Wireless Adapter Problem
 

Need some help from those far smarter than I am.

I have a surface Pro that I dock up at the office. Yesterday the internet quit working on the machine, so come to find out the signal is super weak. Shit. Another computer in the office is working fine.

So I take the rig home and take it to the other end of the house from my router and it has great signal. Much longer distance, more wall the whole works.

Thinking it may have lined itself out I took it back and another laptop into the office. The laptop works fine, still no signal strength on the Surface.

Initially, I thought the hardware was failing, but it works at the house. I thought the router was failing but the spare laptop and the other computer are working fine. I have no idea what in the flying **** is going on.

Hardware Specs:

Computer: Surface Pro 4

Wireless Adapter: Marvell AVASTAR Wireless AC - Network Controller

Driver Version: 15.68.9125.57

Protocol 802.11N both routers.

Home Router: Shitty ass ATT Modem/Router combo

Office Router: Some ****ing high dollar MicroTik job that is supposed to be business class - provided by the ISP.

Any idea what I have going on here? TIA

Wireless signal issues are a giant mess to troubleshoot. Things you can try:

-Update the driver for the wireless card on your Surface.
-Experiment with 2.4GHz vs. 5GHz bands on the router.
-Experiment with various channels on the router.

Woof. That may be above my pay grade.

When I update the driver will it download it then install or do I have to do it on a different machine and get it on a USB? - no Ethernet port.

Assuming you can get a network connection on the Surface at all, you should be able to just download and install it.

Also power cycle the router at the office just for fun.

I can get connection at the house no problem.

I rebooted the router like 45 times.

Could be some sort of interference as well. Would need to run some sort of wireless survey tool, or Fluke device to be sure though.

Wireless Card has the most up to date driver. I'll see if I can get into the router tomorrow and mess with the bands/channels.

That second laptop I brought in I sat next to the Surface. That should preclude it from being interference.

Just to make sure, they're both on the exact same network? (It's possible for one router to put out both a 2.4GHz signal and a 5GHz, which would have dramatic differences in range and bandwidth.)

Fair enough. I have no idea what it's doing.

Normally they'd have it set to default to two separate networks like BuehlerNetwork and BuehlerNetwork_5G or BuehlerNetwork_2. If they're both connecting to the same SSID (network name), that answers my question. But double-check it.

Yeah. There is only one network name.

This shit is all like reading Mandarin to me, but it looks like it is all on the same channel/band/whatever. Obviously 10.10.10.31 is the computer that isn't working.

2.4 GHz is the only band it operates out of. I selected N only, to see if that would make a difference and it did nothing.

I couldn't find anywhere to change the channel. It's supposed to have a shitload of channels but I'm pretty stupid on this stuff.

Any other ideas?

In my experience it usually takes 46 reboots to fix issues such as this.

What options do you have under "band" and "frequency"?

Not really. Not all wireless NICs are created equal. Some are better than others, and some have better antenna placement within the laptop shell. Unless I'm misunderstanding you, and both laptops are surface pros?

I'd go to the nearest Wireless Access Point (WAP) in your office - you can see them hanging from the ceiling usually - and try connecting to the wifi there. If it connects there, we know it's a signal problem and you probably need to get an IT/Networking guy involved and have them do a site survey/heat map. If the WAPs are above the ceiling tiles, just walk around the office space and see if you can connect anywhere. They're usually not that far apart. Usually 30-40 feet or so.

Shit. I don't remember what is under band.

Frequency was

2.4 A only
2.4 B only
2.4 A and B only
2.4 N only
2.4 A, B, N

No the other one was a junky old laptop I mothballed but keep around.

I'm flying solo here. The office consists of me and my dad. ISP installed the Service and router. Then there is a switch and a printer. No IT guys, no multi point access, just dumbass farmers.

To his point, if you take the Surface over near the router, does it work fine?

I'll check when I get back out there.

Under frequency there is
2412
2417
2422
2427
2432
2437
2442
Auto

Yes. Works fine. Good signal, loads pages. Whole works. Mind you this is about 15 feet and 1 wall away from where it won't get good enough signal to do anything.

You could try messing with that, though I honestly doubt it'll make much of a difference.

Try turning off blue tooth on the Surface Pro.

I reached out to Buehler directly since it was basically just me and him working on it, but this was the winner. He recently got a new bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and every time they're on, the network drops.

Unfortunately, it seems like the only good solution is to upgrade the router so that he can use 5GHz instead, but that's better than nothing.

Yeah. Face is a wizard.

Glad that worked....er….not glad, but you know what I mean. That Bluetooth issue is a fundamental flaw of some Surfaces that Microsoft doesn't seem to want to own up to. We discovered it a year or so ago at the company I work for.