It’s been like this for a long time now, but it’s been a struggle at times. Basically, I have 2 tabs when selecting a wifi network to connect to. No other device I use has 2 tabs, only this PC. The same ‘Family 2’ network is visible in both tabs, but in ‘Wifi’, that network has an AWFUL connection, and in ‘Wifi 2’, that network is totally fine.
Obviously, I connect to the one that’s totally fine.
But occasionally It’ll boot me off of that one and only connect to the Wifi (1) version. I can manually reconnect to (2) once it actually displays as not being connected and it’s fine again. Right now, I was frustrated because I was getting booted to the bad one repeatedly this morning, but I reset the modem and router and it seems okay for now so it might’ve just been an unrelated hiccup.
But I still want to look into it.
Why are there 2 to begin with?
If (1) was gone, would it just keep me connected to (2) or would I just be losing connection?
I want to be clear that the connection on (1) isn’t just slow. It’s “technically” connected, but things will actively time out, websites will say I’m not connected to the internet, etc.
My best guess is that you may have a previous driver entry in the registry and your adapter is getting read twice, causing all sorts of headaches.
If that’s the case you’ll have to do a clean Wifi driver uninstall/reinstall, using your add/remove programs first and check your device manager for any leftover remnants, or use the “Network Reset” option on the bottom of the network status window within “network & internet settings”, which will reset everything ethernet/wifi related.
As for the disconnection/reconnection issue, your “connect automatically when in range” option is probably checked for one or the other, or both, in properties.
is there 2 wifi adapter connected to your PC?
There isn’t, though since you mentioned that, I never considered the possibility. If that’s your setup, then we have to do something completely different for configurations.
If you only need to use one adapter, disable the one giving you problems in the device manager, in ‘network & internet settings’ → ‘change adapter options’ → [your problem adapter here], or unplug it if it’s a USB one.
If you need to use two, then unchecking the connect automatically option is a must for that problematic one.