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Hello everyone,

so, I'm a total noob when it comes to routers and wi-fi technology and I encountered some issues, I hope someone here can at least tell me some basic information how to diagnose the problem, or point me to some place where I could read some solid information on the topic, for noobs. There are lots of places in the internet about this, of course, but the information is very chaotic and all different guides do not really explain much.

First, some basic info about my network. I have a router that spreads internet to a few devices by wi-fi, typically that's a laptop, 2 smartphones and a printer, on top of that there is a wired connection to my PC.

The issue I have is that I replaced my very old, supercheap TP-link router with Asus RT-AC53. I did that, because I had some issues with connection via smartphones and in general I thought it was time for an upgrade. Phones work great with the router (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), speed is faster, stability is much better. However, I have issues with the laptop. First of all, it has troubles connecting to the printer at times, not starting the printing correctly or sending only half of the page. At the same time, I can print without any problems with my PC, so I don't think it's an issue with connection from printer to router.

The signal strength is at maximum when those issues happens. The laptop thinks it is connected to the internet and everything is ok. It happens even when the 2 devices are sitting next to each other.

The laptop in question is HP Probook 450 G2.

I checked a few things that came to my mind, energy settings for wi-fi module on laptop, I tried tweaking some router settings, but as I said, I'm a noob, so that didn't help. There are a few wi-fi networks here, but I selected a channel in range that is more or less empty, it should not be making problems.

Interruptions in the internet connection seems to be quite random. When they happen, they last for between few seconds and few minutes, then everything is ok for several minutes or even half an hour (checked with Axence netTools). However, even with no issues with connection to the outside internet, I had troubles with the printer. I really don't know what could be causing this, where next to look... Any help will be appreciated.

Make sure you have the latest firmware for your router, and the latest driver for the WiFi on the problem laptop.

I already did the first thing, but forgot about driver on laptop. Thanks for the hint, will do that now.

Had similar "random" problem, had to go into the wifi drivers settings and turn off anything to do with sleep i think. No longer have that device so i cant lookup exactly what it was. Possibly fixed by newer Intel wifi drivers, this was more than a year ago.

I have changed drivers, actually to an older version, from HP website, compared to what I had installed (presumably by Windows Update). I guess there was a reason why HP had older version (from last year) on their page. I need more time to see if it fixed the issues, so far it looks good.

Wifi drivers can be a real pain. You'd think with say, a top tier vendor like Intel you wouldn't have problems. But I've dealt with numerous issues with our corporate fleet using Intel 7260 and 7265 adapters connecting to enterprise grade (Cisco) APs. When I did some google fu I determined there was issues not just with our specific model of laptop, but other brands and models using the same wifi chip. Newer drivers resolved most issues, but interestingly even though the sku of the ThinkPads didn't change at all, later ordered units of the *exact* same laptop had a different hw revision number on the Wifi adapter. Hmmm. Just be glad you're dealing with one problematic laptop rather than hundreds.

TLDR Wifi is hard

Ok, it looks like changing drivers to an older version didn't help and moreover, the fault is not on the laptop's side. I have now had the issues with printing from my PC as well. Any other ideas, what to check? Printer seems to be connected to the network, but again, it receives only part of a page. Sometimes it works correctly though... Router is sitting next to the printer. Could it be some hardware fault in the router, should I send it back?

Does the printer have a wired network port? Could try plugging it directly into the router if so.

No, and that wouldn't really solve the issue, as I think laptop also gets breaks in connection from time to time.

CarlosT wrote:

How to recover router password? Is this any way? Please let me know.

If you need a default password, and it's not printed on the back of the router, try searching Google using the router brand as a keyword. For example, if you have a Linksys router, try "Linksys router default password" and then try to login using the various combinations.

Otherwise, you probably need to reset the router using the factory reset button, and then login with the default password and set a new configuration.

Some Wi-Fi printers that I've seen actually created their own Wi-Fi network and you printed directly to that instead of through the "normal" Wi-Fi network. It was weird and didn't work well, but maybe there's an option to not use the printer's built-in Wi-Fi? Always use cabled printing, if you can.

That's usually via WiFi Direct where the 2 devices decide who is going to run as a software Access Point. Also used for things like Miracast.

Not in this case, the printer simply connects to existing wi-fi network. It worked perfectly with the previous router and I need this functionality, as then main PC doesn't need to be up for the printer to be available.

If the printer is old enough that it is using wireless g, you may need to enable "b/g protection" in the wireless settings.

It's already enabled. Not sure if I changed it at some point or it was like that by default.

Are there any settings in the router's firmware that enable filtering communications between LAN devices? (I have not poked around in an Asus router settings for a while, so I don't remember.)

CarlosT wrote:

Thank you so much for your reply. But I am looking for a good article so that this could be helpful for me and guide me well step by step.

The procedure varies depending on the brand and model of the router, and you may need screen-shot images of the router's interface. For a step-by-step guide for a specific router, try the owner's manual. It usually ships with the router in a booklet or CD, but if you don't have those, try the vendor's website and download a copy.