WiFi is VERY unreliable

My laptop's wifi does not work most of the time.

• The power led is on
• WiFi status shows I'm connected, at 3/5 strength in my usual location.

When I check the task manager, it'll download at roughly 30mbps for half a minute, and then the next hour it just sits there at 0kbps. Often, turning off wifi (for example, airplane mode) and back on will repeat the cycle, where it seems to work just fine for half a minute, and then flat out stops. It stays at 0kbps, occasionally jumping to a whopping 8kbps. I'd rather be on dialup.

The store has diagnosed the laptop and found no problems with the internal adapter.

So one of the things I eventually did was taking the wireless adapter from one of my other computers and plugging it in. It worked. After days of frustration, I figured: "Whatever. I'll just use this adapter since the other PC is basically a dust collector at this point". Fast-forward a few months and I'm back to where I started: for some reason my external adapter is now giving me the middle finger and I'm having the *exact* same issues now.

For example, I go to youtube and start watching a video in 1080p.
http://s29.postimg.org/7gr10fptz/youtube.png
Works fine, buffers the first half minute, and then it's over. Nothing. No youtube, no mail, nothing. I'm not even getting local firefox error pages (the typical "connection failed" message) but the spinner just keeps spinning indefinitely.
I took this screenshot right after the problems started. The next hour it came back "online" once for about 5 minutes, before going back to "sleep".

The external adapter comes with 2 leds: a "link" led that is continuously on, and an "active" led that blinks when I'm actually using the network. It is interesting to note that when I'm having these issues (which is 90% of the time), the link led remains on, while the active led stops blinking.
Combined with the fact the store does not find anything wrong with the adapter and I'm absolutely positive the external adapter works, this leads me to believe something else (windows 8?) is preventing the adapter from working correctly.

Some statistics:

• Toshiba Laptop
• Windows 8.1
• i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60 Ghz
• 6 GB Memory
• Internal adapter: Realtek RTL8723AE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E
• External adapter: D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G122

Modem/Router:
B-box 3 - Belgacom
Unfortunately this crap has been forced on me by my ISP, and their line of modems are the only devices authorized to provide digital TV. The only thing I *could* try do is put a different router in front of it to take care of the in-house wifi, but besides the fact that's just a stupid setup, I don't simply have 1 lying around right now. Might still try it though, but not in the immediate future.

Things I've tried:

• Yes, I've gone through the basic troubleshooters. As far as windows is concerned, everything is perfectly fine.
• It's not the internet. I have 3 other computers at home (all on windows 7) and everything is perfectly fine with downloads up to 30mbps. I can easily watch HD youtube on all 3 devices simultaneously. Additionally, my ISP provides digital TV (basically glorified internet) which works just fine.
• Ethernet works. But barring the fact that it's a new-ish laptop and this stuff is SUPPOSED TO WORK, ethernet is simply not a workable option in my situation.
• Signal strength doesn't seem to be the issue. 5/5 when sitting right next to the modem and it still fails.
• External adapter now has the same issues...
• Countless little things like disabling firewalls, putting the modem into b/g mode (previously b/g/n), etc... Eventually, you get so desperate you'll try anything.

Anyone???

If this helps, ipconfig on the external adapter:

First: Is the wifi router yours or do you connect to some network?
Lease for an hour is very low. It seems like a public's wifi limitation?

The router is mine: B-box 3 - Belgacom

3600 seconds seems to be the default lease time. I could increase it if you think it'll help...

OK, for starters try changing DNS, it is actually always a good idea to use better DNS than ISP's.

https://support.opendns.com/entries/37540324-Windows-8-Configuration

Secondly: try disabling IPv6, it actually does not work that well at all, so it might be causing the problem.

Disable IPv6 | Windows 8

Third: most of the problems with wifi can be solved by disabling DHCP and setting up everything manually.
So unless you travel with your notebook, this might be the best option. It is annoying, but it usually works.

Check if your router support to set up a lease forever, if not you might need to disable it / that DHCP thingy.
Then you will just add all the info, you have already set up DNS and disabled IPv6, so just 3 more entries.

1. Already tried, it's currently set to google's.
2. Already tried, it's currently disabled again.
3. Lease forever isn't possible. I can try disabling DHCP just to see if it helps, but it's far from an optimal solution. Long-term, I don't want to change IP settings every day.

If disabling DHCP would work, there is a lot of software, which allows you to change it fast:

NetSetMan - Network Settings Manager | LAN & WLAN | Freeware & Pro

So that didn't help either.

I had DHCP disabled for 1 hour and had the exact same issues for the entire hour, so clearly it didn't help.
I now have a 24h lease time but still not helping.

Come on guys, can anyone help me out here??? It's been more than 2 weeks now that I've had this problem...

One thing is for sure: I'm not buying from Toshiba again. Piece of crap wifi and no support whatsoever.

Eleandor said:

The external adapter comes with 2 leds: a "link" led that is continuously on, and an "active" led that blinks when I'm actually using the network. It is interesting to note that when I'm having these issues (which is 90% of the time), the link led remains on, while the active led stops blinking.
Combined with the fact the store does not find anything wrong with the adapter and I'm absolutely positive the external adapter works, this leads me to believe something else (windows 8?) is preventing the adapter from working correctly.

Some statistics:

• Toshiba Laptop
• Windows 8.1
• i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60 Ghz
• 6 GB Memory
• Internal adapter: Realtek RTL8723AE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E
• External adapter: D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G122

Click to expand...

Are you driver's up to date? Did you upgrade to Windows 8.1 or was it preinstalled? I would try and update your drivers for your wireless adapter. I had a bunch of issues after upgrading to Windows 8.1 with wireless adapter as well. I ended up downloading a driver update program that updated my wireless adapter and it's been working fine. I was also told that most drivers that were preinstalled with Windows 7 ( If you upgraded) are not compatible with Windows 8.1. I hope I'm on the right page with you.

Shot in the dark here, but have you tried using your laptop right next to your router (same room, no obstacles between) ??

This might be a wi-fi channel problem, with your neighbors' wi-fi signals getting stronger than your router on the same channel or creating too much noise for your adapter. Try to do check what I asked first and if there's a definite improvement then change your router's wi-fi channel to something else, the recommended channels to use to avoid overlapping are 1, 6 and 11. If you want more precise information you could also use an utility like inSSIDer by MetaGeek or even via commandline (type : netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid). Both show the signal strength of wifi networks around you and can help choose the right one.

Agreed I forgot to mention that part. Don't know what I was thinking.

My drivers are up to date. I first tried to have windows look for updates, which notified me I was using the latest drivers.
I then manually downloaded the latest drivers from realtek because they were indeed more recent. Still did not solve the problem.

The laptop came pre-installed with windows 8. One of the things I tried to solve my connectivity issues was to upgrade to 8.1. Again, did not solve the problem.

oneeyed said:

Shot in the dark here, but have you tried using your laptop right next to your router (same room, no obstacles between) ??

Click to expand...

Well, pretty much anything I'm doing right now is a shot in the dark, so...
Anyway, the main location is 2 floors below the location of the router. But as I've had this problem for 2 weeks now (and actually much longer, considering I've had this problem before I started using an external adapter) obviously I've tried standing right next to the router. Again, did not help with the problem.

The router is using channel 11. As for nearby routers: they're all using channel 1 (except one is using channel 6, but its signal strength is very low anyway). I'm the only one on 11.

In a nutshell, here's the weird thing I'm experiencing:

• I get 5/5 signal strength, even when I'm 2 floors away (other devices I have show 3/5)
• The connection works just fine for 5 minutes, with internet speeds up to 30mbps when next to the router and half of that in my normal location.
• After some random interval (usually less than 10 minutes), it just stops. Windows does not tell me I have "limited connectivity" or "no internet access" or anything else. Windows problem solver does not detect anything wrong and still tells me I'm connected to my router.
• I can turn off wifi and back on, and with some luck I'll be able to connect again for the next 5 minutes. Sometimes even that doesn't work.
• Firefox keeps spinning indefinitely. Under normal circumstances, firefox would just go to a local page telling me I have no internet connection. In my case, it just keeps spinning indefinitely when trying to load a page.
• Clearly I'm not connected, despite what windows indicates. I can't surf the internet, I cannot connect to other devices on the local network. It's not that it's slow, there's just nothing there.

OK, one more thing, make sure, that you have IP and DNS set manually as before.
Type to run: services.msc - find the service - Network Store Interface Service.
Select startup type - set it to - Disabled - then - Stop it. Test the internet.
It will say, that it will stop a bunch services, that is OK for testing purposes.
When you finish testing, do the same, but set it to Automatic and Start it.

Eleandor, what router model and does it have the latest firmware?

@TairikuOkami
Will try this when I have time tonight. Just to be clear: when you say "test the internet", I just need to surf the web and see if I get disconnected again?

@popeye
I've already said this twice, once in my original post...
B-box 3 - Belgacom
Firmware updates are automatically pushed by Belgacom (my ISP). Beyond "simple" things like DHCP or WiFi settings, I'm pretty much locked out.
I can't switch to a different router because only Belgacom modems are certified for digital TV.

Well, actually, I guess I could technically add a second router? Don't know how I would actually configure it to share internet though...

Eleandor said:

@TairikuOkami
Will try this when I have time tonight. Just to be clear: when you say "test the internet", I just need to surf the web and see if I get disconnected again?

Click to expand...

Right, if it still fails afterwards, then you can pretty much exclude Windows as a cause.

I wonder if you have any Windows event warning about your network card?

Something like this.. It should tell you if your having any adapter issues or anything in that sort..