*Some* devices have never connected to wifi...

[MijIsTired]

Hi, I'm new here, but not new to community forums 🙂

I have searched my issue here and in other of may favourite tech support locations, but I can't find a match that don't have other confounding factors, and all solutions posted to similar questions as far as I've found, we've either tried, or don't seem to be the thing to try.

So, we have a SuperHub 3.0. As far as I can remember, we didn't have this issue with the old router (had the replacement in January).

At some point, our TV stopped connecting to the router. As it's right next to it, and we had an ethernet cable (and I'm very impatient), after a couple of resets of both devices I gave up and hard wired it.

We bought an Amazon Tablet in the summer. Couldn't get it to connect to wifi, despite resets etc and rummaging around in settings. Finished setting it up using my personal hotspot, not sure what it's doing now, as it's only really used for reading and the odd bit of offline minecraft in the car.

Bought second born a refurbed windows laptop for school work (and cos my ancient MacBookPro now needs about 10 mins notice to perform any functions and it's definitely not up to streaming DreamSMP vids on YouTube) Nope, can see wifi no problem. Correct password (I've checked multiple times). Followed instructions repeatedly, restarted everything in different orders, looked in settings on both devices, searched for others with similar issues, but nada. I enter the password, it thinks about it for about 10 seconds, then just get an 'unable to connect' message. This is sitting right next to the router. Works fine with the ethernet cable (unsurprisingly). I've run Windows diagnostics, but it just tells me I'm not connected to the internet, and I should do that 🙄 

I've also been told by kids that a visiting Nintendo Switch won't connect, and visiting friends' phones won't either. I think most of these are Android/Windows but don't know if all of them are. 

And no, we're not trying to connect everything at once! There are 4 phones in the house, 2 work MacBooks, one ancient home MacBook, one windows laptop that *does* connect and did so on the older route and on this newer one. 

So, it feels like something's changed. Virgin say they can't help unless I pay the Gadget team. Which doesn't seem reasonable when it's multiple devices that can't connect, and I can't help but conclude there's something buried deep in the router or its settings that's causing the problem. 

Any similar issues or potential solutions (that aren't 'factory reset everything' cos we have tried that before, though I understand why people suggest it...) very much appreciated. 

Thanks for reading 🙂 

[Adduxi · Accepted solution]

Try splitting the SSID as below.   It may help?  This way you can choose which band to connect to.

• Access your Hub by navigating to 192.168.0.1
• Login with the default settings login info (on base of Hub) unless you've already changed to your own password.
• Go to Advanced Settings > Wireless > Security
• Under Wireless Frequency 2.4GHz change the Wifi Network Name (SSID) e,g, append _2 to the end.
• Repeat for the Wireless Frequency 5GHz and click on Apply changes

[MijIsTired]

Thanks for replying. Will give that a go.

So I can choose a 'good' (or at least less bad) time to do this, can you just let me know what effect this may have on existing connections eg will devices that *do* currently connect need to start again? Or any other changes to look out for?

Can I also ask (cos I love to understand how things work) how this might help?

I changed hub password to stop kids working out how to get in and changing settings they don't like. But I know it and have rummaged around there before, so looks like this is within my self-taught skillset. 

[jbrennand]

Yes - see what I have posted before about that below....
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in Advanced>wireless>smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or “Smart Wifi” box and save settings.  Then, go to advanced>wireless>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - xxxxx_2 & xxxxx_5) -- use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want to connect to individually from the "available networks" list on each device. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.

5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less interference (and is better for iDevices ) than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one and some do struggle when the 2 bands are combined into one SSID.

You should also use a wifi analyser App to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but it wont help if there is other interference.

See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

[MijIsTired]

Ah, thank you. So it'll look similar to how the networks showed up with our old router (superb 2). That was handy, as just as you say, we knew that sometimes it was better in some parts of the house to use 2.4, rather than 5, even though theoretically it wasn't as good. We find our wifi travels better vertically than horizontally, regardless of distance. So 5 used to be better two floors away but directly above, whereas in the kitchen, in the next room to the damn router, we frequently had to force devices onto 2.4.

Thank you!

[MijIsTired]

And if anyone has opinions on the best wifi analyser (that's a new thing to me) app for iOS, that would also be really helpful.

Thank you all.

[Adduxi]

Due to iOS security there are no WiFi analysers that show all the information. Android or PC is your best option. 

[Tudor]

Apple believe or or not actually supply a WiFi Analyser, but it rather hidden away. Install the app “AirPort utility”, you don’t actually need any ArrPort hardware. Go to the settings and scroll down to the “AirPort utility” set on the setting “WiFi analyser”. Run the app and start a scan.

[jbrennand]

Thanks Tudor I was about to post the same info. I am all Apple and I use the scanning function in Airport Utility and although its basic it gives the info you need - to tell what's what.

[Adduxi]

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@Tudor wrote:

Apple believe or or not actually supply a WiFi Analyser, <snip>

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Thanks Tudor, every day is a school day, especially when you get to my age 😉