One computer on home network keeps dropping off

[Orrex]

I don't have all the technical specs, but here's the gist:

My wife's Lenovo laptop is the newest (4 months) computer in the house. We recently (2 months) upgraded our internet thru Comcast, and the service has been stable and consistent.

Starting yesterday, her laptop starting sporadically losing connection to our home network and each time is unable to reconnect for a while after. During these blips her computer auto-connects to our neighbor's wifi just fine (he gave us his password) but will not reconnect to our own, despite a much stronger home signal.

I held my phone a few inches above her laptop and was able to connect to our home network. Also, her laptop sees the network but can't connect to it, and she's using the correct password, since she's sometimes able to connect. She's rebooted several times without change. From all of this I infer that the problem is not her laptop's wifi receiver, but where does that leave us?

My younger son's laptop did this once yesterday, at the same time as my wife's, but it hasn't happened to him since then.

No other devices in the home are showing this problem, and for that matter my wife's laptop is the closest device to the modem (about 8 feet).

I'm not averse to calling Comcast about it, but I wanted to see if there's something I should try on this end first. I haven't yet rebooted the modem, since all other devices are connecting with no problems.

If I do call Comcast, should I describe the problem in some way beyond what I've stated above?


Thanks for any help.

[5X]

1. I would reboot the modem.

Comcast may consider the rest your equipment and will charge to figure it out if they are like cox.

If you can login to the modem, you can check more security settings.

[Orrex]

4. I'll try that

Might be easiest to reboot it later tonight. We'll see if that helps.

Thanks!

[Goonch]

2. https://xtrium.com/xfinity-wifi-keeps-disconnecting/

https://xtrium.com/xfinity-wifi-keeps-disconnecting/

[IbogaProject]

3. Wi-Fi driver on laptop

Wi-Fi driver on laptop?
Sometimes drivers get messed up on windows. Maybe try to find and download the Wi-Fi card driver and reinstall it. That is similar to ibstalling a new application.
Check which Wi-Fi card the laptop has, there could be issues between that & the router.
Finally think about where you have cable boxes, maybe you could move the splitter and router to another location.

[Orrex]

5. That's worth checking

The laptop may have done an update earlier this week. I'll check for card/driver issues.

Thanks!

[Ron Obvious]

6. Could be interference

You could try changing the channel or frequency in the WiFi settings.

[Emrys]

7. I replied to your dupe question in the Lounge, but I'll add it here

as if I'm pointing in the right direction, someone here may be able to help you better than I can.

Had a similar problem with our home network.

If I'm on the right track, the remedy probably won't be the same for you, but it may give you an avenue for exploration.

Wifi routers will sometimes change channels if they detect too much inteference on a specific channel. They can be set to do this automatically so you don't notice - until a problem like mine (and maybe yours) turns up.

In our case, the laptop with dropped connection problems was old and its wireless adapter didn't support one of the channels available on our newer laptop that was one our wifi sometimes skipped to, so it behaved as you're describing.

I just set the wifi to a fixed channel both laptops could cope with - problem solved.

I was working on old Windows XP machines so I can't walk you through how to check and change the channel settings in Windows 10 (at the laptop end, you may have manufacturer-specific software taking care of that side of things anyway).

[uriel1972]

8. Late to the party...

and may be totally off beam, but I had major problems with networking one computer until I checked it's system time. Just an off the wall suggestion.

[Orrex]

9. Thanks

Turns out that wasn't it, but that it was still an interesting suggestion.

[Orrex]

10. Overdue update

Well, the issue appears resolved via workaround, and in fact it was two issues.

Still don't know what messed up my wife's system, and she still can't maintain a solid connection on the 2.4 network, even after rebooting the Comcast modem, but she connects & stays connected on the 5 just fine.

Turns out my son's connection problem, which happened a few more times, was due to a driver package he'd downloaded without telling me. These kids today. Ran a system restore to undo the drivers, and he was once again able to connect reliably on both the 2.4 and 5 networks.

Thanks to all who offered suggestions!