Infuriating wifi issue - Unidentified Network

[herulach]

For the last couple of months I've had my pc connected via a wifi bridge, with no problems other than only modest speeds (its a 54g model), so having upgraded to cable bb I thought I'd treat myself to a shiny new wifi card, and Asus PCE AC68. All is well and good you'd think, but no. the thing seems completely incapable of securing a decent connection.

It shows as connected to the network, but then either fails to get a DHCP address, or succeeds, but then won't pick up the rest of the connection (I can't access lan hosts or the internet). The windows status thing stays at the 'unidentified network' bench, without even prompting me to select a location.

After various bits of faffing (resetting ip stack with netsh, clearing winsock and uninstalling/reinstalling drivers) I succeeded in getting a solid (and very quick) connection, however, the damn thing is doing it again today.
ipconfig /all shows nothing obvious:

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : monkeybox
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : ASUS PCE-AC68 802.11ac Network Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : AC-22-0B-BE-29-19
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.6(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 09 December 2013 14:59:12
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 December 2013 14:59:23
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : AC-22-0B-4E-22-30
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::10c5:c845:6c98:2c31%11(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.9(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 09 December 2013 15:01:14
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 December 2013 15:01:14
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 246161931
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-2A-A0-2C-AC-22-0B-4E-22-30

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled



Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:6abd:1020:225c:3f57:fff6(Pref
erred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::1020:225c:3f57:fff6%13(Preferred)
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

(i'm connected via the bridge at the moment as well.)

Short of reinstalling windows, can anyone think of any bright ideas as to solutions for this?

[DanceswithUnix]

Could it be that yesterday you were using the 5GHz band to your router, and today you are back on the polluted 2.4GHz band with the rest of us plebs?

[herulach]

Nope. I suspect its either an issue with this device, or something to do with the pooperhub 2. I've just installed windows 8.1 trial on a spare disk in the same machine, and am having exactly the same problem (ages to get dhcp address, then unidentified network).

[herulach]

gah, and now just to hack me off, threw in a cheap tplink adaptor, which connects fine, and now I can connect to the 2g but not the 5! bloody thing WHY YOU NO WORK!!!!

[cheesyboy]

You have way more fancy kit than me, but the problem sounds vaguely similar that that which I experienced way back when setting things up (if memory serves). Simple fix was changing the wifi channel from its default. Suspect you will have tried this, but just putting it out there.

[Dareos]

Shub and Shub2 default setting is auto select, i see tons of problems with this. Try a few different channels, see how it goes. Usually dont get unidentified tho.

[herulach]

Right, I've now got it working, but only by disabling the wifi security Anyone have any input on how reliable the whitelisting is?

[herulach]

Shub and Shub2 default setting is auto select, i see tons of problems with this. Try a few different channels, see how it goes. Usually dont get unidentified tho.

Sorry, I should have posted this earlier, yes the defaults where crap (at least for 2.4, theres nothing else in the area for 5) so it was already on custom channekls

[big_hairy_rob]

WPS Issue? I'm finding more and more that any Router with WPS on it, it;s usually something down to that, but I presume you have investigated this already?

[DanceswithUnix]

This kind of nonsense drive me to Homeplug AV 500Mbit adapters.

I use the "WiFi Analyser" app on my Android phone to see what sort of crud my house is being bathed in before choosing a channel. It can be quite enlightening, and saves guesswork.

Are there any *other* older wifi devices in the house? They may be causing the router to fall back to a slower standard.

[herulach]

This kind of nonsense drive me to Homeplug AV 500Mbit adapters.

I use the "WiFi Analyser" app on my Android phone to see what sort of crud my house is being bathed in before choosing a channel. It can be quite enlightening, and saves guesswork.

Are there any *other* older wifi devices in the house? They may be causing the router to fall back to a slower standard.

Nope, oldest thing is an iPad 2 which is n capable, and its on the 2.4ghz anyway. Open+ whitelist it is, gotta love 300 Mbps throughput (about 80 on the other network)

[DanceswithUnix]

Whitelist is from memory just down to MAC address spoofing, which isn't that hard, but an attacker has to make some level of effort to get in so unless you are a worthwhile target I suspect most wifi abusers will just move on.

If you want security, you should VPN over WiFi into your own network anyway, and I don't know anyone who bothers with that these days

[herulach]

In case anyone comes to this from google I thought I'd update it by saying that the new (8.1 certified) drivers appear to have sorted it. They weren't available at thetime of the thread.

[Dareos]

Glad u got a solution bud. There are still channel issues with the shub 2, both on 2.4 and 5GHz. Seems little to do with interference either, more to do with device compatibility on individual channels. Its fairly easy to test by selecting a channel and running a speed test, then changing channel and retesting, then switching devices and repeating.