Intermittent wifi after connecting to plugable dock

I have a Surface Pro 4. When I am connected to my local wifi without my dock I get a steady connection with reliable pings – I can include a continuous ping that shows no issues.

However, as soon as I connect the dock – which I’m currently only using for monitor (ie nothing else plugged into the dock) my network connection becomes very unreliable, with losing network to very slow connection. A continuous ping shows very slow to completely lost connection. Again the only change is plugging in the dock which in turn is connected solely to one monitor via HDMI.

What could be causing this and how do I fix? I did update to the latest Display drivers… To verify this is the problem I just disconnected my dock to finish posting this message (as I had lost connectivity with the dock in) and everything went back to normal (continuous pings and fast)

Hi Aveek, thanks for posting! Sorry to hear of the WiFi issues you are seeing while connected to our dock and I’ll be happy to help! Based off of your description, it sounds like this could be related to a wireless interference issue between the USB 3.0 controller in our dock and the wireless signal for your WiFi as they tend to emit similar 2.4Ghz frequencies. Any USB 3.0 device connected to your system (not just our dock) has the potential to cause interference with your WiFi signal.

Typically, one of the most common solutions to this problem is plugging the docking station into another USB port on your system, ideally one on the opposite side of the laptop. However, as you mention you have a Surface I would assume this is not feasible for you to test. Another workaround, if you happen to have one, is to use a USB 2.0 Type B to USB 2.0 Type A cable like this –> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NH11KIK/ in order to connect our dock to your Surface as it will force our dock to run on the USB 2.0 standard, albeit with diminished data transfer speeds.

One last workaround that has worked for some customers is to rearrange the placement of the dock on your desk and extend the cable that is connecting our dock to your system as far as it can away from your Surface. The goal is to increase the distance from the Surface and the dock’s USB 3.0 ports to see if this mitigates the interference.

Understood if these workarounds aren’t feasible or desired and we would be happy to assist with a return for refund for our dock as we certainly do not want you to be stuck with a device that doesn’t meet your needs. If a refund is preferred, please reach out to our direct support email at support@plugable.com with ‘Ticket Number 153616’ in the subject line so we can match everything up and please include your Amazon Order ID for your purchase in the body of the email.

I go apologize for this behavior and we look forward to hearing back from you if you wish to perform the above tests (or proceed with a return for refund).

Thank you,

David W.
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support