. mynetwork3-5g and so on.

I forgot all networks and then reconnected.

Sometimes the power management resets itself after I have turned it off.
Sometimes it seems like the computer thinks there is no wifi card installed.
Sometimes it recognizes the card but has a problem with it.

I'm leaning to just getting a new wifi card but if its a windows issue that would be a waste of money.
I've thought about drilling a hole through the wall and just running cat5 but that would be messy and about a 40-50 foot run.

Something like this? https://www.microcenter.com/product/456 ... ss-adapter

Or this? https://www.microcenter.com/product/625 ... nd-mu-mimo

Its just really a pita and I don't want to have it just fail outright on me.

Any ideas or suggestions much appreciated.

Zarg
Rapitiss
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Post by Rapitiss »

I don't have any good advise on the hardware but I will say that investing the time to run network cables was a huge benefit for me.

Wife very rarely complains about the TV's or computers failing to connect ( unless we have a real power outage and the service blips )
Faeodorus
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Post by Faeodorus »

The ac card is wifi 5, the ax card is wifi 6. If your router supports wifi 6 it is the better option. Both card should work though, if the card is the issue. Personally I drilled holes in the floor/wall and ran an ethernet cable to my main rig. I leave everything else on wifi though (laptops, smart TV, security cameras, etc)
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Thalsadoom
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Post by Thalsadoom »

I once thought about drilling holes and pulling cable because PCs in other rooms as well as wifi degrading over distance and levels. I decided against it and went with Powerline Ethernet. It's been around a long while but basically piggybacks off house power lines to pass the ethenet signal. Just need one at the switch and as many others in the rooms you want.

I've been using them for 15+ years over multiple houses and never had an issue. Only downside is some signal speed lose. For 100mbs it may be 75 or a bit less depending on how many circuits it may need to jump though. However its consistant and more reliable connection then wireless.

You can pick up kits for around $40-100 based on how many endpoints you want.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing ... etworking/
Zargut
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Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:45 pm
Location: Taos, NM

Post by Zargut »

Interesting, I had heard about that many years ago but forgot about it. with a new wifi card running $40 to $50, that might be a similarly priced option. Thanks I'll check it out!

Zarg
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