Corp WiFi Drops After ~1 min

Hardware Hub Networking
1

We have a single Win10 Dell laptop that is disconnecting from Corp WiFi roughly after a minute (but there are infrequent exceptions). Sample log file enclosed below for your reference (Names and IP amended. Dates and times were not.)

Unifi AP’s using a Windows RADIUS server. User logs in and it connects, after roughly a minute the WiFi disconnects them. Out of 80 laptops, his is the only one exhibiting this behavior.

RADIUS server event viewer in Network Policy and Access Services is clear of errors. No one else has issues using Corp WiFi. His laptop was replaced with a new unit. The Unifi system was installed two months ago. The user had the same issue on the old Cisco controller as well. When we could not find the cause of the issue, we knew we were replacing the Cisco with Unifi and thought that might fix it.

It has to be something on his Windows profile given we’ve replaced the laptop AND WiFi AP’s, but I see nothing out of the ordinary on his AD record. Just a normal user. No admin privilege’s, unique GPO or any special programs installed. It just drops the connection after 60 secs or so. He has the same access as a dozen others in his department, but only his account gets kicked off.

To work, he logs onto Guest WiFi (Same AP’s) and uses VPN. That works all day.

Section of the Unifi AP debug logs are here for his laptop:

DellLT297 disconnected from CORPLINK. Time Connected: 2s. Data Used: 0.00 B (up) / 0.00 B (down). Last Connected To: UAP-1 at -67 dBm. Today at 15:37
DellLT297 connected to CORPLINK on UAP-1.  Connection Info: Ch. 6 (2.4 GHz, 20 MHz), -67 dBm, 10.10.19.32. Today at 15:31
DellLT297 disconnected from CORPLINK. Time Connected: 1m. Data Used: 607.38 KB (up) / 601.99 KB (down). Last Connected To: UAP-2 at -77 dBm. Today at 9:25
DellLT297 connected to CORPLINK on UAP-2. Connection Info: Ch. 36 (5 GHz, 40 MHz), -67 dBm, 10.10.19.32.Today at 9:23
DellLT297 disconnected from CORPLINK. Time Connected: 59s. Data Used: 717.47 KB (up) / 3.81 MB (down). Last Connected To: UAP-2 at -76 dBm. Jul 25, 2024 9:27
DellLT297 connected to CORPLINK on UAP-2. Connection Info: Ch. 36 (5 GHz, 40 MHz), -71 dBm, 10.10.19.32.Jul 25, 2024 9:25
DellLT297 roamed from UAP-2 to UAP-1. Connection Info: Ch. 1 (2.4 GHz, 20 MHz), -87 dBm. Roaming Decision: -65 dBm to -87 dBm. Jul 24, 2024 14:04
DellLT297 disconnected from CORPLINK. Time Connected: 1m 18s. Data Used: 144.68 KB (up) / 1.86 MB (down). Last Connected To: UAP-2 at -76 dBm. Jul 24, 2024 8:00
DellLT297 connected to CORPLINK on UAP-2. Connection Info: Ch. 48 (5 GHz, 40 MHz), -65 dBm, 10.10.19.32. Jul 24, 2024 7:59
DellLT297 disconnected from CORPLINK. Time Connected: 2m 5s. Data Used: 786.84 KB (up) / 636.17 KB (down). Last Connected To: UAP-2 at -75 dBm. Jul 23, 2024 7:58
DellLT297 connected to CORPLINK on UAP-2. Connection Info: Ch. 48 (5 GHz, 40 MHz), -65 dBm, 10.10.19.32. Jul 23, 2024 7:56
DellLT297 disconnected from CORPLINK. Time Connected: 59s. Data Used: 325.29 KB (up) / 13.12 MB (down). Last Connected To: UAP-2 at -76 dBm. Jul 22, 2024 7:58
DellLT297 connected to CORPLINK on UAP-2. Connection Info: Ch. 48 (5 GHz, 40 MHz), -61 dBm, 10.10.19.32. Jul 22, 2024 7:57
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2

What WiFi card and driver version on the laptop?

3

It’s not something silly like dual wifi+ Bluetooth radio, doing a disconnect or something?

4

Check his power profile and that there isn’t a Dell or HP driver updater/system management tool anywhere.

Anything sold in California has to have power management set to the most conservative out of the box so OEM’s took that to the extreme.

Disabling the power management functions tend to fix them.

We’ve had a few monitors that when you changed the brightness prompted something along the lines of, “changing this setting will use more energy and may violate the law”.

Which is why I only buy products that cause cancer in California:
California needs more cancer.

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5

After confirming power profile, check netsh wlan for duplicates, make sure there’s no mac spoofing

Check credential manager for duplicate entries

Delete RADIUS profile and remake with his WLAN MAC

Lower roaming aggressiveness in WLAN adapter

6

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/analyze-the-wireless-network-report-76da0daa-1db2-6049-d154-7bb679eb03ed

  • what are ‘disconnect reasons’.

There are also connect/disconnect events recorded in eventvwr.msc. if it’s auto disconnecting because e.g. it thinks there’s a viable lan connection it might reveal there.

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