How to get Win11 to reconnect to remote wireless router on reboot?

[xebra]

I'm hoping this is an easy question to answer...
I have BI running on an HP Envy tower with Win 11. Widows has all the latest updates
I have a couple cameras in remote areas that are attached to a Netgear R6400 running native FW (read not dd-wrt) and it seems to be working OK, but not great, FPS varies a lot.
The router is too far away to justify the expense and hassle of underground ethernet cable.
The dd-wrt website has some great information about converting the Netgear router so I'm considering it, but I don't think it will solve my issue.

The netgear is broadcasting a 5Ghz signal, and the HP Envy wireless is attaching to it. All devices involved are manual IP no dhcp.

The question I have is how to I convince the HP Envy win11 to reconnect to the wireless on a reboot? I have the HP Envy set to restart on power failure and have checked the box in the wireless area to "automatically connect when in range".
I've set the power requirements of the wireless to be always on.

I'm open for all ideas. Thanks for your time in replying.

 

[TonyR]

I'm open for all ideas.

Here's mine. A Layer 2 Transparent Bridge. No drops out, no reconnect issues, can be installed in a matter of hours.

I'd go with with either a pair of Ubiquiti Nanostation 5AC Locos or a pair of TP-LINK CPE-510's.

Unlike a link between Wi-Fi devices, extenders, repeaters, etc. the radios I linked both use proprietary protocol, channel widths and more to provide fast, reliable connections between the 2 devices, creating a wireless layer 2 transparent bridge much like a straight Ethernet cable as far as data is concerned.

You configure them with unique, static IP's in the same subnet as your LAN (but outside of your router's DHCP pool); no port forwarding required OR advised. The configuration instructions found in the Ubiquiti link covers the terminology and methods for both the older "M" devices (as in my schematic below) and for the newer "AC" devices as in my recommendation.

 

[xebra]

I was trying to get away cheap, but you get what you pay for or don't pay for. I had set up a separate wireless network just for those two cameras using that router, but this is a much more elegant solution.
I really should have considered this option, but I didn't have my "work hat" on. One of the companies I used to work for used Ubiquity point to point bridges for transferring radio data from one location to another.

It's still early in the setup of the remainder of the cameras, so my wife won't notice another expenditure to get what she wants, which is being able to watch the house when we're out traveling for weeks at a time..
The only dilemma is this is another wire to run through the attic. I hate going in the attic. Maybe I'll go through the floor instead!

Thanks for bringing me back to reality and that it's OK to use what you learned somewhere else.

 

[xebra]

Tony,,
The 5AC nanostations arrived yesterday and this afternoon, I moved them to the perspective locations, sort of.
I have my daughter making some 3 d printed wall mounts for their final resting place.
At the moment the nanostations are just shooting through the walls of the house and through the walls of the Shed.
Thanks for the recommendation to get these, they seem to be stable and decent throughput. No more FPS fluctuations.
I like the built-in tools to help locate a frequency with less interference!
On thing I overlooked was that the nanostations require 24V POE and I was planning on using the netgear POE switches until I realized there were both 12V.
Fortunately, I had 2 - 24V POE injectors in my spare parts bin to complete the set up...
Cheers

 

[TonyR]

3D printed would certainly be "more elegant' but I have made these up below for cheap and out of necessity. They are sturdy though!

 

[xebra]

Thanks for sharing the picture.
Have you had these up for long? How are they holding up in the UV?
Nice design, I may have parts laying around to attempt one, if not Home depot and Lowes are close by.
I think I would put a cap on the top and find a way to block the hole in the 1 1/2" long nipple, to attempt to convince wasps to build someplace else.
I found a "DISH network" satellite mount bracket that might work OK on the shed, but it's way overkill, bulky and ugly in a "notice me" kind of way.
Admittedly, the 1" cross Tee is probably cheaper than these caps found on Amazon.

 

[TonyR]

Have you had these up for long? How are they holding up in the UV?

Over 5 years now; the white spray paint I use to cover the barcoding helps somewhat.

Admittedly, the 1" cross Tee is probably cheaper than these caps found on Amazon.

Yes, and you get 2 for the price of 1 because you saw it in half.

BTW, since you mount the radios plumb be sure to take your time when sawing that tee so as to help insure it is, in fact, a straight cut because you secure a side of the tee to the vertical surface (assuming it is plumb).

It's been several years now but I think I made the vertical 8" for the bigger Nanostation radios and shortened them for the Locos and likely the 5AC radios.

 

[xebra]

I agree with mounting plumb and will do so for the final position.
At the moment, one 5AC is wedged between a couple of cardboard boxes in the attic of the shed roughly aimed at the house and the other is
laying on it's side in my office, roughly aimed at the shed. Still getting between 250 & 300 Mbps connection between the two. Once I get them in the right RF wave orientation and better aligned, I expect better performance.

IF my daughter has time to 3d print these, hopefully in ABS, the picture below is what I hope to get to mount the nanostations.
They adjust multiple directions for more accurate aiming. I went to this website Thingiverse and searched for nanostation. The image below is one of several that popped up.
I don't have the skill to create these sorts of things in CAD, so I'm very appreciative of others that contribute there designs.
Thanks again for your tips and information.

 

[looney2ns]

I've used Tony's trademarked brackets, they are cheap, can be adjusted to any position you need, and they work well.
In my case, I simply press fit them together (no gluing) and they can be repositioned at any time. They've stayed in place now for about 3 years.

 

[xebra]

I finally have this issue resolved!!!

first,
The nanostations are working great! Thanks again for the suggestion!
No dropouts, strong signal. I'm not 100% sure that they are in direct alignment with each other, but the bandwidth is excellent over the 50+ feet between them. I used a modified version of Tony's mounts instead of the 3d printed ones. Thanks Tony! The output from the one on the house goes directly to the netgear switch with the rest of the cameras.

After a bunch of experimenting and using some AI coding help from Copilot, I have a Visual Basic script that calls a batch file, that is executed as a boot Task that will reconnect my wi-fi after a power cycle.
Additionally, I ended up modifying the registry to bypass the need to supply a login name and password for the win 11 machine.
So essentially if the power drops out (I don't have a UPS, yet) the PC will come back on, login and reconnect to my internal Wi-fi.

Here's the set up...
I have one internal camera that I couldn't run a hardwire to, so I connected it to a LAN port on a Netgear router near the camera, and it broadcasts an SSID. I used an addon network card in my camera control PC to connect to that SSID. The VBA script when called by the task scheduler executes a batch file which reconnects the wifi to capture the data from the camera. The FPS look good, not lags. I wasn't able to get the task scheduler to execute the batch file by itself. If I remember correctly, there was an administrative execution rights issue I couldn't get around with just the batch file.
Code below if you'd like to review.

Apparently, I can't attach a VBS file so here is the code. Both of these files live at the root of the C:\ drive.

VBS code:

Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
objShell.ShellExecute "cmd.exe", "/c C:\reconnectwifi.bat", "", "runas", 1

here is the batch file:

@echo off
netsh wlan connect name="scarif-5"
pause


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