Network Card Problems

Hey all, I am having issues with my connection and curious if this is a common issue or just on my end.

My laptop (specs stated in tag) will connect to my apartment's WiFi and then disconnect every 20-30 minutes. If I disconnect and then reconnect to the WiFi I am once again online. I am really unsure as to what is causing this problem.

Originally I thought it was my ISP but no other device in the apartment (6 phones, 6 laptops, 2 tablets, 2 ps4s, and 1 ps3) has this connection issue (I would also like to state that these devices are never all accessing the network at the same time so it is most likely not a bandwidth problem). My next guess was that it was a faulty Intel Centrino n-6230 wireless card. I replaced it with the Intel AC 7260 card but the problem is still there. Any ideas on how to fix this?

More information:
ISP: Xfinity
Router: technicolor tc8305c

 

That's extremely odd... have you ever reinstalled windows on that computer? It could be that your windows is somehow bugged. I can't see two separate wifi cards having the exact issue and all other items work.

If that does not fix it, then it's possible it's somehow a motherboard problem you have.

 

Yeah, I did a windows reset this past July. I was having a similar problem where my connection would drop out every once in a while. Also, when waking from sleep mode, the wifi would never turn back on (which I now know was an issue with my old wireless card). I was also running a version of Linux. I ended up using it more often because it never had the disconnection issues that I had when I was running windows 7. So now that you mention it, it most likely is an issue with windows...
Any ideas on a simple fix for that or do I just need to format and re-install it again? (everything is already backed up on my external HDD so it isn't a big issue)

 

I'd say a reformat should work. I don't have those problems on my 7260ac, neither Windows 7, windows 8 upgraded from windows 7, windows 8.1 upgraded from 8 upgraded form 7, windows 8 fresh install, windows 8.1 upgraded from win 8 fresh install and finally, win 8.1 fresh install.

NONE of the above mentioned states of OSes ever caused problems for me.

Also, the fact that it works in Linux indicates it's a Windows problem. I WILL say if your throughput ever gets throttled down, just open network and sharing center, open "advanced adapter settings", then "disable" and then instantly "enable" your wifi card. That will fix it. It's very rare these days, but it happens, and that's the fix. But I never get disconnects like you have.

 

We see this issue come up from time to time, and it's anyone's guess. Since you're using a different card with the same issue, it may be your router. Home network issues are a pain to troubleshoot when multiple devices are connecting.

 

If you're getting the same exact issues with two different different wifi m.2 cards that's certainly an interesting problem. Do you by chance have USB wifi adapter you could try out to narrow it down further? Try to run wireshark to see if you're getting any packet loss as well. I'd be hard pressed to believe it would be the router when you've got multiple devices connecting. One other thing you can check out under your router if its a rental through comcast is sometimes by default their set to limit the amount of devices that can connect..(Verizon does this)

 

I would see if there are any updates for your routers firmware. You did mention there are other notebooks using it, are any using the same wifi card?

 

That's a good question. You're connecting a lot of devices, so look out for any common denominators.