Hello everybody!
In today’s video, I'll show you what to do if your smartphone or tablet can’t connect
to a Wi-Fi network, or it gets connected but you cannot go online anyway.
Nowadays, you can find a Wi-Fi router in almost every home.
There are lots of public Wi-Fi networks around - in shops, cafes, shopping centers and other
places, so you can be online all day long even without having to use mobile data connection.
But what can you do if your phone won’t connect to a Wi-Fi network, or cannot go online
even if the Wi-Fi connection is active?
In this video, we will find out why it happens and how to fix this problem.
Sometimes, there may be difficulties with connecting to a specific network, and sometimes
the phone maintains a stable connection to the router, then gets disconnected and you
can establish a connection again.
Another typical problem is that your phone can’t connect to the network after you replaced
a router, modified its settings, installed new apps and so on.
Why your phone can’t establish a Wi-Fi connection and how to fix it
First of all, it’s necessary to find out what is the actual problem in your situation:
The phone can’t connect to a Wi-Fi network.
It says “saved”, or keeps “obtaining IP address” all the time, displays an authentication
error, wrong password error, or an error when connecting to a Wi-Fi network.
The phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network but there is no Internet connection
Next to the network icon, you may see either words like “No Internet access” or an
exclamatory mark; otherwise, notifications may not be shown, but there is no Internet
access for your browser or for other apps.
No matter what specific problem you are facing, whether it is a home or public network that
you are trying to connect to, here’s the short list of things you should do in the
first place: On your phone, turn Wi-Fi off and on, or just
restart the phone - that’s only for the better.
Restart the router if you have access to it.
Just turn the power off for a few minutes, and then turn it on.
Check if other devices can get connected and if they have proper Internet access: This
step is especially important if you have difficulties in connecting to your home Wi-Fi router.
If your phone can’t connect to a public Wi-Fi network at a cafe or shop, probably
there’s an issue with the hotspot.
It might be glitching, out of order, or malfunctioning because of too many client devices.
Connect to a different network or try connecting to the same network a bit later.
Remember when exactly the problems started.
Was it after you had modified some router or phone settings, connected new devices,
installed new apps?
Thinking about it may give you a clue and help you fix the problem soon.
So, let’s begin with looking into the case when you can’t connect to a Wi-Fi network
at all.
Errors when trying to connect to a home or public Wi-Fi network
If you have one of the following issues: “Saved, Secured WPA” error
“Authentication error occurred” or “Authentication problem”
It take a long time for the phone to connect to the network, or it says all the time “Obtaining
IP address...”
Here are some helpful solutions for the case when your device used to be connected to this
specific network before, but for some reason, it can’t establish a connection now.
First of all, restart the mobile device and the router.
The second step is to remove this Wi-Fi network from your phone.
Open Wi-Fi settings, select the network, open its properties and choose “Forget network.”
On iPhone, open Wi-Fi settings and tap on the troubled network.
Then tap on “Forget this network” and confirm your decision by touching “Forget.”
After that, select this network from the list again, enter the password and try connecting
to it.
The third step I’d recommend is to reset network settings.
On Android, you can do it in the “More” or Advanced” section of the menu.
Look for “Reset Wi-Fi, mobile & Bluetooth.”
Depending on the Android version and phone model, these settings may look a bit different
than here.
On an iPhone, open Settings > General > Reset and push “Reset Network Settings.”
Confirm your choice.
Having done that, you will need to connect to the wireless network again.
It’s quite possible that this simple trick will get things up and running again.
If you encounter “Authentication error,” “Authentication problem” or “Saved,
Secured” issue, often it means that you have given the wrong password for this specific
Wi-Fi network.
So first of all make sure you enter the correct password.
You can try using this password to connect another device.
If you forgot the password, you can look it up in the router settings or in the settings
of a computer already connected to this network.
You can learn more about router settings from our YouTube channel as it features an entire
series of tutorials on all aspects of configuring a router.
Also, you can try removing the network - and a little earlier in this video, you could
see how to do it.
Sometimes you may see the “Saved, Secured” issue or encounter authentication problems
because your phone kind of “dislikes” some settings of the Wi-Fi network configured
in the router.
These may include network mode (b/g/n/ac), security settings, channel and its width,
region etc.
There are cases when a phone couldn’t connect to a Wi-Fi network until the network name
(also known as SSID) was changed.
In this case, you can try modifying some router settings, by opening the wireless settings
tab.
Of course, it only works when you are experiencing trouble with your home network.
If you enter a password and the Wi-Fi connection actually freezes saying “Obtaining IP address...”
Here’s why it could happen: Automatic IP settings are disabled for your
phone (it may be using a static address) The DHCP server on the router is disabled
or glitching.
By default, the DHCP server is always enabled, and it is unusual to disable it.
If you are sure this setting has not been changed, leave this option out.
There might be other limitations on the part of the router - For example, your device may
be blocked in the router settings.
The solution is quite simple.
On your smartphone, open properties for the specific wireless network and make sure that
“IP Settings” line has the value “DHCP.”
If it says “User” or “Static”, change it to “DHCP.”
Check if the DHCP server on the router is working properly.
If other devices get connected seamlessly without your having to enter static IP addresses,
then it works just the way it should.
After all, remember that your device may be blocked in the router settings (especially
if these settings are managed by someone else), so if you can’t change the settings, you’d
better look for another network to use.
Watch another video in our channel to see how to configure a wireless network on a router.
Select the mode used by the wireless network.
If it is set to a specific value, for example, n (Onlу n, or Onlу g), then set it to “Auto.”
And vice versa, if the current setting is “Auto”, try changing it to “n.”
Save the settings and restart the router.
In Wireless Security settings, enable WPA2-PSK and AES encryption.
Make sure your password is at least 8 characters long.
Try changing the setting here so your actual region is selected.
Leave the “Channel” setting at “Auto”, and channel width at 20/40 MHz, or try using
the width of 40 MHz to see if it improves the situation.
The wireless network name (that is, SSID) should not contain other letters than Latin.
Don’t forget to save settings every time and restart your router!
And make sure you remember what settings you change and how.
The phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network but there is no Internet connection
Now let consider the case when the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network but there is
no actual Internet connection.
Very often, it happens because of some Android settings, for example, time and date, problems
with DNS addresses and certain apps (for example, the one called Freedom).
Sometimes, everything works fine except YouTube and Google Play, Or it says there is no Internet
connection, Or there is connection to a Wi-Fi network, but you can’t go online.
The first thing to find out is whether other devices using this network can establish an
Internet connection.
If they can, then look for issues in your phone.
If they can’t, you need to check the router first.
Secondly, try connecting your phone to another wireless network.
This way, there is also a chance to understand where the problem comes from - the phone or
the router.
If it’s the router, find what exactly has to be fixed, Unless it’s a Wi-Fi network
of a shopping center or a cafe.
If it’s the smartphone, open its settings to modify them.
Set up time and date Check if your device has proper time and date
settings.
Who would ever think a phone may have trouble connecting to a wireless network only because
time and date were a bit wrong?...
Yet it does happen.
So open Android settings and make sure everything is correct.
You can try disabling automatic settings and configure everything manually.
DNS issues Sometimes a phone establishes a proper Internet
connection only after you change Wi-Fi network settings so that it works with Google Public
DNS addresses . Open properties of the Wi-Fi network your
phone is connected to, and add the following DNS addresses:
8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
Now the Internet connection should be working properly.
You can also try turning Wi-Fi on and off or restarting the phone.
Proxy server on Android In the wireless network settings on your phone,
you can also find proxy server options.
If proxy server is enabled, most likely your Internet connection will not work.
So open properties for a specific Wi-Fi network and make sure that the proxy server is disabled.
Remove VPN configuration on iPhone If you have VPN configured on your iPhone,
such VPN profile may interrupt with your Internet connection.
For example, the Wi-Fi icon is not displayed when connection is established, or you can’t
go online by Wi-Fi, and it is only possible with mobile data connection.
Sometimes Internet access is disabled for some apps only, for example, Viber, WhatsApp,
FaceTime, While Safari works seamlessly and all websites open without any difficulties.
All you need is to open the settings and remove the VPN profile.
Go to General - VPN.
Select the profile and remove it.
Wi-Fi doesn’t work because of some apps If you lost an Internet connection after installing
a new app, try removing it.
Too often, people complained about the app called Freedom which can somehow disable Internet
access for devices connected by Wi-Fi.
In the end, there’s a phone connected to a wireless network but it can’t download
anything.
If you encounter the same issue, open Freedom, find its settings, tap on “Stop” and only
then remove the application.
Sometimes, other applications can also affect the Internet connection.
Try and remember what apps you installed recently and try to fix the problem by removing them.
Reset the network settings or reset your Android phone
If nothing helps, it’s time to consider resetting the network settings.
A little earlier in this video, you could see how to do it.
Doing it is not going to influence your other settings, apps, or personal data.
The only inconvenience you’re going to face is having to re-enter passwords to all wireless
networks you may have used before.
After all, even if resetting the network configuration can’t fix the problem, the last resort is
to reset your phone completely.
Do it only after you know for sure that the problem is in your smartphone and none of
the methods in this video really worked.
That’s all for now!
I hope this video helped you to fix the connection issue.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.