Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Mobile Hotspot | Clients "Connected without internet"

[rajthampi]

Hi

My HP laptop has Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 module running latest drivers & Windows 10 is freshly installed and patched to the latest updates.

So I have this problem. Mobile hotspot starts without any issues, clients can connect and browse for a "while". This "while" cannot be measured as the Wi-Fi connection on the client will start showing "Connected without internet", may be within few seconds to many minutes.

To narrow down this peculiar behavior, I have disabled the AX201 module, brought in a Wi-Fi usb dongle & the mobile hotspot works perfectly as expected.

I have fiddled around 802.11n/ac/ax settings a bit, futile.

Please let me know how I could provide more information that could assist you to help my situation. Attached SSU log file.

Thanks and regards,

Rajesh

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues

In order to have a better understanding of your issue, please provide me with the following:

• Have you tried using another network?
• How many guests' devices are affected?
• Check if you are running the latest Windows Update. Checked the Microsoft article "Keep your PC up to date".
• Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed in your system or have you changed/installed a new adapter recently?

It is important to mention, there are two different types of drivers, generics provided by Intel and Equipment Manufacturer drivers, that are customized to work with each specific system. The best thing to do is to use the drivers provided by the system manufacturer (OEM) or through Windows Update to eliminate the potential impact caused by loading non-custom drivers. The latest driver from HP is 22.160.0.3, you can install it on their website.

Also, consider that the Hotspot setting depends on the Operating System.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

I opted for a clean installation of Windows 10 & using HP support assist, updated the Wi-Fi drivers & the version provided by HP has progressed to 22.170.x.x

I will post the results after testing it for next couple of days. 

Thank you very much for the reply. I am hoping, by sticking to OEM drivers this dreaded issue will be finally resolved.

regards,

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

Thanks for your reply.

I am glad to hear that the issue seems to be solved. I would keep this thread open for a few days for you to test your computer and confirm if the issue is now solved. Let me know if you face any issues.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

Thank you. Actually we are on Weekends here in Kuwait and I need minimum couple of days at work to confirm whether the latest exercises resolved the issues, after connecting to the domain network.

Regards,

[rajthampi]

Hi Jean

The issue is back. I'm using the Ax 201 with defaults & within 3-4 minutes of idle time, my client started showing "Connected without internet".

I'm going to make the following changes:

1. 802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode -> 802.11ac

2. Preferred Band -> Prefer 2.5GHz band

I opted Preferred Band because I am connected to 5GHz band at home and sharing the same Wi-Fi for mobile hotspot.

Regardless, I had better experiences with these settings earlier using 22.180.x.x drivers, holding the connection up to 20 minutes before idle clients started showing the reported error.

Will continue testing for a while & post results.

Regards,

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

Thanks for your response.

I understand that you are still testing. In the meantime, please confirm the following information:

• Have you tried using another network? or a different Access Point?
• How many guests' devices are affected? Is it only one at the moment?
• Check if you are running the latest Windows Update. Checked the Microsoft article "Keep your PC up to date".
• Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed in your system or have you changed/installed a new adapter recently?

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

Before I proceed with my findings, let me answer your queries

I understand that you are still testing. In the meantime, please confirm the following information:

• Have you tried using another network? or a different Access Point?
  • Yes, I have enabled mobile hotspot from a laptop that has AX211 Wi-Fi chipset. My client connects and stays connected, forever.
• How many guests' devices are affected? Is it only one at the moment?
  • For testing, I have tried two Samsung Galaxy devices running latest patchsets
• Check if you are running the latest Windows Update. Checked the Microsoft article "Keep your PC up to date".
  • I am on Windows 11, 22H2 fully patched (upgraded my fresh installation of Windows 10 to Windows 11 just couple of days back)
• Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed in your system or have you changed/installed a new adapter recently?
  • My laptop had it pre-installed.

Now, these few were tried from my end.

I connected TP-Link Archer T3U Wi-Fi adaptor to my laptop, disabled AX201, restarted laptop & started mobile hotspot.

My client is connected to the mobile hotspot and idling over 30-40 minutes is not getting it into "Connected without internet". As the client is still connected to the mobile hotspot, however, unable to reach the internet after idling less than 3-4 minutes happens ONLY when the AX201 is involved, I am coming to the conclusion that, it is definitely not related to Windows, specific to this adaptor.

I don't know whether there could be a fix!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

I appreciate the information you provided

We will do further research on this matter and post the response on this thread once available.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

I don't know whether this could be of any help. I observed a change in the route table, immediately after the client disconnects from mobile hotspot , however shows "Connected without internet".

The route table matric for the mobile hotspot network starts showing a different matric than when it was connected. This should only happen when an interface goes offline and come online.  I am not certain about it though. I am making this observation based on the fact that no other interfaces are changing the matric meanwhile. So, I believe the AX201 chip has something to do with this particular interface switching matric.

I will upload the images showing different route table entries tomorrow as I didn't carry my laptop home today.

Thanks for your continued interest.

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

Greetings. I think, have a solution to this issue & it might sound crazy. Today at work, I uninstalled the driver for Ax201 twice in succession, landing me to Microsoft provided driver version "22.0.1.5" dated 17.Jan.2021

My Samsung galaxy phone is connected to mobile hotspot, idling for many minutes and once I wake up the phone, instead of showing me "Connected without internet", Wi-Fi automatically initiates the reconnection, and everything works as expected.

As it definitely looks a driver related issue, please let me know whether you want me to test with 22.x.x.x drivers to figure out which version started having this issue. I already downloaded 22.160.x.x from your downloads, however unable to find older versions beyond that.

regards,

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

I can confirm the last driver version that works fine is 22.150.0.3. I've downloaded versions starting from 22.80.x.x from softpedia & tested each one of them for stability.

I tried these versions

22.80

22.90

22.160

Version 22.160 breaks the mobile hotspot & I had to rollback to 22.150. and it is working fine. I have already disabled the Windows updates for drivers and going to wait for your findings.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

Thanks for waiting for a response. I appreciate the information you have shared.

This time I would like to recommend you perform a clean installation of the latest Intel Generic Driver 22.180.0. Sometimes corrupted files from previous driver versions may affect the well functioning and performance of newer drivers. Intel’s generic graphics drivers are intended for testing.

Also, you should take a look at our article "Recommended Settings for 802.11ax Connectivity", this article will contain information and will help you to return your system settings to these defaults, and recommend, if they’ve been changed.

In case the issue still persists, you may need to contact your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for a physical inspection.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

I always did a clean installation of the drivers, note, I said I have tried Intel generic drivers starting from version 22.80 to 22.180 & mobile hotspot shows this issue starting with driver version 22.160.x.x

At this moment, I am using generic driver version 22.150.0.3 & 2 clients are connected from last 5 hours without experiencing a single disconnection or "Connected without Internet" issue. One of the client has Wi-Fi power saving disabled and the other have defaults, thus, Wi-Fi turns off when the screen goes off.

What I tried to prove is there is something wrong with your drivers, regardless whether provided by HP or Intel. I am sure not many are complaining about this because mobile hotspot is not widely used. The settings that you mentioned for 802.11ax doesn't apply to my issue as I am not connecting my laptop to a network, others are getting connected to my laptop that acts as a hotspot.

If it is convenient, please let your developers know about this persisting issue, would give them better chances to test the latest drivers in the lab and find what went wrong. 

regards,

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

Let us look into this and we will get back to you at our earliest convenience.

Best regards, 

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

Thanks for waiting for a response.

Reviewing this matter, it seems that this issue is not being reported by other users, therefore, it is unlikely to be a driver issue.

It is important to mention that the Hotspot setting depends on 100% of the Operating System and not the wireless adapter.

Also, you should consider the Access Point settings. 

Best regards, 

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

A clean installation of driver sets whole the Access point settings to default, same as provided by you. Now, before retiring my case, let me mention the following:

Driver version 22.150.0.3 works on the same OS that you are holding responsible.

External Wi-Fi adapters are working on the same OS without any issues.

Are we not losing the logic somewhere? 

Anyway, once again thanking for your continued follow up.

I've decided to stick to the working version 22.150.0.3 & give it another try when a newer version of driver released.

Regards,

Rajesh

[Jean_Intel]

Hello rajthampi,

I understand that you should be using driver version 22.150.0.3 for the moment. As I stated in my previous comment, the Hotspot setting depends on the Operating System and not the wireless adapter, you should contact Microsoft support for further information about this issue

As I also mentioned before, you should contact your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for a physical inspection. 

I will close this thread now. Please, keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel. Thank you for your understanding

Best regards, 

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[rajthampi]

Hello Jean

Well noted. I will stick to the working version for now & see whether Windows/Intel fixes this issue in the future.

Thanks for you time.