Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz -2.4GHz & 5GHz: connected, no internet access

[grocerylist]

I've been experiencing wifi issues with my manufacturer installed ax200 wifi card essentially since I got my new Asus Zephyrus G14. Problems initially were fairly intermittent on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz but occasionally I have extended outages. Since then I'd read in some forums to try to use the intel drivers direct from intel, rather than the Asus recommended drivers.

I've gone through a few different wifi drivers (asus recommended driver v21.60.0.5, I'm currently using v21.90.3.2.

With 21.90.3.2, it seems like 2.4GHz is fairly stable but 5GHz is essentially unusable. I'm able to connect to 5GHz but almost immediately when connected it shows "no internet access".

I've tried updating to v21.110.1.1 but this driver fails to install.

[TiagoJG]

I am not with intel. I just happen to post a temporary solution until drivers are available. The problem is not hardware, the problem is Windows. With linux you dont have problems. Also, I said to turn off and on the wifi because sometimes using vpn or other services may mess with the maximum bandwidth. My solution still applies, go to network adapters and pick the 802.11n value.

[Vegan]

My new antenna improved bluetooth as well and now my headset works 100x better. It's eye opening what better antennas can do.

My antenna cost $18 but now that I have it I am happy. Drivers are stable and I have not seen issues lately.

[Taniturcu]

Hello, I went through your suggestions and after reinstalling, the behaviour is the same: max 100 Mbps on download and 80-90 Mbps on upload. In the properties I see that the wifi card is connected on Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), and not on ax on wifi 6. So this wifi card is not even working on 5 GHz properly. I am running Windows 11 Pro (21H2). I reinstalled the driver 22.110.1.

Pls let me have a resolution to this behaviour. 

many thanks!

[Alberto_Sykes]

Hi grocerylist, Thank you very much for sharing the solution.

It is great to hear that the network is now stable at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

Any other inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us again.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[Vegan]

I have one of these mounted a PCIe card and it works just fine. Intel has surfaced with new drivers several times for it and I have had no issues.

My Access point is setup for band steering to 5GHz when possible. There are still a lot of appliances that use 2.4 GHz only which is a nuisance.

[derekmski]

There is definitely something up with the desktop PCIe versions of the Intel AX200, I have tried 2 of the Ubit cards, and a TP-Link Archer TX50E, both have throughput issues.  I have 400/20 internet and a speed test is pulling paltry speeds.  Again I have 2 laptops using the AX200 and I am pulling over 400/20 with those.  I'm going to have to give up on these desktop cards due to the issues and instability.  However laptop variant I have seen zero issues so far with the latest drivers.

[Vegan]

What are you using for your access point box

[derekmski]

Asus RT-AX88U

[derekmski]

I just tried switching the card to another PCIe x1 slot, same problem.  I tried disabling AX in the AX200 device manager and having AC only and same speed problem.  There has to be some issue with the Desktop PCIe versions of these AX200 cards in either Windows 10 itself or the Intel drivers.  I hope they will figure this out at some point but I am giving up for now and switching back to a AC1900 Desktop PCIe wifi card and will report back if that with a different chipset has the same issues.

[Vegan]

Check to see if there is new firmware for the Asus box. Also be sure the antenna is not blocked by metals etc which can hurt signal propagation.

[derekmski]

Router on latest firmware, bios on motherboard latest, Windows updated all drivers updated.

[Vegan]

At 5 GHz and above the signal propagation through walls is poor. The 2.4 GHz band does much better but it is not as fast.

If you need max performance, you probably be best off with cat7 cable to the access point

[derekmski]

Router is on same floor, no walls in between. This is not the problem, I know how wireless works. I am just making aware the issues with the desktop pcie wireless cards using the ax200 chipset in case anyone else has similar problems they are not alone.

[derekmski]

Attached screenshots of the TP-Link AC1300 USB adapter I am using on my desktop for the time being until I can try an AC1900 PCIe card.  USB adapters should be slower than PCIe cards with external antennas.  Yet the USB adapter is getting 269/22 and the PCIe AX200 card is getting 15/11.  I'm not messing around with this Desktop PCIe AX200 card anymore.  I already ordered an AC1900 PCIe card to see if that is better for now.

[Vegan]

I have extended antennas with long cables to get a better signal. This allows better line of sight placement.

[wifiax200broken]

Hi,

I'm having the same issue with my intel(r) wi-fi 6 ax200 160mhz but with the new ASUS PN50. I've tried installing the default ASUS drivers and also the new WiFi_22.30.0_Driver64_Win10 but it's not working. Though I have no issues connecting with two mobile phones and a laptop to the Netgear NightHawk 2 mobile router.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Note that the solution from: TiagoJG does appear to work:
My solution still applies, go to network adapters and pick the 802.11n value. 

Will this hamper the bandwidth speed and is there a proper solution as I imagine the above may have some implications?

[TiagoJG]

There is a drawback yes. I think your bandwidth caps to around 400 Mbps (confirm this), if you have a service that provides more than that, I would suggest that you either install Linux parallel to windows, and wait for windows to update their drivers, or buy a wifi antenna.

Best,

Tiago 

[Vegan]

https://www.hardcoregames.ca/2020/04/13/fenvi-wifi-problems/

[ignaciobfp]

Same issue here: I am using intel AX200 with latest driver (at the moment 22.40.0.7) and I am unable to connect to my mobile phone hotspot (iPhone 12 running iOS 14.4.2).

I can connect to my house network (Asus AX88U), I also can connect to older android/iOS phones, i guess because it uses the 2.4Ghz band under 802.11n protocol... but that is not a solution for me, since there is no point in having a fast modern network card and be forced to use older slower protocols...

My phone hotspot function also works well on other computers, also on 5Ghz 802.11ac (for example on my old notebook using an intel 7260 network card), so it does not seem to be the phone's fault.

The phone is close to my notebook, my antennas are fine, is not a signal strenght/obstacles problem. The only common factor on all the failures is my network card... and this problem happens since a very long time ago.

If I check the IP of the computer when it does NOT work, i always have a 169.254.x.x with no gateway.

Any suggestion, apart from forcing 2.4ghz on the network card? Does intel plan to release a driver to fix this, or will we need to buy an AX201 for a proper solution?

[Vegan]

if you are seeing 169.x.y.z then your not getting NAT to respond

https://www.hardcoregames.ca/2005/09/30/fix-websites-not-working/

if that does not work you may need to reset windows

[ignaciobfp]

Thank you for your response. Tried that steps with no luck. To me reinstalling windows seems a bit overkill, specially seeing:

1. Connection with some networks works correctly (valid DHCP IP, expected speed on 5Ghz), so it does not seem a windows problem
2. Some folks with similar problems reported no improvement after reinstalling windows to the same version I am using (20H2)

Do you think It has some chances of fixing it? I would give it a try if there was some hope.