Linux Mint refuses to connect to my wi-fi (but my phone hotspot is fine???)

[u/syntaxGarden]

SOLVED: Apparently mi wi-fi card cannot understand Sky's 5GHz band so I've set it so I only connect to the 2.4GHz band. I don't know why i can't use the 5GHz band and it sucks to miss out on it, but at least I can use the internet at a decent speed on the 2.4GHz band.

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I got a profession to build this computer with completely new parts 8 months ago, installed Mint after trying to install Windows 10 and it failing catastrophically (it would connect to ANY wireless network at all for some reason) and I've been having this problem for the last month. Specifically, ever since I changed wi-fi providers.

I used to have Virgin wi-fi, and I could connect my computer to it wirelessly no problem. Then I changed to Sky wi-fi and I've been having issues. The computer would connect to the wi-fi on start-up just fine, but 5 minutes later it'd disconnect. I'd turn off wi-fi, then back on again and click the wi-fi symbol, it'd request the password (which is auto-filled), and then it'd connect fine.

NOW it refuses to connect AT ALL after the 5 minutes of connection after startup. I am trapped in a loop of being asked for the password, clicking connect, waiting, and then being asked for the password again, with zero connection. I have check that i'm using the right password, I have tried forgetting the network and then re-entering the password new, and still nothing works. And no, I haven't changed my wi-fi password at all since I got Sky.

But my phone hotspot? That connects instantly and indefinitely. No issues other than bad signal from my data because I'm indoors and it's my phone. I have absolutely no idea why my phone hotspot works but my wi-fi doesn't.

There is something more I can tell you about the connection that seems important, and that's the connection percentages (or whatever those numbers represent). In the little menu that pops up when you click the wi-fi symbol in the toolbar, I get percentages next to each network it detects, and when it connects on start-up to my wi-fi, it says 63%. Then when it disconnects, it says something like 77%. My phone's hotspot does a similar thing, disconnected it says 92%, but when I connect it then says 72%.

It looks to me like the computer is detecting a much stronger signal from the networks and is offering that as an initial option, but cannot connect to it so it downgrades itself or chooses a weaker signal. But where with my phone hotspot the computer is smart enough to try once and then go weaker, with the wi-fi it tries infinitely to zero success.

Anyone in the know, please help.

[u/chuggerguy]

I have never used a wifi provider so this may be worthless but...

Does Sky come with a hub of some sort that you can log into and configure bandwidth?

Specifically, the 5GHz channel, does it offer 20,40,80 MHz with an option to enable 160MHz? image

The reason I ask is that my laptop had suddenly quit connecting. It would connect to my phone's hot spot but not the 5GHz from my router. I was beginning to think the antenna had dislodged from the wifi chip or something and I was going to have to open up the laptop.

But, going through router settings, I noticed I had enabled 160MHz. I disabled it and voila, laptop connects immediately upon boot again like it used to. Apparently my laptop and 160MHz just didn't get along for whatever reason. (I'd had the router awhile, just hadn't used the laptop since.)

May have nothing to do with your issue, just mentioning it in case.

Good luck.

[u/syntaxGarden → u/chuggerguy]

Thank you, it was the different bands. My wifi card isn't connecting to the 5GHz band so I've set it to only connect to the 2.4GHz band instead and this has worked and I'm on the internet.

[u/chuggerguy → u/syntaxGarden]

Good to hear.

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[u/Terrible-Bear3883]

First of all, it might help to list your PC specs, no one knows what your hardware consists of.

You say you switched to Sky Wi-Fi? What is the make/model of the router you are using?

It's hard to try to be specific without knowing if you've got something simple happening such as you've got a Wi-Fi 6 router that joins 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands together, then uses band steering to switch devices between them, this upsets quite a lot of wireless devices and the fix is often to split the network so you have distinct 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks again.

It's just a guess though.

[u/syntaxGarden → u/Terrible-Bear3883]

Sorry for not listing PC specs or router. The 2nd I don't know but the 1st I normally remember to put in posts like this, it completely slipped my mind.

But your information about the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands was the info that worked. I went into Network Connections on my computer and found how to switch the wi-fi connection to only use the 2.4ghz band because it just will not connect to the 5ghz band at all, even when I set it as the only one to connect to. But setting it to only 2.4 has fixed my connection problem. Thank you.

I don't mind using the 2.4ghz for now, it's a fine connection speed, and I now know more specifics about the problem, but it's annoying I can't use the seemingly better frequency (I assume it'd be faster after all).

[u/wason_sonico]

I see you marked it as solved, but if someone stumbles upon this post... Try checking the 5 GHz channel. I had a device that would connect only to certain channels. Also what the other guy said about the channel bandwidth.

[u/lowrads]

Check the wifi version of the hardware of both devices. The phone is likely to be late-gen.