cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

M1 mac not connecting to wifi

Jislas
I've been here awhile

Hi just changed to rogers, unfortunately for some reason the M1 keeps telling me that it needs the 5g password to be wpa2 and it wont connect to the 5g network even though the signal looks strong. Do any one know what the problem might be?

 

 

***Edited Labels***

4 REPLIES 4

Re: M1 mac not connecting to wifi

Datalink
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@Jislas have a look at the following post:

 

https://newbedev.com/macbook-pro-won-t-connect-to-wi-fi-with-correct-password-error-the-wi-fi-networ...

 

My guess is that the modem's Band Steering is trying to force the Mac to run on the 2.4 Ghz network.  I don't know what the default wifi bandwidth is for the XB6 or XB7 modem, but I suspect that it might be 20/40 Mhz.  And from what I remember reading long ago, apple devices won't run on 40 Mhz wide 2.4 Ghz networks.  I don't know if that's ever changed from long ago.  So, the end result is that the modem is trying to force the Mac to run on the 2.5 Ghz network and the Mac is saying, nope, not a chance.  

 

A complicating factor here is that Rogers has never indicated which mode, of the three band steering modes, is actually used by the modems.  That little snippet of knowledge would help in situations such as this.  

 

Ok, so, the other path might be to turn off the Band Steering and force the 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks to run separate Network names (SSIDs).  Have a look at the following thread and read it all the way to the bottom post.  That's not the start of the thread, its just a point that's logical to start reading as it should apply to your particular situation.  

 

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Ignite-TV/Band-Steering-on-XB6-Modem-Causing-Issues-for-2-4-GH...

 

So, have a look at the modem setting or the app setting to see if you can in fact check the box that indicates "Use different names and passwords for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi".  Reading thru the posts, I wonder if Comcast has in fact totally removed the ability for the users to run separate wifi networks.  

 

Note, as indicated, if you're running pods, then you don't have a choice, Band Steering is enabled and there's no way around that, other than buying a separate router, or perhaps unplugging the pods and setting the modem up from scratch to see if it give you access to that "Use different names and passwords for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi" setting.  

Re: M1 mac not connecting to wifi

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@Jislas wrote:

Hi just changed to rogers, unfortunately for some reason the M1 keeps telling me that it needs the 5g password to be wpa2 and it wont connect to the 5g network even though the signal looks strong. Do any one know what the problem might be?


Which Ignite gateway do you have, the white XB7 or the charcoal-coloured XB6... and do you also have Ignite WiFi Pods installed to expand your WiFi coverage?

 

The M1 Macs all support Wi-Fi 6, so they have a modern WiFi chipset, but users have reported issues connecting to some Wi-Fi networks.

 

Similarly, if you have an XB7 gateway, I have heard of Wi-Fi 6 interoperability issues that prevent some devices from connecting, and that can be temporarily addressed by disabling Wi-Fi 6 on the gateway.

 

Another thing that might be a problem is if you previously used the same WiFi SSID/passphrase on a mixed WPA/WPA2 network, and a WPA passphrase might be stored in your Keychain.  You may just need to "forget" the WiFi network and reconnect.

 

@Datalink wrote:

My guess is that the modem's Band Steering is trying to force the Mac to run on the 2.4 Ghz network.

 

A complicating factor here is that Rogers has never indicated which mode, of the three band steering modes, is actually used by the modems.  That little snippet of knowledge would help in situations such as this.  


I don't think that this is a factor.  The band steering modes that you are referring to are "Prefer 5GHz", "Force 5GHz" and "Balance Bands". 

 

Both "Prefer 5GHz" and "Force 5GHz" can cause grief for devices that insist on connecting on the 2.4 GHz band when the AP will not respond to the device's probe requests on that band.  Band Steering also causes problems for older device that use passive scanning to discover Wi-Fi networks -- they can't detect the presence of the Wi-Fi network because the network name is not advertised in beacon frames.

 

I don't think that any of the above would cause problems for a modern Mac.

 

If Pods are in the mix, client-steering might be causing issues if Ignite WiFi is trying to force the Mac to connect to either the Pod or the gateway... but Macs should be compatible with that as well.

Re: M1 mac not connecting to wifi

Jislas
I've been here awhile

So far, i forgot the network but still doesnt accept the password given it just looks like its working to connect to only end up asking for the password again and saying the 5g network requires a wpa2 password. As for the modem i dont know the exact model but the box it came with says Gen 2 and it looks like the xb7

Re: M1 mac not connecting to wifi

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@Jislas  One other thing that you can try is to change the mode of the 5 GHz band from "802.11 a/n/ac/ax" to "802.11 a/n/ac".  You won't really lose any functionality in doing so because the XB7 gateway does not fully support Wi-Fi 6 as it does not (currently) support WPA3 encryption, only WPA2-PSK (AES).  The lack of WPA3 support may be causing issues for your Mac.

Topic Stats
  • 4 replies
  • 2921 views
  • 0 Likes
  • 3 in conversation