Thanks Doug,

The problem was similar as you advised, but a bit more complicated...

I am almost certain it is due to wifi repeater "Comfast CF-WR302S V2.0" I use to make wifi signal more stable in my backgarden.
Without the extender, I still have quite strong signal from the main Router, but it is not stable, sometimes it becomes very weak for no reason.
and I guess, sometimes Laptop connects to the main router, but rPi to the repeater, - they both have the same SSID name, but for some reason are treated as different networks
I am not sure how to fix it....
So if I switch off the repeater, - I have no problem.

However, mostly
1) The repeater is on,
2) And if I am connected to the rPi hotspot (for my tests)
3) Later I command astroberry to turn of the Hotspot
4) I presume, it should Look for the wifi on the Connection list and connect to it if it is available
5) I guess, it connects to the repeater (or main router sometimes).
6) if my win10 is not on the same device connection, I obviously try cannot connect to rPi
And at this point Win10 adds up more confusion
7) Win10 usually as still shows Asrtoberry Hotsport on the wifi list, I obviously try to connect back and fail...
Not sure what are Win10 wifi list re-fresh timings, but I think it is around 2 minutes or so....

Solutions I see:
1) Set up the repeater to work properly... - not sure how to do it... would be nice to get advice... but this one is very simple, it has no options as I recall..
2) get another repeater.... Question: which one will do the job properly????
3) Cat6 cable???? - not and option as I went rPi way to reduce the amount of the cables.
4) Get the main router closer to the backgarden? - sadly no option for that also
5) Else? VNC??? - will need more tests as it was very slow/laggy initially and I am not sure why.... (p.s. I previously used VNC to control win10 laptop left outside for imaging without any lag issues and on the same network).
6) else?


Observation:
Once I am logged via rPI hotspot (without any internet connection), - I do see the time and date is wrong, it shows the one from last session as rPi has no internal battery to keep clock ticking...
do you guys all use
sudo date --set='2020-05-12 20:51:03'
Or maybe there is another way?


P.S.
Warsaw...
During the initial set up, - we have to add our own location details, - why not to use that out of the box?

Read More...