I'm switching from Xfinity and still have both network but my windows 11 laptop says can't use T-Mobile WiFi when i select it and connect, try to.
Unsure what windows troubleshooting I need to do but it's odd and must be a unique issue since I've not seen it on the board.
Best answer by pmorrsn
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Did you disable DHCP on the Xfiniity modem/router? The Arcadyan KVD21 5G Gateway from T-Mobile is a DHCP server and it can't be disabled. There can only be one DHCP server on a network.
As an experiment, power down the Xfinity device, reboot the T-Mobile gateway and your laptop, and try connecting again. This advice presumes that you've already successfully set up the T-Mobile gateway. If you want to stick with the same WiFi name (SSID), set it up that way in the app. Alternatively, give it a new name with the T-Mobile app and then choose that WiFi network on your Windows machine.
I'll give it a try later. Thanks for the suggestion. I did give it a different name so I can easily tell which network was connecting . This is the first device that would not connect for me
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Assuming that your Windows machine is a relatively new one, it sounds like an IP conflict. If the above suggestion doesn't work, try creating another network on the T-Mobile gateway where the frequency band is 2.4 MHz and the WPA version is WPA/WPA2. This network would be in addition to the one(s) you've already created and which is successful with other devices.
If your Windows machine connects, your problem is most likely the network adapter in the laptop isn't able to navigate WPA2/WPA3 security. No problem, just use the network you created in addition to the others.
It's about 3 years old, I believe.
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Then you shouldn't have a problem with WPA2. If every other device is connecting to the gateway, there is no reason your laptop shouldn't be able to connect as well. Are you using a proxy, or a VPN, or have you changed your DNS settings? Turn off your proxy settings, if you have any, disable your VPN temporarily, and erase your DNS settings. DNS should default to 192.168.12.1. and be the sole entry. After your computer is connected to the T-Mobile gateway, you can modify DNS to, say, Google at 8.8.8.8.
One last thought: make sure you didn't assign a static IP to your laptop. That would definitely screw things up since it is almost a surety that the IP schema is different.
Only default settings, nothing fancy. There are no dns settings on the tmobile device. My Xfinity Google WiFi network has many settings work my home network. So i can change it to wpa2 only or wpa2/wpa1. But default is 2 and 3 wpa.
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Since it is a Windows client make sure there are no pending updates lurking in the wing. I find the Alienware machine on W10 can act strange when Microsoft has pushed out an update and it needs to have a reboot, which has not taken place. If the client is only a few years old I would guess it is at least an 802.11ac network adapter. To be sure you can confirm the adapter capability with the system information reporting. My guess is that it probably has to do with the authentication type. T-Mobile seems to have WPA2/WPA3 by default. A client that is only a few years old should have no issue with WPA2.
To confirm the IP address you have with that adapter you can use the GUI via device manager or whatever it is called in W11 or use the command line. If you issue the command ipconfig /all | more you can then use the space bar to page down through the network information and see the details for the network adapter addressing. You could also issue the command ipconifg /release to have it let go of the ip address it has and then ipconfig /renew to have it request a new address via DHCP. The client will not request an IP address on the wireless network until after the authentication process to begin with. If the client joins the network but does not get an IP address I would agree it is possible a static IP address was assigned and needs to be changed for dynamic addressing.
Wpa2 only did not make a difference. The Xfinity connection is wpa2, but that network does support 3 as well.
And there is yet another windows update, i thought that was the issue bit I had completed the available updates but there is always another one .
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If you are not sure what authentication type the adapter supports the best thing to do is to do a search online for the model of laptop you have and the specifications. If the vendor does not list the network adapter specifications then you might have to go find the user manual and pull it down.
If you get on the 2.4 GHz frequency on the gateway and set the authentication type for WPA/WPA2 and then it connects that would suggest it might only support WPA and not WPA2. Knowing the age of an adapter helps but knowing the specifications and the authentication type is important.
If the onboard adapter on that laptop does not want to play you can always buy a USB nano size wireless adapter that is 802.11ac or 802.11ax capable and that would probably solve the issue. I have had older clients that either did not have a wireless adapter or an older standard which did not want to work. Buying a newer 802.11ax USB wireless adapter would be a fix.
I'll look further as your suggest, but my Google WiFi has WPA 3 and it connects. So I really don't think that's it. I emailed Microsoft help. It's odd that it checks WiFi requirements for three network and then gives message it can't connect. I tried my Google WiFi guest network and got the same message.
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Did you reset the adapter to clear out any parameters it might have?
Resetting the network in Windows 11
OR check out this information as a reinstall of the adapter driver might be just the ticket.
The attempts to take it from one network to the other and then attempting to take it back may just have settings all jacked up. I have had a lot of experience with W10 and multiple systems over the years but not with Win11. I have moved on to mainly MacOS or Linux now which outnumber the 2 Win10 clients on my network now. I got fed up with messing with Windows and have been moving more into Linux. Windows 10 updates started taking way too long. I found a better solution for me.
As you are working on the client to try to get it working run problem steps recorder. Just press the Windows “Start” key on the keyboard and type psr.exe and launch it. You can start recording everything you are doing and then have a record of everything you have done. If you need to go back and review things you have a record of what you did in a file that is compressed and available to you. Microsoft developed problem steps recorder as a support tool. It is a very useful utility to have. It is built into Windows.
Reset did not work, it seems to just grab onto the xfinity network and “can’t connect” to new networks, at least at home.
I did a recording for Microsoft support, so waitng for their reply. I may hit up tmobile as well, but having the two wifi networks may be the complication, though not an issue on my other phones, TV, Mac computer.
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It is probably going to attempt to connect to the stronger wireless signal and if the xfinity is up and it has been known it will probably continue to latch on to that signal.
When I turn off the stronger xfin network, it still says “can’t connect to network”. I updated all the drivers in my Dell windows 11 Inspiron laptop, but no luck. I’ve reset the network settings without luck.
Unsure what other suggestion I was given, but it does connect with wpa2 on my xfin router, and setting tmobile to that did not help, by itself.
Tmobile was unable to provide assistence and Dell wants to charge a lot to assist, as its out of warrantee 2 yrs.
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Use “system information” to get the details of the adapter. What is it, what is its capability? If that is an Intel wireless adapter get the driver from the vendor that manufactured the adapter.
So, was that Dell Inspiron laptop on Windows 11 out of the box or was it an upgrade to W11 from W10?
With different HP laptops I have had I always ran the Intel network adapters as they seemed to be more current than the ones from HP. Sometimes I found it useful to rip out the current driver and start from the beginning and reinstall the driver. You can try just loading the new driver if there is a more current one from the adapter vendor. It might just be a driver issue however you really need to know what channel is the adapter latching onto on the Xfinity network. If the laptop is only a couple of years old it should still have a pretty decent wireless adapter inside.
It was upgraded from 10.i updated all drivers from Dell but will try Intel.
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If it were me I would make a bootable USB stick with Ubuntu and boot it live and just see if the laptop will connect to the T-Mobile gateway with a Linux OS and a driver from the different OS. That would pretty much tell you if it is the adapter or Windows 11 being a pain. You have drivers for the adapter which should work in Windows 11. If you could get a live Ubuntu load connected to the T-Mobile gateway with that adapter I would have to question what Windows 11 and the current driver is doing different. Making a bootable USB drive with Ubuntu is so easy to do.
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Do look at what system information reports on the adapter. Is it 802.11ac or 802.11ax or what?
Heck I don’t even know if that is an Intel adapter. It could be some other vendor. I am not a big Dell user. I have the Alienware machine but I have not favored Dell machines. I don’t even like Windows much. I enjoy Linux and MacOS. Maybe I am strange but I like things that don’t fight with me all the time.
I'm not sure about that. It's the Dell computer issue. Converting it to Linux makes it a different computer, even if that would solve it. And if the Linux driver worked, it would be a windows don't issue?
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What I am saying is if it will boot a live Ubuntu image with a different driver and connect to the T-Mobile gateway that seems to point to the driver in Windows not the adapter itself. I don’t know if the Xfinity is 802.11ac or 802.11ax radios. If the laptop adapter and driver work with 802.11ac but not with 802.11ax then knowing what the adapter is to try to get it to connect to the T-Mobile gateway will be helpful.
If the laptop is not very old and the adapter is 802.11ac it should be able to connect to the T-Mobile gateway without too much effort but that does not seem to be working. I am just curious as to what the adapter is capable of as I don’t know what we are missing by not looking and knowing its capability.
With the Dell laptop model specifications for the wireless adapter then we would know its capability. Booting with a live Linux image on a bootable USB drive does not touch the Windows environment what so ever. It would just be a test and then you shut down, remove the USB drive and then boot back into Windows just as you always have. The live image just runs in RAM so it would have nothing to do with the main drive or the Windows load. But that would just be a test. We can stay focused on trying to get it connected with Windows. No problem.
It's connected to my Xfinity ac radio which has Google WiFi, ax does not seem familiar to me. The laptop is 3 maybe 4 yrs. It's original Dell warranty expired January 2021
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Some wireless adapters are not supported in Linux so it might still not help us out. When I have an older laptop or desktop client that has an older wireless adapter I just buy a USB wireless adapter and upgrade the capability of the wireless connection. I find it counter productive to fight with an older technology at times. I do so when I have to but I prefer to move forward when I can. I have avoided Windows 11 on my Alienware as it works great on Windows 10 and I have seen too many odd reports about Windows 11 upgrades.
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The 802.11ac is WI-FI 5 in effect. The 802.11ax is WI-FI 6. The current generation of wireless. It is supposed to be backward compatible as any wireless network standard. There are some fundamental differences between the two and how they work so that is probably part of the equation. If the laptop is only 3-4 years old I still would expect it to be 802.11ac.
I will see if it can connect to my Xfinity guest or tether to my phone tomorrow. It gives the same error for the guest network but I gave the wrong password I think. So i think it's the computer not T-Mobile, which is what most are agreeing with.
T-Mobile supports 6. But my xfin has WiFi 6 disabled.
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