[SOLVED] Bizarre wifi problem...

[dave255]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5537 laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
Intel Wireless N7260 network card.

There is coffee shop where I've been a frequent visitor for years. I've never had an issue connecting to their wifi. The last couple times I've been there, not only have I not been able to connect, the network does not even appear in the list of available wireless network connections.


Notes:

1. I know the owner of the coffee shop, and he confirmed nothing changed on their end recently in terms of their ISP, router, etc.

2. No one else at the coffee shop has a problem connecting.

3. I can still connect to the network on my smartphone.

4. Seems like the issue is isolated to my laptop, but I have no problem using wifi at my home or at any other public location, just this particular coffee shop.

5. I have reset my wireless adapter multiple times.

6. I tried manually adding the network, with no luck

7. I updated my network drivers, with no change to the problem


Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!!

Thanks in advance for any help!!

 

[bdginmo]

A bit of googling seems to indicate that there are both single band and dual band variations of the N7260. Is it possible that your device is not capable of 5 ghz and that is the only band the coffee shop is broadcasting now?

One other thing to watch out for is that some older WiFi devices have trouble with DFS channels on the 5 ghz band. If the coffee shop changed channels then this might explain the problem as well.

Download a WiFi analyzer app on your phone and see what SSIDs and what bands and channels they are being broadcast on.

 

[dave255]

A bit of googling seems to indicate that there are both single band and dual band variations of the N7260. Is it possible that your device is not capable of 5 ghz and that is the only band the coffee shop is broadcasting now?

One other thing to watch out for is that some older WiFi devices have trouble with DFS channels on the 5 ghz band. If the coffee shop changed channels then this might explain the problem as well.

Download a WiFi analyzer app on your phone and see what SSIDs and what bands and channels they are being broadcast on.

Thank you bdginmo!! It turns out I did have the single band version of the N7260. I bought a used dual band N7260 for 12 bucks and it fixed the problem. Thanks again!!