WiFi Adaptor not finding Vodafone Router

[TimOsborne]

I have a PC to which I have fitted a Tenda W311 WiFi adaptor so that it can communicate with the WWW. My router is Vodafone THG3000. Everything has worked well for a long time, no problems, but about a week ago I was unable to access the internet '"No Connection" or some such.

I checked Device Manager, and the network adaptor shows it to be recognised and working correctly.

I go into the PC Network settings and search for networks - it finds my neighbours networks, it finds an old BT Home  Hub 6, and it finds BT-Fon, but it won't find my Vodafone hub. 

Is it possible a recent Windows 10 update may have screwed things up? But if so, why will it find other networks?

Out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Most probably....  Your router will autoselect the best channel that it can from the UK/Euro spec channels 1 - 13.  However, your adapter is probably for the US market and only works on channels 1 - 11.  The router auto selects channel 12 or 13, and your adapter can no longer see it!

You'll need to use another device or an ethernet cable to log into the modem/router and (if it will let you) turn off auto channel selection and pick a channel from 1 to 11!

*There might be a setting in the advanced properties of the wireless adapter that will allow you to change the country and hence the available channels, but it's less common than not!

[TimOsborne]

Brilliant!!! Many, many thanks. You were spot on with the diagnosis.

I went into the network adaptor settings and lo and behold, there is a regional channel setting. It defaults to #1-11. You can't be specific in channel selection but it does give the option of #10-13, so I picked that and a few seconds later all was working as it should. Thrilled..

Again, many thanks. A virtual beer heading your way. 🍻