weirdest WIFI problem

phly

phly

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GoodDay, this looks like the last resort or place to hopefully have my issue resolved as i have tried all i could think and still no luck. I have a laptop that i decided to use for office work. Works great and all. At home i use a 3G modem or a small portable router that uses a 3g modem. My laptop connects to it via WIFI and at times via ethernet.

My issue is this. On two different occasions i was able to connect to the work wifi and use it just fine. On the 3rd week i could not find the wifi network at all let alone even connect to it. I shrugged it off as a once off thing even though my laptop could pick up about 15+ other hotspots all around the office building. Following week same issue and i havent been able to find or connect ever since.

Strangest part is the laptop cannot see at all or find the very work WIFI hotspot I'm meant to use for work while it can see and find all other wifi hotspots all around. The wifi module cannot be broken. Every other laptop at the office can see and connect to the wifi. The name has not changed as all others are still using the same old credentials they have been using. Both name and password. Even my phone can pick up the hotspot and connect but my laptop just somehow cannot. I have no idea how it could be able to before yet now it cant. I tried a fresh windows 7 reinstall and still no joy. switching router on and off does not help. I have ran out of ideas. Apologies for the lengthy post but thought i should be as clear as possible.

Can anyone offer any help or suggestions as to what i can try to do.
 
phly said:
GoodDay, this looks like the last resort or place to hopefully have my issue resolved as i have tried all i could think and still no luck. I have a laptop that i decided to use for office work. Works great and all. At home i use a 3G modem or a small portable router that uses a 3g modem. My laptop connects to it via WIFI and at times via ethernet.

My issue is this. On two different occasions i was able to connect to the work wifi and use it just fine. On the 3rd week i could not find the wifi network at all let alone even connect to it. I shrugged it off as a once off thing even though my laptop could pick up about 15+ other hotspots all around the office building. Following week same issue and i havent been able to find or connect ever since.

Strangest part is the laptop cannot see at all or find the very work WIFI hotspot I'm meant to use for work while it can see and find all other wifi hotspots all around. The wifi module cannot be broken. Every other laptop at the office can see and connect to the wifi. The name has not changed as all others are still using the same old credentials they have been using. Both name and password. Even my phone can pick up the hotspot and connect but my laptop just somehow cannot. I have no idea how it could be able to before yet now it cant. I tried a fresh windows 7 reinstall and still no joy. switching router on and off does not help. I have ran out of ideas. Apologies for the lengthy post but thought i should be as clear as possible.

Can anyone offer any help or suggestions as to what i can try to do.
Click to expand...

Geez, channel collision much
 
phly said:
GoodDay, this looks like the last resort or place to hopefully have my issue resolved as i have tried all i could think and still no luck. I have a laptop that i decided to use for office work. Works great and all. At home i use a 3G modem or a small portable router that uses a 3g modem. My laptop connects to it via WIFI and at times via ethernet.

My issue is this. On two different occasions i was able to connect to the work wifi and use it just fine. On the 3rd week i could not find the wifi network at all let alone even connect to it. I shrugged it off as a once off thing even though my laptop could pick up about 15+ other hotspots all around the office building. Following week same issue and i havent been able to find or connect ever since.

Strangest part is the laptop cannot see at all or find the very work WIFI hotspot I'm meant to use for work while it can see and find all other wifi hotspots all around. The wifi module cannot be broken. Every other laptop at the office can see and connect to the wifi. The name has not changed as all others are still using the same old credentials they have been using. Both name and password. Even my phone can pick up the hotspot and connect but my laptop just somehow cannot. I have no idea how it could be able to before yet now it cant. I tried a fresh windows 7 reinstall and still no joy. switching router on and off does not help. I have ran out of ideas. Apologies for the lengthy post but thought i should be as clear as possible.

Can anyone offer any help or suggestions as to what i can try to do.
Click to expand...

your laptop cant see 5ghz, and thats what the ap is configured to run on
 
yes i was able to connect to it the first 2 times but thereafter its as if it completely dropped off the radar. Thought it must be an issue somewhere so i took the plunge and reinstalled windows 7 64bit and right after install it picks up all the other wifi access points except the one i'm meant to use. How do i find out if my wireless card can see 5ghz and also if not how do i troubleshoot this. No network admin admin at the office. Do I have to tinker with the router to see if it will broadcast on 2.4ghz aswell if indeed the channel frequency issue is the problem here?
Incase it may help, the card is a Dell wireless 1397 wlan card.
 
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phly said:
yes i was able to connect to it the first 2 times but thereafter its as if it completely dropped off the radar. Thought it must be an issue somewhere so i took the plunge and reinstalled windows 7 64bit and right after install it picks up all the other wifi access points except the one i'm meant to use. How do i find out if my wireless card can see 5ghz and also if not how do i troubleshoot this. No network admin admin at the office. Do I have to tinker with the router to see if it will broadcast on 2.4ghz aswell if indeed the channel frequency issue is the problem here?
Incase it may help, the card is a Dell wireless 1397 wlan card.
Click to expand...

Check with your IT Admin, he will know what to do.
 
Rickster said:
He was able to connect to it a few times, and I doubt in this day and age people implement 802.11a/b
Click to expand...

2.4GHz is still the most common used frequency, exactly for situations like phly's

802.11a is 5ghz while 802.11b is 2.4ghz, so not exactly sure what your point is tbh

phly said:
yes i was able to connect to it the first 2 times but thereafter its as if it completely dropped off the radar. Thought it must be an issue somewhere so i took the plunge and reinstalled windows 7 64bit and right after install it picks up all the other wifi access points except the one i'm meant to use. How do i find out if my wireless card can see 5ghz and also if not how do i troubleshoot this. No network admin admin at the office. Do I have to tinker with the router to see if it will broadcast on 2.4ghz aswell if indeed the channel frequency issue is the problem here?
Incase it may help, the card is a Dell wireless 1397 wlan card.
Click to expand...


http://www.cnet.com/products/dell-w...eight-mini-card-network-adapter-series/specs/
Compliant Standards IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11d, IEEE 802.11e, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11i, IEEE 802.11k

It doesnt support 5ghz
You never connected to it twice, UNLESS someone switched the radio mode on the access point
 
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No IT admin either as far as i know atleast no one thats near and since everyone uses laptops at the office no maintenance of pc's or any of such issues hardly need fixing. The one main pc that is at use at the reception seemed to also develop some net issue a few weeks back as well however the lady using it is right there near the router so she uses a cable and is sorted. I have looked up my card and it seems it only supports 2.4ghz. I don't see how or even when telkom rep would have come in to change frequencies.
May I also point out that yesterday when i popped into work before loadshedding kicked in I found the network down for everyone and so no one in the office could use the internet for some weird reason. Placed a call to telkom and they said they have fixed it but still no one could connect. I can only found out if net is reolved for others next week. just wanted to know if anyone has ever experienced such and what settings i can tinker with on my end to troubleshoot the issue.
PS Thank you for all the help @Rickster
 
phly said:
No IT admin either as far as i know atleast no one thats near and since everyone uses laptops at the office no maintenance of pc's or any of such issues hardly need fixing. The one main pc that is at use at the reception seemed to also develop some net issue a few weeks back as well however the lady using it is right there near the router so she uses a cable and is sorted. I have looked up my card and it seems it only supports 2.5ghz. I dont see how or even when telkom rep would have come in to change frequencies.
May i also point out that yesterday when i popped into work before loadshedding i found the network down for everyone and so no one in the office could use the internet for some weird reason. Placed a call to telkom and they said they have fixed it but still no one could connect. I can only found out if net is reolved for others next week. just wanted to know if anyone has ever experienced such and what settings i can tinker with on my end to troubleshoot the issue.
PS Thank you for all the help @Rickster
Click to expand...

what speed does your phone connect to the AP at?
otherwise install a wifi analyser on your mobile and check what channel the AP is on (hint, its a 5ghz one ;) )
 
Not sure what speed my phone connects to the AP at. i just know that i switch on wifi and it automatically connects and im connected all day. Only yesterday was teh exception when net was down. Someone switching the radio mode on the router sounds very plausible. Mind you there is no IT person around so anything can happen when people mess with tech around. So far the router operating at 5ghz sounds like the most logical explanation to my problem which has given me a headache for an entire month as I just couldnt figure out how. Its not like there is alot of people on the wifi network so I'm getting kicked out or something like that. Being blacklisted from using wifi did cross my mind lol. I may have to wait till next week when i go in to check but i will definately get a wifi analyser on my mobile to check things. My router at home seems to only support 2.4ghz so i can't use it to simulate a test and have it operate on 5ghz and test if i can see it otherwise I would.
 
phly said:
Not sure what speed my phone connects to the AP at. i just know that i switch on wifi and it automatically connects and im connected all day. Only yesterday was teh exception when net was down. Someone switching the radio mode on the router sounds very plausible. Mind you there is no IT person around so anything can happen when people mess with tech around. So far the router operating at 5ghz sounds like the most logical explanation to my problem which has given me a headache for an entire month as I just couldnt figure out how. Its not like there is alot of people on the wifi network so I'm getting kicked out or something like that. Being blacklisted from using wifi did cross my mind lol. I may have to wait till next week when i go in to check but i will definately get a wifi analyser on my mobile to check things. My router at home seems to only support 2.4ghz so i can't use it to simulate a test and have it operate on 5ghz and test if i can see it otherwise I would.
Click to expand...

hehe
well considering the amount of AP's in the area, someone probably did switch the mode to the less congested 5GHz band

even if you were to be 'blacklisted' or have your mac address filtered out, you'd still be able to see the SSID
 
I so hope you are right. Thank you very much @nivek. much appreciated. Will update the post with findings once I test out things.:)
 
Maybe there is a limit of IP addresses that the wifi gives out as DHCP and you are last to arrive for the day?

Also good idea to test with your phone.
 
nivek said:
2.4GHz is still the most common used frequency, exactly for situations like phly's

802.11a is 5ghz while 802.11b is 2.4ghz, so not exactly sure what your point is tbh
Click to expand...

My point is you dont get 802.11a access points any more. So therefore (should it be 5gHz) its a Wireless N dual band AP which Wireless N is backwards compatible with B/G.

Its not a 5GHz issue.
 
phly said:
No IT admin either as far as i know atleast no one thats near and since everyone uses laptops at the office no maintenance of pc's or any of such issues hardly need fixing.
Click to expand...

If you have access to the router/AP why not access it then look at the settings.
 
At work today and I didn't get anywhere. We however got another router and I can find that so I'm good for now. Never had any chance to mess around with settings on the main pc.
 
Just to give another update. I went in again today to work and got to install a wifi analyzer on my phone and what i noticed is the wifi point i'm meant to ask is actually not on the 5ghz channel. Only one wifi point around here is on 5ghz and all the rest on 2.4ghz and thats why i can pick up so many. They added another router which is on 2.4ghz also and I can pick up this particular network just fine just that its slow.

The one peculiar thing i noticed on the 2.4ghz spectrum is that all routers are broadcasting on channel 1 or 6 and there is even on on 11 but the problematic one is broadcasting on channel 12. So its on 2.4ghz frequency but on channel 12. the only one on channel 12. So can this be changed somehow and how do I go about doing it changing it to 11 or even lower perhaps 6?? I think it was on 6 then got changed because alot of of other routers seem to be using it here. That is the only logical conclusion I can come to.
 
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