Strange wi-fi problem. Inability to connect jumps from device to device

[Bohandas]

For the past month or so we've been having a strange issue with the wi-fi at my house. At most times, one or two devices will be able to connect to the wi-fi network but not be able to actually access the internet. It isn't always the same devices and disconnecting one of the working devices from the network doesn't seem to enable the non-working ones to connect.

Does anybody have any idea what could be causing the problem?

[Manga Shoggoth]

Normally I would suggest that this is a channel issue, but if you are connecting to the router then it isn't that.

Off the top of my head:

• Do you have devices directly wired to the router, and are they getting through to the internet (ie, is this specifically a problem with the wireless part rather than the actual internet connection)?
• Have you tried restarting the router to reset the connection? It is possible that the internet connection has simply been dropped.
• Is your ISP reporting any problems? It might not even be your router's fault!

[Hyoi]

How many devices do you typically have connected to the router? Are they all connected via wifi or are some connected via ethernet? It could be caused by an IP address conflict on your network.

Spoiler: Good luck

Show

[Manga Shoggoth]

Usually in this situation the Router gives the devices their IP addresses, so there shouldn't be a conflict unless the devices have been specifically set up with manually assigned IP addresses and are ignoring the Router (which is unlikley).

My network does have a couple of static IPs, but they are defined at the router.

(But yes, as always XKCD shows the way...)

[Bohandas]

How many devices do you typically have connected to the router? Are they all connected via wifi or are some connected via ethernet? It could be caused by an IP address conflict on your network.

Spoiler: Good luck

Show

One device is connected via ethernet, the rest are wi-fi.

Also, for some reason we have two modems, one of which has built-in wi-fi and the other of which is connected to a seperate wi-fi router. I don't know why. I still live at my parents house; But they don't remember how it got set up that way either. But the problem occurs with both of them

Do you have devices directly wired to the router, and are they getting through to the internet (ie, is this specifically a problem with the wireless part rather than the actual internet connection)?

The ethernet one apparently loses connectivity sometimes too, according to my mom, whose computer it is.

Have you tried restarting the router to reset the connection?

Several times. Sometimes if helps, sometimes it doesn't.

[Manga Shoggoth]

One device is connected via ethernet, the rest are wi-fi.

Also, for some reason we have two modems, one of which has built-in wi-fi and the other of which is connected to a seperate wi-fi router. I don't know why. I still live at my parents house; But they don't remember how it got set up that way either. But the problem occurs with both of them

The ethernet one apparently loses connectivity sometimes too, according to my mom, whose computer it is.

Several times. Sometimes if helps, sometimes it doesn't.

It's worth checking the individual IP addresses on the devices, then. If you had a single Modem/Router then you should be OK, but if you have multiple ones then they might be giving out conflicting IP addresses as Hyoi suggested.

In that case the first thing I would suggest is removing other routers/modems from the equation - disconnect them and connect only to the main modem/router - the one that connects to the external line.

If the wired and wireless connections are both failing to connect to the internet, but succeeding in connecting to the router, then it suggests a line fault rather than a router issue. If you can access the router log it should tell you whether the connection itself is failing.

And as I suggested, check with your service provider - there may be faults upstream. I used to have regular issues that mysteriously went away when the engineer decided to just replace the (very old) house cable.

[Whoracle]

Another thing to check would be multiple DHCP Servers in your LAN. DHCP is strictly "first come, first serve", and if you have a rogue one in your subnet that just answers faster every now and then and is otherwise configured wrongly (say, with an invalid gateway), that might lead to such intermittent problems.

Maybe check your routers guest wifi, if it has one, maybe there's a subnet overlap there or something.

[Bohandas]

My folks had the cable guy in today and he disconnected one of the modems and that seemed to fix the problem for everything EXCEPT my laptop, which can now no longer detect the network AT ALL, even though it could previously detect and connect to (but not necessarily access internet with) both modems and even thougn it can still detect seemingly every other network in the neighborhood

EDIT:
Update: I switched to a different version of the wi-fi driver as per the advice here but don't know why it was suddenly necessary