Windows Networking Rant

My Comcast Wi-Fi's SSID is Comcast1 and uses a seperate password then the extender. The Extender SSID's are Comcast1-PRO-2.4 and Comcast1-PRO-5G. Today While transfering a large folder to the Mini PC over Wi-Fi I noticed that the transfer speed was around 50% slower. At first I was thinking that I was going to have to return my new WI-Fi 6 card. It turned out that the computer had some how switched from Comcast1 to Comcast1-PRO-5G. It use to happen with my old extender. I have tried looking under every setting I could find to get my computers to forget the extender networks and nothing works. Windows Wi-Fi networking has a lot of bugs that need to be worked out.

Are you positive what you are calling an extender is not a repeater? WiFi repeaters, extenders and access points all improve your WiFi signal and range, however, they do it in different ways. A WiFi extender connects directly to your router using ethernet and creates a new WiFi network. An access point also connects using ethernet. A WiFi repeater connects to your network wirelessly and rebroadcasts your existing network signal and ssid. ( The biggest downside of a repeater is it essentially halves your wireless bandwidth which slows your network.

glasskuter said:

Are you positive what you are calling an extender is not a repeater? WiFi repeaters, extenders and access points all improve your WiFi signal and range, however, they do it in different ways. A WiFi extender connects directly to your router using ethernet and creates a new WiFi network. An access point also connects using ethernet. A WiFi repeater connects to your network wirelessly and rebroadcasts your existing network signal and ssid. ( The biggest downside of a repeater is it essentially halves your wireless bandwidth which slows your network.

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I don't think you're understanding my complaint. It's not about the speed or how I have it hooked up. It's the fact that my desktop automatically connected to it. I only set it up to extend the signal from my house to my shed. As for the transfer speeds through the extender, I can say that it's on par with the transfer speeds I was getting before upgrading the WI-FI card in my old desktop to a Wi-Fi 6 card.

Winuser said:

It's the fact that my desktop automatically connected to it. I only set it up to extend the signal from my house to my shed.

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Do you have the PC's Wi-Fi set to "Connect automatically when in range". Thinking here if that's set to auto, it should "switch".

Dru2 said:

Do you have the PC's Wi-Fi set to "Connect automatically when in range". Thinking here if that's set to auto, it should "switch".

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I have tried all setting that I can find on both of my desktops and it still happens. I would think that after choosing to forget the network I would have to enter the password to connect. I had forgotten about this bug until it happened today. I have posted about this problem before and I agree with everyone who says it shouldn't happen.

Edit: If it happens again I'm going to unplug the extender and only plug it in when I need it.

Just checking. I don't have any other suggestions as I don't run extenders.

Winuser said:

I have tried all setting that I can find on both of my desktops and it still happens. I would think that after choosing to forget the network I would have to enter the password to connect. I had forgotten about this bug until it happened today. I have posted about this problem before and I agree with everyone who says it shouldn't happen.

Edit: If it happens again I'm going to unplug the extender and only plug it in when I need it.

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I just don't understand why your computer is connecting to the extender when you say automatic is not selected.

For example, my computer always connects to the SSID MisterEd (5GHz) because I checked the box Connect automatically. However, it will never accidentally connect to MisterEd2G (2.4GHz) because I have not checked the box Connect automatically.



You might try changing the WiFi password for the Extender. That way there is no way the computer can connect to it since it does not know what the WiFi password is. Otherwise you might have to disconnect the extender if you keep having problems.

MisterEd said:

You might try changing the WiFi password for the Extender.

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This ^ I’ve had to do it before with my AiMesh and I never worked out why. Changing the password helped.

MisterEd said:

I just don't understand why your computer is connecting to the extender when you say automatic is not selected.

For example, my computer always connects to the SSID MisterEd (5GHz) because I checked the box Connect automatically. However, it will never accidentally connect to MisterEd2G (2.4GHz) because I have not checked the box Connect automatically.

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You might try changing the WiFi password for the Extender. That way there is no way the computer can connect to it since it does not know what the WiFi password is. Otherwise you might have to disconnect the extender if you keep having problems.

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I'm on my other desktop and I have clicked on the Wi-Fi icon and for the two extender networks I have made sure that auto connect is unselected. Then I chose the forget network option. After that I went into more Wi-Fi setting > Manage known networks and did the same thing and guess what? The two networks are back and the auto connect is selected. I'm being serious, my two computers refuse to forget the networks. As for changing the password, I don't even know how my desktops even know what it is. If I remember correctly I used my old laptop to set it up.

I just tried to connect to the extender and was asked for a password. Hopefully the problem has finally solved itself.

Winuser said:

I'm on my other desktop and I have clicked on the Wi-Fi icon and for the two extender networks I have made sure that auto connect is unselected. Then I chose the forget network option. After that I went into more Wi-Fi setting > Manage known networks and did the same thing and guess what? The two networks are back and the auto connect is selected. I'm being serious, my two computers refuse to forget the networks. As for changing the password, I don't even know how my desktops even know what it is. If I remember correctly I used my old laptop to set it up.

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When you show the list of available networks and you select any one of them then Windows will automatically select Connect automatically. When that happens you need to unselect that if that is not something you want. I find that annoying.

I have a disliking for WiFi. It’s the reason I networked my house.

Talking about windows networking, I have spent ages trying to get one of my laptops to show its shares on the other devices.
Turned out that the FDPHost svc was not started. Put it on automatic and bingo. Odd that it wasn't configured correctly.

And another one. One of my devices stopped accessing my NAS with the "\\WDMYCLOUD\Public" address. I had to use the IP no.
After much hunting I found an answer from the superuser.com site. The answer was:-
Execute ipconfig /flushdns
Execute netsh interface IP delete arpcache
Then reboot PC and router.

This enabled me to use the wdmycloud address again.

This stuff keeps me busy but I have plenty of time being long retired!

linw said:

And another one. One of my devices stopped accessing my NAS with the "\\WDMYCLOUD\Public" address. I had to use the IP no.
After much hunting I found an answer from the superuser.com site. The answer was:-
Execute ipconfig /flushdns
Execute netsh interface IP delete arpcache
Then reboot PC and router.

This enabled me to use the wdmycloud address again.

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I've got a WD MyCloud NAS (PR4100) connected to Windows 11, and never had to do any of that. I've mapped drives from it.

Also have no network issues and can and access all my PCs over the network. The biggest thing I've found is the PC has to be powered on and awake... NOT sleep or hibernated to be seen and accessed over the network. This is from my Windows 11 Pro main rig showing the other 3 Windows 10 PCs. All are accessible over the net via Remote Desktop or by clicking any shared folders I have setup.



Shared folders also work without issue. Here's my laptop showing a shared drive (red box), also mapped, from my main rig. Also shown are mapped NAS drives....

The case I mentioned was a rarity for me. Three other devices were still fine. The fix reflects that somehow a DNA error was embedded in a cache.

linw said:

The case I mentioned was a rarity for me. Three other devices were still fine. The fix reflects that somehow a DNA error was embedded in a cache.

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DNA or DLNA?

Anyway, I don't use DLNA. It's not even installed. I steam from the unit, but it's through Plex.

I really don't know what the problem was. I was just putting my experience out in case it helped others with the same problem.
The problem machine is still working fine