Once I link to my Wi-Fi range extender, the Win10 laptop can't access the router's Wi-Fi network (other devices work)
Once I link to my Wi-Fi range extender, the Win10 laptop can't access the router's Wi-Fi network (other devices work)
This is strange. you're getting a APIAP address basically a very old school "Failsafe IP address" IDK why you're getting this that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. However I can tell you have a DHCP server on the Extender. Turn it off, I think you're getting into IP address conflicts. Two DHCP servers don't usually play well unless you properly configure them right. The Router will provide the DHCP or basically the auto addressing of the IP addresses, not the Wifi extender. Reconnect to the network and see if this fixes it. IF all else fails we'll just give your laptop a static IP address if you configure the adapter manually Give it like IP Address 192.168.1.101 Subnet 255.255.255.0 default gateway: 192.168.1.1 < this is saying point towards the router for all of my traffic needs.
Adjusted the auto setting to manual, but the problem persisted. Initial fix didn't resolve it. First change worked, yet switching between the extender's network name and the router's again cut connectivity. On the router's interface, the static IP appears as a duplicate. Logging in from another device shows no entries for that IP. When I reconfigured it, the connection eventually established after some time, but the IP became invalid when linking to the extender. Currently, reverting to the previous IP isn't possible—I had to select a brand-new one for a successful link.
do you have more than one wifi adapter? i'm a bit puzzled about why you see two different ipv4 addresses. you should only have one listed in the ipconfig. take a screenshot of the following typing into the start menu/start bar the following "ncpa.cpl" to see something similar. i wonder if you have a second adapter and there might be a conflict.
Here, only the one Wi-Fi adapter. The multiple IP addresses only happen when the static IP I configured says (duplicate) and I think the other one is what the computer's actually using. And that happens only when I'm trying to connect to the router as described above. When I successfully connect to another access point like the extender for instance, only one IP shows up with ipconfig and the "autoconfiguration IPv4 address" does not appear.
I resolved the issue. It turned out to be a recognized flaw with the particular extender model I bought, and a beta firmware update released recently fixed it. I applied the update and everything appears to be functioning properly so far. Looking at the support forums of the manufacturer seems like a straightforward next step now, lol. Thanks everyone for the advice.