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December 21st, 2020 11:00
Unable to find my home WIFI, can see other WIFIs
Dear all,
I am writing to you regarding an issue that I am recently facing. I have tried many suggestions that I have found on the internet, nothing has been a solution to my problem. I have bought a new modem, and while my smartphone can connect to it (also the phone of other family members), my Dell fails to find the home WIFI. It is still able to find other WIFIs, but not this one. I have tried these solutions:
- Update network adapter driver (It does not get updated because it is up-to-date)
-Manually connect to a wireless network -
Change the Advanced settings for network adapter in Device Manager.
Does anyone know how to deal with this? I am using Windows 8.1 Pro. Thank you in advance.
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RichHTX
3 Posts
0
April 1st, 2021 06:00
~~Cross Post - Wanted to share on multiple threads because I was SO frustrated not being able to find the solution!~~~
I had the same issue and after an exhasting search to fix the issue on my son's laptop, trying EVERYTHING I found online, I finally broke down and paid for Dell technical support. I was happy to learn all the time I spent was not in vain... This is what I did:
- updated BIOS (https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124211/dell-bios-updates)
- uninstalled network adapter and rebooted
- tried to reinstall driver, but got an error (if you get message saying action is forbiden, you're trying to install wrong driver for your adapter)
-- factory reset
-- edit Local Group Policy editor (gpedit)
-- edit Registry Editor
-- and a couple more things I can't remember...
I didn't need to do the things listed above after factory reset of my system, etc. If the steps before that don't work, you probably have the same issue I did... my network card was bad. I will say, it conveniently went bad the same day the Nov '20 update was installed, but I won't go down that rabbit hole...
Of course, my laptop is out of warranty, my options were: 1) ship my laptop off to Dell and pay them $200+ to replace the card, 2) replace it myself (which req'd me opening up the laptop and replacing it), 3) purchase an external "wifi dongle" for $16 on Amazon.
I chose option #3. The wifi dongle plugs into an external USB port and works perfectly!
The one I purchased (see link below) is very similar to the #2 choice in the IGN article (below). It has an antennae, which wasn't my 1st choice, but the Dell support tech advised the dongles without an antennae don't work very well, so I saw it and bought it (as I didn't want to spend more time looking for them and checking reviews). But now that I know it solves my problem, I'll most likely buy another one without an antennae, as the antennae is kinda big and I worry about it breaking off if my son doesn't take it out of the laptop when he puts it in his backpack, etc. But I'm still doing the research... The Wireless Hack article (below) has some good info and is a quick read.
I hope this helps someone not spend 3+ days trying to resolve the problem like I did!
NOTE: I'm not receiving compensation and am not being paid in any way for promoting the sites below or from Dell.
LINKS:
This is what I purchased:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P5PRK7J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
IGN "Best USB Wi-Fi Adapter 2021: Plug-in Wi-Fi Adapters for PCs and Laptops"
https://www.ign.com/articles/best-usb-wifi-adapter
Wireless Hack "Wireless USB Adapter Buyers Guide"
https://www.wirelesshack.org/wireless-usb-adapter-buyers-guide.html
wilfred24
8 Posts
0
April 5th, 2021 08:00
Open any browser. There search the ip address of your router(you can google the ip searching by router's name). Enter username password there. If it doesn't help disable wifi for a while and then enable it .