Wifi Connection Problem

[#1]

I have Plusnet Full Fibre 145 and a  Plusnet Hub One Router, installed in my sitting room downstairs,and to increase the WiFi range in my house, I have a TP-LINK W860RE installed upstairs, which is working well...

My list of available Wifi Networks shows My router (PLUSNET-5C6R) and Extender (PLUSNET-5C6R_EXT) among other unuseable networks (presumably my neighbours?)

When I am downstairs using my Windows Laptop and trying to connect to the internet via WiFi i have trouble connecting directly to the Router and most times I get a message that I am "Connected Secured but no Internet access" However, If I opt to connect to my TP-LINK Extender instead, I get a perfecly good connection every time but my Internet speed is somewhat reduced (only about 40Mbs) instead of my usual 150Mbps , if and when I can get a successful connection direct to my Router....

When I use my laptop,  in my Sitting room, I am only about 3 feet from the router. It seems that my Laptop prefers to connect to the Extender rather than to the router directly.... even though I have the "Connect Automatically" option  for the Router, selected in the list of available networks when I click on the WiFi Icon in the Notification Area of the Taskbar.

If I try to manually connect to my router by selecting (PLUSNET-5C6R) in the list of WiFi Networks, I just get the same error message that it is  "Connected Secured but no Internet access"

Is there any way that I can force my laptop to connect to the router WiFi signal by default rather than the Extender

Some further Information which may help......

Looking at the WiFi Settings when I can get connected to each Network option....

Router Direct WiFi Signal
SSID: PLUSNET-5C6R
Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 48
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 866/866 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::64eb:23df:8f67:a5d5%2
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.219
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.254
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
Driver version: 22.80.0.9
Physical address (MAC): FE-54-D7-A0-88-BD

Extender Wifi Signal
SSID: PLUSNET-5C6R_EXT
Protocol: Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Network band: 2.4 GHz
Network channel: 6
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 270/26 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::96c1:253e:2828:f085%2
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.200
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.254
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
Driver version: 22.80.0.9
Physical address (MAC): BC-09-1B-28-5F-F5

I noticed that the Router direct signal is using Network Band 5Ghz but the Extender is using 2.4Ghz

Could this difference be causing the provblem ?

Kind Regards

[#2]

There is a lot going on here...

• A WIFI extender is never an optimal solution to distributing wifi coverage - an extender needs to use the WIFI signal to receive from and transmit back to the router, thereby halving the performance of the network by requiring that everything is transmitted twice
• This WIFI extender only supports 2.4MHz - that alone could directly explain the marked speed difference between the two connections
• Having different SSIDs for the router and the extender is a double edge sword - on the one hand that offers select-ability in deciding which device to connect to, but it removes the ability of devices to roam freely between the best signal
• If the laptop has connect automatically set on both SSIDs then it will connect and stick to one or the other so long as it can hang on - a device will not roam SSIDs but it will roam stations having the same SSID
• The no internet connection is a tad odd - that can often be a transient false negative - this status is determined by the ability of the OS to probe an external service - if the heartbeat fails, then there might be no internet connectivity - you need more diagnostics

First off, it would be good to see what is happening in the local WiFi environment - go find and install Meta-Geek's inSSIDer get an older version V3 or V4 which are free to use.  Look at the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands - is channel 6 (the one at the time of you stats) clear of other users, certainly other overlapping users.

When you get no internet connection messages try pinging bbc.co.uk (if you do not know how to do this - google it).

Similarly get a full ipconfig report - need to see the DNS settings (ditto).

First I would get everything working predictably with the extender switched off ... do a survey with the analyser (wander around the house with the laptop) if the coverage is adequate ditch the extender, if it is not, consider other options - a wired WAP or a Ethernet over Power (dLAN) solution.  See Devolo products.