Windows 10: Laptop Windows 10 is only device with unreliable connection on WiFi network

I live in an apartment complex associated with a university and use the university WiFi. Other devices running different operating systems e.g. smartphone, roommate's laptop work on the WiFi network with no issues, but my laptop, a 2017 Dell XPS running Windows 10, simply put just doesn't work very well on this specific network. It disconnects every time the computer goes to sleep, and upon waking up, often spends about 1 minute "connected" but with "no internet" before finally sending through data. Sometimes it randomly drops the connection in a way that doesn't happen on other devices.


It surprises me how sometimes it can support what I would expect to be high-data operations like videoconferences without much issue, but then it won't do other things like connect to servers for multiplayer online games that don't seem particularly data-intensive e.g. Settlers of Catan at colonist.io, jackbox games through Steam --- not real-time action-style games. When I try to connect at places like this, I get messages like "check your internet connection". This happens on both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.


Importantly, it seems to be isolated to this WiFi network as I do not see similar behavior when the laptop is connected to other networks. This has been happening for at least a year on this WiFi network and the same behavior happens in different buildings on campus whenever I connect to this network. I have updated drivers and run troubleshooters as suggested by other questions I've seen online, but nothing I've tried has worked and nothing I have discovered has been able to explain the paradox of why every other device works on this network, and this device works on every other network. Any advice on why this might be and how to fix it would be greatly appreciated!

:)

 

Laptop Sees Wireless Network but Cannot Connect To It

I have a small ASUS laptop that has recently had issues connecting to the home wifi network. After I type in the wifi password it displays a loading bar and then says Can't Connect to Network. I have tried every fix I could think of: disable/reenable adapter, uninstalling the adapter and reinstalling it, rebooting the laptop, rebooting the router, and troubleshooting the adapter. The laptop is running and Windows 10 and does not have an ethernet port. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

How to connect to an existing wifi network?

As you suggested, I tried disabling the ethernet adapter and that caused wi-fi to connect, so the desktop wifi does work. Also, I accessed the router and changed the wireless network name (to wfCHS). Thanks!

However many problems are still unresolved:

My laptop behaves just as I want it to. Assuming the router has wifi turned on and the laptop has an ethernet connection, connection to the internet is by ethernet (no private network name), and the wi-fi connection is to my private network "wfCHS", but with no connection to the internet. (If I disconnect the ethernet cable, then wfCHS becomes connected to the internet and stays that way even if I reconnect the cable.) A directory listing shows both laptop and desktop under "Network". Great!

Things are rather different with the desktop. With Ethernet disabled, the desktop shows a wi-fi connection to the internet. Under Settings > Status it's called "wfCHS" but under Network Connections it's called wfCHS2. If I then re-enable the ethernet connection, the wifi connection stays enabled for a minute or two, then disconnects. Further, the ethernet connection is given the name wfCHS2 under both Status and Network Connections.

Why does the desktop give an (unwanted) name to the ethernet connection while the laptop doesn't?

Why does the desktop disconnect its wi-fi connection a minute or so after the ethernet connection is enabled, while the laptop doesn't?

Why does the desktop give two different names to the wifi connection, depending on whether it's viewed under Status or Network Connections, while the laptop doesn't?

Why does the laptop show the desktop under Network, while the desktop shows only itself?

Things are so convoluted that I'd be happy to start over. I've had the desktop "forget" the wi-fi connection as you suggested, then re-established it, but this hasn't helped. Can the ethernet connection also be "forgotten"?

Really appreciate the help you've given so far!

 

Laptop connects to wifi-sense TWC Wifi network, despite my settings


I have Windows 10 Home, fully updated.

My next-door neighbor rents his cable modem from Time Warner, so there's an open network called TWC Wifi (and also a Cable Wifi). I have never manually connected to this network, and it doesn't show up in my list of "Known networks"--the only 2 networks listed there are my own network and my mother-in-law's. I've turned off Wifi-sense. Yet, virtually every single time I wake my laptop from sleep, I go to load a website and get the login for Time Warner and then notice that my computer is connected to TWC Wifi or Cable Wifi. Again, these are NOT known networks, wifi-sense is turned off... why does my computer still prefer these open networks over my own home network (the router is less than 10 feet away)?

I'm at my wit's end. Is this a bug? Is there any way to set my computer to avoid these SSIDs?