Slightly OT? WiFi problems

[rikona]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2022 10:13:56 -0800
MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have a Linksys AC2200 router located in my office at home.  My
> desktop is wired into it, along with 2-3 others (can't remember, can't
> look).  They seem fine.
> 
> My partner's main lap/desktop is across the room and connects to the
> WiFi easily.  My personal laptop is two rooms away behind me, and it
> connects just fine.
> 
> We have two other laptops more remotely located behind a few walls
> that are concerned here.
> 
> The closer one is in our bedroom (mainly for entertainment via the
> web). It is an old (probably > 10 years) Windows 7 laptop on which we
> run Xubuntu 20.04.  This machine was working with the wifi just fine
> until two nights ago when it dropped the connection and has not picked
> it back up since, despite my best efforts to awaken it.  I'm pretty
> sure the wifi device in the machine is working fine because it can see
> our neighbors' wifis, outside the house.
> 
> The farther one is a relatively new Dell Inspiron, in our bedroom
> closet (long story) that connects just fine to the wifi.
> 
> How can I determine what is going on with the wifi on the
> Win7-cum-Xubuntu laptop?
> 
> We've moved the router's "antennas" around, raised it to a higher
> level, moved the laptop around, but no success.  As I said, none of
> this was happening until two nights past, and now it stubbornly sits
> alone on the HDMI-TV cart, underneath, where it has been since we had
> to set up this arrangement.
> 
> I've tried telling it to find a hidden network and given it all the
> right information - no connection.  I've tried setting up a new
> connection - won't connect.
> 
> The only thing I haven't tried so far is to unwire the laptop and take
> it into the office near the router to ensure it can see it up close
> and personal. I will do that when I can.
> 
> I've Googled for this, but 90%+ of what comes back is Windows related.
> 
> Where can I look for more data that might help? Any other suggestions?

I have a mesh router and that has helped reliability over a wider area.
I found it helps to keep them high up [near ceiling, not floor] with not
much 'stuff' around them. Even so, every once in a while, some strange 
undetermined thing happens. I used to spend a lot of time trying to fix
it and in the end just rebooted everything. Now I do the reboot earlier
on in the process - that has helped to save some time. May not know
what happened, but it works...