New Intel Wifi adapter setting that can benefit Clarion apps

Been going through the settings of Intel Wifi adapters and noticed a new setting.

Advanced Intel® Wireless Adapter Settings

Global BG scan blocking

By default, the Wi-Fi adapter will perform periodic scan for other available Access Points (AP).
Disabling this behavior can be helpful when using application software that is sensitive to brief interruptions in network connectivity.

  • Always: Will not perform periodic scans for other available APs.
  • Never (default): Will perform periodic scans for other available APs.
  • On Good RSSI: Will only perform periodic scans for other available APs when the current AP’s signal strength is low.

So choosing Always will benefit Clarion apps, especially ISAM drivers like topspeed.

If using a laptop in a massive warehouse with multiple access points due to racking, pallets & product blocking signals, then you might get away with using the On Good RSSI setting.

Setting Roaming to Lowest is also another good one to reduce interruptions.

Load powershell on your computer with wifi and type this to see if the setting exists in your wifi adapter.

Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty Wi-Fi | ft DisplayName, DisplayValue, ValidDisplayValues

Some CLI examples for changing values using the ValidDisplayValues and -RegistryValue. Pretty self explanatory I think.

Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty Wi-Fi -DisplayName Roaming* -DisplayValue '1. Lowest'
Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty W*i -DisplayName "Transmit Power" -DisplayValue "1. Lowest"
get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty W*i -DisplayName "Transmit Power"
get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Wi-Fi" -AllProperties -IncludeHidden 
Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name "Wi-Fi" -AllProperties -IncludeHidden -RegistryKeyword "IbssTxPower" -RegistryValue "100"
Reset-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty

And there’s also a new Universal Windows driver model for Wi-Fi drivers for Windows 11 which can be back ported to Win10 so some bugs in the older wifi drivers should disappear.
WDI Miniport Driver Design Guide - Windows drivers | Microsoft Learn
Introduction to the Wi-Fi WDF class extension (WiFiCx) - Windows drivers | Microsoft Learn

Example old Windows wifi bug.

fwiw.

Edit. These are my wifi settings, which should allow maximum (burst) throughput, but because I’m in front of a laptop using wifi all day long, I have the transmit power set to the minimum, if thats not an issue for you because of only periodic use, having the transmit power set higher is ok.

Setting Transmit Power to 5. Highest ignores the 802.11 standards which controls transmit power output which will burn through your laptop battery. This setting can also be controlled/set by maxing out your CPU and windows performance by using powercfg.

Going one lower to “4. Medium-High” or lower re-enables 802.11 power transmit standards which will help your battery life.

PS C:\Users\[NAME]> Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty Wi-Fi | ft DisplayName, DisplayValue, ValidDisplayValues

DisplayName                DisplayValue             ValidDisplayValues
-----------                ------------             ------------------
Sleep on WoWLAN Disconnect Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
Packet Coalescing          Enabled                  {Disabled, Enabled}
ARP offload for WoWLAN     Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
NS offload for WoWLAN      Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
GTK rekeying for WoWLAN    Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
Wake on Magic Packet       Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
Wake on Pattern Match      Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
Channel Width for 2.4GHz   Auto                     {20 MHz Only, Auto}
Channel Width for 5GHz     Auto                     {20 MHz Only, Auto}
Mixed Mode Protection      RTS/CTS Enabled          {RTS/CTS Enabled, CTS-to-self Enabled}
Fat Channel Intolerant     Disabled                 {Disabled, Enabled}
Transmit Power             1. Lowest                {1. Lowest, 2. Medium-low, 3. Medium, 4. Medium-High...}
802.11n/ac Wireless Mode   3. 802.11ac              {1. Disabled, 2. 802.11n, 3. 802.11ac}
MIMO Power Save Mode       Auto SMPS                {Auto SMPS, Static SMPS, Dynamic SMPS, No SMPS}
Roaming Aggressiveness     1. Lowest                {1. Lowest, 2. Medium-low, 3. Medium, 4. Medium-High...}
Preferred Band             1. No Preference         {1. No Preference, 2. Prefer 2.4GHz band, 3. Prefer 5GHz band}
Throughput Booster         Enabled                  {Disabled, Enabled}
U-APSD support             Enabled                  {Disabled, Enabled}
802.11a/b/g Wireless Mode  6. Dual Band 802.11a/b/g {1. 5GHz  802.11a, 2. 2.4GHz 802.11b, 3. 2.4GHz 802.11g, 4. 2.4GHz 802.11b/g...}

Edit2.5

This command shows the Signal strength thats being received by the laptop, its not the output Transmit Power of the laptop which I originally thought.

PS C:\Users[NAME]> netsh wlan show interfaces w*f

There is 1 interface on the system:

Name                   : Wi-Fi
Description            : Another Intel(R) Wireless Adapter
GUID                   : 619ebe5b-4538-4a4c-99de-451b6c587400
Physical address       : a1:a1:a1:a1:a1:a1
Interface type         : Primary
State                  : connected
SSID                   : GhostHouseLane
BSSID                  : b2:b2:b2:b2:b2:b2
Network type           : Infrastructure
Radio type             : 802.11n
Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
Cipher                 : CCMP
Connection mode        : Profile
Band                   : 2.4 GHz
Channel                : 1
Receive rate (Mbps)    : 144.4
Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 144.4
Signal                 : 92%
Profile                : GhostHouseLane

Hosted network status  : Not available
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