laptop takes too long finding and connecting to home wifi (up to 20 min)

[lolicus]

Hi! I need help with my laptop wireless connection. It just takes too long for my laptop to find and connect to my home wifi and this is happening for more then 2 months now, i really don't know what to do anymore. Other devices (tablet and mobile phone) are not having that issue and connect right away each time. It's only my laptop ( a 2 years old Toshiba satellite L755 running on Windows 7 btw )that's taking up to 15 or 20 minutes (sometimes even more, but also sometimes 2-3 minutes) to find my home wifi connection. I thought that maybe the firewall was the problem ( I had 2 : comodo and avast, so I figured out they could be making the issue, so at first I started disabling Comodo firewall which really has worked for a few days, but then the problem started again. Then I removed Comodo completely and again it helped a bit - it managed to reduce the time my laptop needed to connect to about 3 minutes, but then after few days the problem came back, so now i really don't know what to do. Besides that I have tried many other things (disabling/enabling the network adapter- helped only 2 times, uninstalling network adapter - hasn't helped at all, disabling avast- helped also a few times but then it started again, turning my router on and off- sometimes it helped, sometimes not..) , nothing helped long term, which is weird because it's like each time i did something different, it helped for a few days, but then my laptop somehow seemed to get used to it,and then the problem came back. I really hope someone can help me out here...

Edit : additional info: I have an asus rt-n10e router

 

[indyitguy]

What anti-virus are you using? Have you tried disabling it? Have you looked for an update on your NIC?

 

[lolicus]

I'm using avast pro, and yes, I've tried to disable it, it didn't help... I wasn't really sure how to uptade my NIC driver so I googled it, and followed the instructions, but when clicked to update my network adapter it said that there are no new drivers and that the driver is already up to date

 

[lolicus]

UPDATE : Just wanted to say that I've finally managed to fix my problem - It was the router firmware ! Since I've updated it, the problem didn't come back, and my wireless connectivity is finally established right away when I turn on my laptop. I've thought to post the solution here so it can maybe help someone with the same problem. Here's a link on how to do it in case someone doesn't know (hope links are allowed here):
http://www.wikihow.com/Update-Router-Firmware
I've also switched to Windows firewall , idk if it also helped but it's kinda easier for me now


UPDATE NO 2: ok i know it's been a long time since I've posted this and i still have the same laptop, so here is another update. The solution mentioned in my previous post helped me the most, but unfortunately not on long term. However, I was lucky to find out there is a simple trick almost everyone with wifi connection problems can use, and that is connecting with your smartphone. To do so, you will need an usb cable and your smartphone (with USB tethering option). Simply turn on the wifi connection on your smartphone,connect the phone with your laptop via USB cable, find the settings option on your phone and search for something like network settings ( it's different for each type of phone,but for example on a samsung galaxy it would be settings> wireless and networks> more settings> tethering and portable devices>usb tethering) .
I've done this to connect to my home wifi each time for a couple of days/weeks (because my laptop wouldn't do it on its own) and after that it wouldn't take long and my laptop would automatically disconnect from my phone and connect to the original home wifi on it's own.At first it seems a bit frustrating to have to do this every time,but it's only for a few days,and each time my laptop would find the original connection faster (at first it took it 20 minutes,then 10 ,then 5, and finally after some time i didn't have to do it at all/ only occasionally, and my laptop would connect to the home wifi without the phone).
I know it doesn't seem like a "tech pro" solution and I have no idea why it worked, but it did,and i wanted to quickly share it as i found out that it can be applied on a wide spectrum of different wireless connection problems