One of the most popular questions asked by users is: Why WiFi does not work on a laptop or phone? Indeed, you bought a router, set everything up, a computer accesses the Internet through it, but a smartphone or laptop does not. And it happens that WiFi does not work on both iPhone and Android devices. Let's figure it out together.
First of all, you need to determine the cause of the problem. All of them can be divided into 2 groups:
1) Reasons related to wireless network configuration
2) Errors in the settings on the connected device itself.
Wifi not working due to router
First of all, let's determine how the network is configured. It often happens that wifi does not work on the phone due to the fact that by default it receives network parameters in automatic mode. That is, it is assumed that the router is enabled DHCP server, which itself distributes individual IP addresses to connected devices.
But for security purposes, it can be configured in such a way that all addresses are assigned manually - either on the phone or iPhone itself, or even registered in the network settings in the admin panel of the router itself. A symptom of this problem will be that when you connect to the network, you will constantly see the message “obtaining an IP address” on the screen without any result.
Imagine that it is possible to manually register IP on your phone or laptop yourself.
For a phone on Android and iPhone, this is done almost the same way - go to “Settings> WiFi”, see our active network connection and click on the arrow (on Android) or on the “i” icon on iPhone / iPad.
- IP for the phone from the range of addresses set in the router and available for use. If the router address is 192.168.1.1, then 192.168.1.45 can be assigned to the phone, for example.
- Subnet mask - 255.255.255.0
- Router is the IP of the router. In most models, by default, it has an address of either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 - try them, if it does not work, then contact your network administrator.
- DNS - also the IP of the router, or you can use one of the Google public addresses - 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4.
On Android phones, you will need to scroll down the page to the drop-down menu "IP Settings" and change DHCP to "Custom". Additional forms will open for entering the same parameters.
On a laptop, this is done in the "Internet Protocol Properties" section.
In the event that these tips did not help, it means that the possibility of independently prescribing these parameters is disabled in the router and they are set only in the router settings. If you have access to it, then go to its admin panel () and activate the "DHCP Server" in the settings.
Another way to solve the problem of not working WiFi is to try manually set DNS settings on the router - the same ones that were prescribed on the phone above. This is done in the admin panel, in the settings section for connecting to an Internet provider.
This is how it looks in ASUS routers of the new firmware - the "Internet" section, the "Connection" tab. Check the box to deactivate the automatic selection of DNS servers and specify the data:
Either from Google: DNS1 - 8.8.8.8, DNS2 - 8.8.4.4
Or: DNS1 - 77.88.8.8, DNS2 - leave empty.
In TP Link routers, this setting is in the “Network> WAN” section, click the “Advanced” button at the bottom of the page, check the box “Use the following DNS servers” and enter the same values.
Similarly, if WiFi does not work through D-Link ("Basic Settings - WAN")
WiFi still not working?
If, after applying these settings and rebooting the router, WiFi still does not work on your phone or laptop, then we will pay attention to two more parameters.
The first - wireless network mode. There are several common WiFi standards that differ in data transfer speed - B (up to 11 Mb / s), G (up to 56 Mb / s) and N (up to 150 Mb / s). In the event that your router has the modern “N” standard set, and the adapter of the connected device does not support it, then you will not be able to connect to your WiFi. If you are not sure which one is right for you, use "Mixed Mode"
Another option is MTU. It is responsible for the size of the data packet transmitted over the network in one block without dividing it into smaller parts.
The above screenshot from the TP Link router clearly shows the default value - 1480. On Asus, you need to scroll down the page in the same place, in the "Internet" (or WAN) section - we will see the value 1492, which was also the default.
The whole joke is that I took these pictures from routers that were alternately connected to my provider with a PPPoE connection type, that is, different models chose a different value for the same one. Moreover, for each type of connection (Dynamic or static IP, L2TP), different values are hammered into their firmware. Therefore, to be sure, I would simply recommend calling your provider and finding out which MTU values \u200b\u200bare specific for your Internet are optimal.
I will give examples of MTU on other models:
Old D-Link interface
And one more setting on the router, which can interfere with the adequate operation of Wifi - country, time and date. It would seem a trifle, but under certain conditions it can also prevent you from connecting.
Why won't my laptop connect to WiFi?
The second group of reasons why WiFi does not work on a laptop or phone is the incorrect configuration of the network settings on the device. If you have already tried to do all of the above and are sure that the problem is not in the router settings, then we will try to do something directly on the laptop itself.
1. First of all, make sure that your laptop has a WiFi module at all. If not, then you need to purchase.
2. If you still have it on your laptop, then check if it is turned on. This is done, as a rule, with a button or a slider on the case, or with a combination of hot keys (Fn + WiFi designation icon)
You can also do this by going to "Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings" (on Windows 7) and double-click on the "Wireless" icon to make it active.
3. If this icon is not in the section, that is, the computer still does not see the adapter present on it, then.
4. After that, when you click on the network connections icon in the lower right corner, a list of available networks should appear.
5. If after that wifi still does not work on the laptop, then we do all the steps from the first section, and also configure DNS manually on the laptop.
This is done in the TCP / IP settings (Control Panel> Network and Internet> Network and Sharing Center> Change adapter settings> Right-click on the Wireless connection> Properties> Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP / IPv4))
6. Another setting that can help in overcoming the problem is on your computer, go to the “Networks and Internet > Manage Wireless Networks” section in the “Control Panel”. Here, find the desired wireless connection, right-click on it and go to "Properties".
Open the "Security" tab and click on "Advanced Options". Try checking the box next to Enable Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Compliance Mode for this network. Then save the settings.
7. If everything is connected and configured, the wifi adapter is detected by the system, but it still cannot find networks available for connection, then download drivers for it from the official website of the manufacturer. Then go to the "Device Manager" Windows and remove the device. Then install the drivers again.
Why else can WiFi not work and not connect to the phone?
And a few more ways to solve the problem when it comes to a smartphone, phone or tablet.
A possible reason may be the choice of radio channel for your wireless signal. I talked about it in detail in an article about, so I won’t explain for a long time how to set it up. And here it is worth noting that modern routers support up to 16 channels, while the older standard that smartphones adhere to had only 11 channels. If your router is set to automatic channel selection mode, then it can easily switch to channels 12 or 13 (exactly 13 channels are allowed for use over WiFi in Europe), and accordingly, the phone simply will not see it. So if you want a constant and stable connection on all devices, set the channel on the router manually from 1 to 11.
If the phone is on Android, I want to upset you a little - the Android kernel does not always work correctly with the WPA2-TKIP encryption type, so if you have this type configured, then this may be the cause of constant problems with the Internet on the phone. This is especially true for cheap Chinese products.