Government issued HP Chromebooks are all dropping WiFi or not connecting

[TwistedHelixis]

We recieved some HP Chromebooks from the governmant recently but they are all either dropping the Wifi or simply not connecting in the first place.

 

Had an email today to say that only 6 out of the 30 were connected. These are all allocated to the years 5 class (primary school). I cant easilly test them in another location due to covid.

 

We have a Unifi wifi. At the other end of the school we have different Chromebooks that are fine. I had lots of problems getting these enrolled in Google Workplace, sometimes they just wouldn't connect to our WiFI, some would say something about DHCP issue and others something about the WiFi password being incorrect even though I typed it correctly. When they do connect they dont all stay connected.

 

I also notice that my enrollement account is listed as a login account on the login page, with our paid for Chromebooks after enrollement the account used to enroll was never listed on the login page so that seems odd.

 

I also notice that these HP Chromebook 14 do have a lot of internet issues listed on forums.

 

Although I am 99% sure its an issue with the Chromebooks, what is the best way to fault find the issue? The class laptops all work OK.

 

Would a powerwash help?

Anyone else get HP 14 Chromebooks?

Edited March 25, 2021 by TwistedHelixis

[ThatBoringBloke]

You say you have Unifi Wifi, do you know what version the Access Point is running on? This sounds like an issue with the firmware on the AP.

[TwistedHelixis]

You say you have Unifi Wifi, do you know what version the Access Point is running on? This sounds like an issue with the firmware on the AP.

 

Ill need to logon and check the versions. I last updated the firmware about 6 months ago and they have been rock solid for everything else, including my Chromebook and the Chromebooks at the other end of the school. We do have a mix of AP & AP Pro, but it's the AP Pro that is nearest the Chromebooks.

[FN-GM]

Ill need to logon and check the versions. I last updated the firmware about 6 months ago and they have been rock solid for everything else, including my Chromebook and the Chromebooks at the other end of the school. We do have a mix of AP & AP Pro, but it's the AP Pro that is nearest the Chromebooks.

 

The AC Lite and AC Pros have had DHCP issues. Fixed with a firmware update.

 

One thing to check - do you have enough IP address available in your pool?

 

Posting the Chromebook model number might be useful.

[TwistedHelixis]

The AC Lite and AC Pros have had DHCP issues

I'll log in tonight and do an update

 

One thing to check - do you have enough IP address available in your pool?

I recently expanded our range from 250 to 1000+ IP's. so we have 4 ranges listed in DHCP and 255.255.252.* subnet-

10.***.136.***

10.***.137.***

10.***.138.***

10.***.139.***

 

I can see 4 devices listed in our 137 range and the rest in our 136 range, so that does seem to be working.

Out of interest are the Unifi AP's OK with clients from different address ranges at the same time?

 

Chromebook model number

In Google devices for some reason it seems to list 2 device types, although they are actually the same.

Chromebook 14 G6

HP Chromebook 14 db0000-db0999 / HP Chromebook 14A G5

Edited March 25, 2021 by TwistedHelixis

[FN-GM]

Out of interest are the Unifi AP's OK with clients from different address ranges at the same time?

 

Your WIFI should only have 1 subnet. How have you setup all those scopes? Have you assigned them to different VLANS?

[TwistedHelixis]

Your WIFI should only have 1 subnet. How have you setup all those scopes? Have you assigned them to different VLANS?

 

We dont have any VLANS the network is flat. Everying is using 255.255.252.* subnet.

 

EDIT - not sure why I used a * it should be 255.255.252.0 subnet

Edited March 25, 2021 by TwistedHelixis

[FN-GM]

Oh I see. Is that 1 scope you have in DHCP?

[gmonks]

We have some HP 14 laptops, not Chromebook but this may help.

 

Turn off the Bluetooth. I set up some HP 14 laptops this week, handed one out and had complaints of a patchy connection with Wi-Fi dropping out every few minutes. Tried updating drivers etc, but since turning off the Bluetooth we've had no problems. (So far, touch wood!)

 

May be worth a shot...

[TwistedHelixis]

We have some HP 14 laptops, not Chromebook but this may help.Turn off the Bluetooth. I set up some HP 14 laptops this week, handed one out and had complaints of a patchy connection with Wi-Fi dropping out every few minutes. Tried updating drivers etc, but since turning off the Bluetooth we've had no problems. (So far, touch wood!)May be worth a shot...

 

OK thanks, I'll give that a go when I am onsite tomorrow.

[chazzy2501]

I have recently updated all my Unifi APs and for some devices now refuse to work correctly, I'm just replacing those devices. No unifi updates have fixed the issues. The devices were fine on the old APs.

 

Devices will connect but pass no traffic, connect once only then never again, or never connect. it's been frustrating luckily it only a few devices that can be replaced. Unifi really is a bag of dump sometimes.

[caffrey]

Yep, UNIFI is a bag of spanners at the moment - Got so many wifi issues but I don't know if it's that or the devices, impossible to do any testing

[chazzy2501]

Oh, forgot to mention that I'm now spending money hardwiring some areas as the wifi has become unusable. The Unifi Nanos replaced the Unifi AP-AC (square) and were installed in the same location.

 

it seems single link devices on 2.4Ghz suffer the worst.

[round2it]

i have some dells that drow wifi and reconnect and everything else is fine, strange thing the same laptop on windows 7 is rock solid so pointing to drivers what a head ache yes regretting unify now

[pete]

UniFi have broken DHCP in multiple firmwares in the past. We have a "canary" AP to test firmware on before pushing site-wide.

[caffrey]

I can't even remember when it did work - it did work fine once but I've gone way back to 4.x.13 and there are still issues - the latest 5.x branch release was woeful. I'm on 4.x.20 at the mo and it's just as bad

[msi_school]

I know this is not directly connected to your issues but I have found that the HP laptops we received from the government take much longer than our other laptops to connect to the WiFi at school and home.

[TwistedHelixis]

Hope I am not jumping the gun but updating the AP firmware does seem to have fixed the issue, at least for the 2 Chromebooks I could test it on. The class teacher will get the set out later this afternoon and update me.

 

Fingers crossed.

 

Thanks for all the advice :0)

[Michael]

Two settings worth tweaking are -

 

Site > Auto-Optimise Network - Turn off

 

Wireless Networks > Edit your SSID > Untick High Performance Devices

[TwistedHelixis]

Site > Auto-Optimise Network - Turn offWireless Networks > Edit your SSID > Untick High Performance Devices

 

Thanks for the heads up :0)

[Michael]

Thanks for the heads up :0)

 

No probs - I believe the Auto-Optimise does partially force devices onto 5GHz, but it's very hit and miss in terms of how the device responds. Modern devices are fine, but lots of devices fail to connect or perform poorly.

[TwistedHelixis]

So the chomebooks still don't seem to work :-(When I tested the two that worked I was in an area with the older original AP devices, the classroom with the issue has a newer AP Pro device.

 

I have asked the teacher to see if the class can take the Chromebooks to an area with older APs and report back , but we are almost at the end of term so nout sure if this will hapen any thime soon.

 

Obviously if the issue is the newer AP Pro I could just chuck in an older AP, but if this does turn out to be the case do you think either of these that @Michael shared would fix the issue on the newer AP Pro?

 

Site > Auto-Optimise Network - Turn offWireless Networks > Edit your SSID > Untick High Performance Devices

[caffrey]

This does sound like the experience I'm having at the moment , our Chromebooks initially connect via a GWFE machine policy to a WPA2 network, then once logged in connect via a GWFE user policy to a wpa2 enterprise network

Takes an age sometimes to get a DHCP lease, I don't have a fix and it's not just limited to Chromebooks

 

The WPA2 network seems to work okay.... So no idea what it is. I'm currently looking at ditching Unifi (no idea what with) as we're coming up to a network refresh. Or just use WPA2 and use a landing page (which I don't like)

 

Ubiquiti are or were looking at it, but support is poor

[saggu]

Hope I am not jumping the gun but updating the AP firmware does seem to have fixed the issue, at least for the 2 Chromebooks I could test it on. The class teacher will get the set out later this afternoon and update me.

 

Fingers crossed.

 

Thanks for all the advice :0)[/quote

 

If you don't mind me joining in- what version is your firmware now? we have received few HP Chromebooks. I have not yet enrolled them.Can prepare for the issues creeping. Thanks in advance.

[Primus]

Have to say we've never had any issues whatsoever - we've also got some of the DfE HP Chromebooks and they're all fine too.

 

I'm wondering why some are having so many issues - are you using PSK or Radius? Unifi switches or a different brand?