Wireless networking is one of lifes great mysteries.
Why does my connection drop out so quickly when I move around my home?
Why is my wifi terrible even though I spent a lot of money on hardware?
Those kinds of things.
At first my wifi internet only showed on my wifes Android tablets and cell.
My mother-in-laws wifi from over a block away shows a stronger connection than our own.
No one elses devices show any available wifi other than my own when they attempt to connect.
When in doubt, factory-reset
This is a real quirky one, George.
Thats just not normal.
Your devices are being weird.
Everyone elses are acting correctly, as theres no faraway wifi signal for them to glom on to.
As for the other wireless networks youre seeing that are allegedly more powerful than your own, thats plausible.
What do you see?
Ideally, it wont go back to using super-congested channels for your wireless networks.
If it does, you might make a manual correction.
Maybe theres some kind of bug or hardware issue with your devices.
(Update to the latest version of Android or iOS on either, just to be sure.)
Why the nuclear approach?
Once youve done that, update its firmwarethe software the router uses to function.
Upload it to your router, restart it, and youll be good to go.
Next, check the channel situation again.
If you’re gonna wanna make any adjustments, let er rip.
What do you see now?
Perhaps theres a hardware issue that troubleshooting wont be able to fix.
Try tightening your router antennas?
At least youll be able to accessoneof your wifi networks for the time being.
This doesnt quite explain why your devices wouldnt show a wireless data pipe when your wifes would.
Why theyre all affected, and what that issue is, Im not entirely sure.
Still, your gear should still be able toseethe wireless online grid even if it cant connect.
Try entering your wireless networks information manually, if your phones let you, and see if that helps.
(I suspect it wont.)
Did I miss anything, Lifehacker readers?
