"The Wi-Fi keeps dropping" is a ticket with two very different shapes. One user on one laptop is usually a driver, a power setting or a sticky roam. A whole floor complaining at once is the access points, the channels or DHCP.
Figure out which shape you have first, then use the checks below. Most of the evidence is already on the laptop if you know the commands and the event IDs.
One user or the whole floor?
Ask the user where it happens and whether colleagues nearby see the same thing. Drops in one spot, such as the far meeting room or the stairwell, point at coverage or roaming. Drops everywhere on one laptop point at the laptop. Drops for everyone at the same time point at the network, and the controller or the switch logs will show it.
Also ask what "drops" means. A laptop that shows connected but loses pages for ten seconds is usually a roam to a distant access point. A laptop whose Wi-Fi icon shows a globe or disconnects fully is a different failure and the WLAN log will name it.
Read the client side
The Windows command below prints the signal, band, channel, radio type and the BSSID the laptop is talking to. Signal below about 50 percent, a 2.4 GHz connection in an office with 5 GHz available, or a BSSID that belongs to an access point on another floor tell you a lot. Run it at the user's desk and again at the spot where it drops.
Then open Event Viewer > Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > WLAN-AutoConfig > Operational. Event ID 8001 is a successful connection and names the BSSID. Event ID 8003 is a disconnect and includes a reason: user-initiated, driver, or a reason code from the access point. Event ID 11004 and 11005 (authentication) and 12011 through 12013 show 802.1X failures if you use enterprise authentication.
- Update the Wi-Fi driver from the laptop vendor, not only from Windows Update. Intel and Qualcomm adapters get frequent roaming fixes.
- In the adapter's Advanced properties, set Roaming Aggressiveness (Intel) or Roaming Sensitivity to medium or high if the laptop clings to a weak AP.
- On the Power Management tab untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
netsh wlan show interfacesSticky clients and roaming
Roaming is a client decision. The access points can only encourage it. A laptop that connected at the desk stays on that AP as it walks down the hall until the signal is bad enough for it to look elsewhere, and by then the connection has already stalled. Three settings on the controller help: turn on 802.11k and 802.11v so the AP hands the client a list of neighbours and nudges it to move, and 802.11r if your clients support it so the re-authentication is fast.
Also lower the transmit power. Access points at full power reach further than the laptop can talk back, so the client hears the far AP fine and stays on it. A minimum RSSI setting, available on Ubiquiti, Cisco and most controllers, kicks a client that has dropped below a threshold so it reconnects to a closer AP. Set it carefully; too aggressive and you create the drops you were trying to fix.
Channels and interference
On 2.4 GHz use only channels 1, 6 and 11 at 20 MHz. Anything else overlaps and neighbouring APs interfere with each other. On 5 GHz, 40 MHz channels are usually the right compromise in an office; 80 MHz sounds faster but leaves fewer clean channels and causes co-channel interference once you have more than a few APs. If your APs use DFS channels, a radar detection event forces a channel change and every client on that AP drops for a moment, which shows in the controller log.
Too many APs is a real problem. Dense deployments with every AP on full power create a room where every client can hear ten APs and none of them cleanly. If you inherited the layout, walk it with a survey app on a phone and look for spots with either no strong signal or five equally strong ones.
Non-radio causes that look like Wi-Fi
A DHCP pool that runs out gives new clients an address of 169.254.x.x and a connected-but-no-internet symptom that users report as Wi-Fi dropping. Check the scope on the DHCP server or the router and shorten the lease time for guest networks. Client isolation turned on for the staff SSID stops printers and screen-sharing from working and looks like a flaky connection.
Finally, a captive portal or a MAC filter on a guest network behaves badly with the random hardware addresses Windows and phones now use by default. Turn off random MAC for the corporate SSID via policy, or stop using MAC-based rules. If the office network was never designed, only grown, RackLedge does site surveys and can tell you where the APs should be and how many you need.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the laptop stay on the far access point after I walk to my desk?
The client decides when to roam, and it only looks for a better AP when the current signal gets poor. Enable 802.11k/v on the controller, lower AP transmit power, and raise the laptop's roaming aggressiveness setting.
Should staff and guests share the same SSID?
No. Put guests on a separate SSID and VLAN with client isolation and a short DHCP lease. Keep the staff SSID with 802.1X or a strong WPA2/WPA3 passphrase and no isolation.
Takeaway
Decide whether the problem is one laptop or the whole floor, then read the WLAN log and the interface stats before changing anything. Most single-user drops are drivers, power saving or a sticky roam. Most site-wide problems are channel planning, transmit power or DHCP. Fix the cause you found rather than rebooting the access points and hoping.