Everyone - please check your logs for devices frequently reconnecting to Wi-Fi

[Cliff_G]

We had the wi-fi dropout problem which looks to be fixed by the latest firmware, r4.26.3.  However, we still have one problem which wasn't there prior to the r4.16.1 update and is not fixed by r4.26.3.  This is that one laptop, an HP, reconnects to the wi-fi every 6 seconds. The Hub is an SH31B

This issue is not obvious unless you look at the log, or do something like streaming or a video call and notice that it is freezing or stuttering.

Please, everyone, go to the Hub web page at 192.168.1.254, go to Advanced Settings, Technical Log / Event log tab and scan the log for any device (MAC address) connecting multiple times.  You will probably need to hit the Next page button several times, but with us, the same MAC address connecting every 6 seconds becomes very obvious after only a couple of next page-s.

If you ARE getting this problem, can you please post here and include info such as Main vs Comp wifi, what GHz it's connecting at, and anything else you think relevant.

Thanks

[bobpullen]

@Cliff_G - do you have an extender? Looking at my logs, I've a suspicion extender events aren't being captured. If so, I could see this creating a situation where a device 'flapping' between hub and extender might lead to some confusing log entires.

Do you have another machine you could ping the laptop from? Maybe worth leaving a continuous ping running to see if you see any packet loss that correlates with the times in the logs?

> ping <ip_addr_of_laptop> -t

[Cliff_G]

No, Bob, no extender. Very simple system, router located bang in the middle of the house on an open stairwell and good signal throughout, a couple of laptops, ditto tablets, ditto phones, DAB/Internet radio, TV, printer and PVR (last two via ethernet-over-mains). No IoT.

May look at the ping idea.

[Andy_65]

Hi @Cliff_G 

I've been having a similar problem with my HP laptop. The problem mostly occurs when it's first booted up or woken from sleep, it'll disconnect/reconnect about every 9 seconds. After 20 minutes or so it seems to settle down and I can have no issues for hours. When it's stable, streaming isn't a problem. Some days are better than others.

It's connected at 5 GHz on the main network. 

None of my other devices. Apple and Android, have had any connection issues on either 2.4 or 5 GHz. I originally thought it could be a laptop issue as I hadn't had any other connection issues. The latest Hub firmware has made no difference.

I woke the laptop from sleep at around 6:30 tonight and it disconnected/reconnected for 20 minutes or so and has been rock solid since about 7pm. Quite often during the disconnect/reconnect period, it can look as if it's connected but drops as soon as you click a link/refresh etc.

[XRaySpeX]

@Andy_65 : How old is your lappy? Which model is it?

[Andy_65]

@XRaySpeX 

It's just over 5 years old, it's a HP Notebook 14s-dq1505sa.

[XRaySpeX]

@Andy_65 : Sometimes older or weaker devices may not be compatible with the default WiFi settings of EE Smart Hubs. Try setting up Compatible WiFi on the router under Advanced > Wireless Settings > Config > Compatible WiFi (it defaults to 2.4 GHz only & WPA2) & connect your problematic devices to that.

[JimM11]

@Andy_65 Does anything show up as written entries in the Computer Management, event viewer, windows Log, then system have a look there and see if the network is writing an entry?

Just fought an Asus laptop off the wifes intermittent screen flicker, got p'd off with it and eventually just took it re-installed win11 on it, restored her files from the cloud backup been a week now and sucker has not done it again.

Will say it's also about 5 years or so old as started life as a Win10 Home device but now running win11 Home. Pretty good spec on your Laptop even though it has a Realtec WiFi 5 Nic card in it. Version HP say's is realtec rtl8822ce 

[Andy_65]

@XRaySpeX  I've turned on compatible wifi and connected to that, I'll see what happens with it tomorrow. I've a Toshiba laptop that's around 10 years old and hasn't been booted up for about 2 years. That has just connected to the normal wifi no problem.

@JimM11  I did have a look at the Windows Logs after reading your post in the other firmware thread. I couldn't see anything obvious around the time that I was having disconnects/reconnects, although I don't really know what I'm looking at. The only things that stood out were:

"The time provider 'VMICTimeProvider' has indicated that the current hardware and operating environment is not supported and has stopped."

and

"A request to allocate an ephemeral port number from the global UDP port space has failed due to all such ports being in use."

[JimM11]

@Andy_65 Lets see how it holds up against the Comp network on a WPA2-PSK connection first, event's would be getting written every time the card connects / disconnect's on the network you would be seeing hundreds off entries in the time period if they were written. Can be your card just does not like the WPA3-T mode off operation.

Will stick my laptop to sleep and show what it does. Can also get the Netwtw08 entries when the card play's silly but that is once in a blue moon, spot it straight away as network get's sluggish so when i look they are written regular.

Start off sleepEnd off sleep