Windows 10 intermittently dropping wireless 5ghz

Hello,

I have a Netgear N600 dual band wireless router at home. On my PC I'm using a Belkin N600 dual band USB adapter for wireless internet.

As you know, my router broadcasts both a 2.4g and 5g connection; I'll refer to them as NETGEAR and NETGEAR-5G. I recently had to upgrade to Windows 10 Home from Windows 7 Ultimate, and this is when my issue began. My list of available wireless networks will include both of them, and I prefer connecting to NETGEAR-5G. I will typically stay connected for an average of 10-15 minutes, when my connection suddenly drops.

When this happens, the NETGEAR-5G network, as well as a few others, are no longer listed and do not show up when I search for nearby networks. My regular NETGEAR connection is always available and within range. After some time, the NETGEAR-5G network will appear again, and I can connect to it without issue, until it is dropped again.

My router is in a good and unobstructed position and I receive a strong signal when I can connect. I've looked around online and tried various solutions; turning off network sharing and making sure Windows cannot shut off the device after a certain amount of time. I saw a suggestion to go into the Device Manager, go to advanced properties under my network adapter, and change the "Band" setting to 5G only, but that is not an available option for my adapter. I've updated all of my drivers as well.

I have other devices that connect and stay connected to the 5G network without issue, and as I mentioned, this was never an issue when I was using Windows 7. Given all of this, I believe the issue is with a setting in Windows 10 and not with any hardware.

If any one can offer any insight or possible solutions I'd be grateful, and I can provide any additional information if needed. I'm prepared to accept I just need to get a new adapter, but I'd like to try and solve this before it comes to that. I'd also be worried I'd experience the same issues with a new adapter as I am with this one.

Thanks!

Caledon Ken said:

Hi juxtaposer. Welcome to the TenForums @juxtaposer

You might try this command and see what it can tell you.

Netsh wlan show wlanreport

(Produces a detailed HTML report located in C:\programdata\Microsoft\Windows\wlanreport
look for red indicators on picture, lists reason for disconnect.)


This is likely either a driver or protocol (IPv6). Your 5Ghz network was fine under Win 7. I would look for your driver that you were using in Win 7, likely the one from your suppliers web site and I would load it. Monitor situation. If it works for a while a starts acting up Windows likely "helped" you by installing the latest driver.

Also go to advance power options. You will see a heading Wireless Adapter. Expand it and set power to maximum on battery and cord.

If the old driver continues to give issue you can use one of these routines (downloads) to prefer IPv4 over IPv6.


Ken

Ken,

Thanks for your response. I think you're on to something. I did as you suggested and am seeing this error relating to my 5G network: InfrastructureFailure Reason:The driver disconnected while associating.

Unfortunately the Belkin official site isn't entirely clear on which drivers they're putting up. I think they only offer the latest version for my model because I can't find a list of previous drivers to download. I've never seen a site set up this way...I'm used to seeing a detailed list of all previous drivers offered. Regardless, my issue may be that this particular model doesn't have support for Windows 10.

I'm going to keep doing some digging and see if I can find the Windows 7 driver. Thanks again for your help.

Caledon Ken said:

Is this your device?

https://www.belkin.com/us/support-ar...rticleNum=4874

If so, it has done you well. May just be time to replace. This was designed for XP and is using the A band which is 5Ghz but not AC which I think your router is capable of.

That's it, and that is the driver I found when searching directly through their site. However, I was able to find a v2 and install that over the weekend, and so far I haven't disconnected once. I'm not at home right now so I can't post the link to it, but I just wanted to update you guys and let you know I think I've got the issue fixed.

Thanks so much for your help, that was driving me crazy.