AC1900 WiFi Range Extender

Actually, no.  When it doesn't connect, it usually won't connect at all.  The past couple days have been rainy, and it's given me a chance to experiment a bit.  The issue seems to revolve around the quality of signal from the router (a new Netgear router) and DHCP. I normally have the Extender set to route ethernet over the 5G band. And when I get an adequate signal, it works well.  But, it seems that the 5g band is more susceptible to weather than the 2g band.  When the extender can't get a good DHCP negotiation from the router, it doesn't have an ethernet address to hand to my laptop, and it doesn't know how to find any server at all, including the Extender's status and settings page.  What I have learned to do is tell the network manager to disconnect the ethernet connection (routed by default thru 5g), and connect to the 2g wifi.  Odds are much better that will work.  Then I can go into settings in the extender, and change the ethernet routing to the 2g band.  When it resets, which drop the 2g wifi, I can usually go back to the ethernet connection, and this time it will work, because it's getting it's DHCP thru the 2g band.  Not as fast as 5g, but at least it's working.  BTW, the phone is a Nexus 5, running the latest and greatest Android version, 5.1.1.  If it grabs the 2g band first, I frequently have a hard time competing with it from my laptop. And also, yes, I've been watching both the 2g and 5g wifi bands in the neighborhood, and recently changed both to somewhat quieter channels, and that has definitely helped.