Can’t Detect WiFi Network on a Dell Laptop

[PHAM8899]

NEED SUPPORT FOR DETECTION WI-FI NETWORK. 

I can scan for many available Wi-Fi connections nearby, but not that at my house. Vice versa, my network appears on all other devices and works properly. 
Some details about my laptop: Dell Vostro purchased in 2015, but it has dualband wifi that works for both 2,4 and 5g.

As suggested by Roger customer service personnel, I went  to Roger center to ensure that my laptop can connect to other Roger networks. After successfully connecting to the network at the store, Roger staff at store advised me to call customer service and have someone come to my house to check on the network.
I spoke with many technical support staff from Roger and Dell to check on the network and the laptop itself in order to find a solution. Dell personnel confirmed that the hardware is operational. Rogers tech support advised me to reset and reconfigure the network modem, but this did not resolve the issue. He told me it was an isolated problem that only occurred in my laptop, which appears to be a third-party issue, so he sent me here to look for a solution myself.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? Please let me know.

***Edited Labels***

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @PHAM8899.

Thank you for posting your concern, and welcome to our Community! 😃

One of the devices not detecting the home WiFi network typically points to incompatibility of the WiFi adapter. I appreciate you trying resetting/reconfiguring the modem. 

For testing purposes, you can try disabling the band steering and try connecting your laptop to the 2.4 GHz network:

• Open the Ignite WiFi Hub app
• Tap on "Connect" at the bottom
• Tap on your home network
• Tap on the Pencil next to My Network
• Check the box > Use different names and passwords for 2.4 GHz...
• Under 5 GHz WiFi, Change the WiFi name. You can just add a number to change the name
• Tap on Apply Changes at the bottom

Turn WiFi Off/On on your laptop. Hopefully, you will see your home network, and you can connect. 

Irrespective of whether your laptop connects or not; we need to reverse the above changes so the rest of the devices can connect to WiFi. Revert the 5 GHz WiFi name, uncheck the box > Use different names and passwords for 2.4 GHz..., and Apply Changes. 

The other option would be to look into Wireless USB Adapters for your laptop. 

Cheers,

RogersMoin

[Rhe2]

It would be great if there was an easy-to-install, downloadable patch to solve DELL - IGNITE connectivity issues.  I suspect, however, that different computers/users have different reasons for connectivity problems.  The IGNITE TV connection and resulting reception work great though!

[chank]

I know this is a little old but I am having the same problem. I have a Dell Latitude E7450 that can see networks around me, but not my Rogers wifi. We already run with band splitting in the house because of having a number of Google Home minis which only work on 2.4GHz, and the Dell laptop can't see either the 2.4 or the 5GHz. I have an old router, which I am running as an WAP and it can see that perfectly fine and connects. So I can get on the internet with it, but would like a solution that didn't rely on the old router.

I have downloaded Dell SupportAssist and run that to see if there are any new drivers, but none were recommended. 

Any ideas?

[Datalink]

@chank try these:

1.  Download and install the Intel Driver & Support Assistant to see if there are drivers that can be updated for the laptop

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant

2.  Turn off the 5 Ghz network on the modem which should turn off Band Steering and leave the 2.4 Ghz network running on its own.  See if the laptop will connect. 

3. With the 5 Ghz network still disabled, check the wifi security to see is its set to run a combo WPA2/WPA3 setting. Drop that to WPA2 and then see if the laptop will connect.  

Hopefully the laptop will connect when all of the above are done.  Then reenable the 5 Ghz network to see what the laptop will do.  That laptop is dual band capable and 802.11ac capable, which makes me think that this is a driver issue or a WPA3 issue. 

[chank]

Thank you very much for your help @Datalink , but I am sorry to say it is still not working.

1. I downloaded the Intel Device and Support assistant. It only suggested an update to a Bluetooth driver, which I tried installing, but it failed.

2. I tried disabling the 5GHz, but that made no difference, because I think I have band steering off anyway as I have different names for the two wifi networks.

3. Both the 2.4 and 5GHz are using WPA2 only. I am unable to set them to use any other security.

For the record, my modem is a Technicolor XB7 revision CGM4331COM_6.2p32s1_PROD_sey

[Datalink]

@chank what are you running on the laptop, Windows 10?

Try to delete the network from the laptop.  Don't remember if you have to "forget" or if its a "delete" selection.  There are one or two other ways to delete network credentials from Windows 10 or 11.  I'll have to have a look around to find them.  Once the network has been deleted from the windows operating system, you would have to join the network again.  That shouldn't be a problem.  

[chank]

Hi @Datalink 

Yes running Windows 10. It a new install too.

When you say "delete the network" do you mean delete the network I can use from (the wireless access point I set up)? I tried that, but again that made no difference. 

Thanks for all your help BTW. Just not sure I am going to get any joy with this. It does seem odd, as we have two older HP laptops running Windows 10, and they both can see the Rogers 2.4GHz network fine.

[Datalink]

Hi @chank, what I meant to say was to delete the network profile from the Windows 10 laptop.  Have a look at the following Intel page:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026249/wireless/legacy-intel-wireless-pr...

You should be able to use a command prompt or use Power Shell, running as an administrator to delete specific network profiles or to delete all profiles.  I would delete all profiles.  To do that I would use:

netsh wlan delete profile name=*

as indicated on the Intel page.  

Did you have the laptop running via wifi on another modem or router, and then switched to the XB7?  Sometimes when you change the wifi or ethernet source, the user device won't cooperate and will refuse to connect.  At that point, deleting the previous profile is necessary. 

[chank]

@Datalink I did forget the network I was using and I also ran the netsh command from an admin console just in case, but alas still no change. 

This is a brand new install of Windows 10 on this repurposed work laptop so it has in effect never connected to any other network before. I hadn't used it for a while, and the last time it was used in earnest, with the previous Win 10 install, was when I had the older Rogers modem, and I don't recall any issues connect to that.

[Datalink]

@chank are you still fighting with this?  If so:

1:  Have a look at the wifi setting for the network in question.  The mode setting will probably indicate 802.11 a/g/n/ac/ax.  See if you can set that to 802.11 a/g/n/ac and then try the laptop again. 

2.  Check the security setting on the modem.  I think its a choice of low, medium or high.  I wonder if that setting is preventing the laptop from connecting although it shouldn't .  If its currently sitting at medium or high, try setting it to low to see if that makes a difference.  I don't think that it would.

3.  Drill down into the laptop wifi adapter advanced settings and review the settings to see if there is anything that stands out that might prevent the laptop from connecting to the modem.  If the laptop connects to the access point, then it should connect to the modem, unless it can't handle the 802.11ax declaration by the modem.  That's the only item that really comes to mind.  

To get to the Advance settings for the adapter, go:

Start -> Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Centre:

Select the wifi adapter - > right click and select Properties -> Configuration.

That brings up the Adapter Properties popup.  Select Advanced.  Review all of the property settings for anything that might seem out of place.  You might have to do some online research to determine what some of the settings are for.  

Hope this helps if you're still fighting with this.  

[chank]

@Datalink thanks for your continuing help on this, but I am afraid it is still not connecting.

All of the config via the web page on my modem is fixed. I am not able to change any mode, frequency or security setting etc. The only thing I can change is the SSID and band steering on the mobile app.

I tried changing a number of the advance settings on the network adapter on my laptop, but alas nothing there.

I might have to just stick with using this WAP for it, which is a shame as it is only 54MHz.