SOLVED Wi-fi Finding Network Failure

[JWR]

The source of the wi-fi signal is a T-Mobile "in-house internet" product which is sold employing 1 of several receiver/modems. The main one & claim to fame is the one that is about the size of a quart jar and their spec pages just say it uses Wi-Fi 6. In the case I am helping on for a neighbor, his wrist watch and two Android cellphones are connected easily. My own Lenovo Idea Pad 5 (bought in Nov 2022) found the T-Mobile network coming from the box and connected easily.

His older Lenovo laptop (not sure of model but ~6 years old) absolutely refuses to even find the network much less connect to it !

Both Lenovo laptops are running Win 10 (mine came with it and his was just updated to Win 10.) We contacted T=Mobile support and they walked us through setting up a side network using only 2.4gHz rather than the basic 2.4/5.0 that it uses as default. New SSID etc. That changed nothing and his laptop still refuses to admit the existence of the T-Mobile wi-fi networks. T-Mobile Support threw in the towel after several calls, said the problem is with the neighbor's laptop and gave up. So all of this mess leads me to a couple of questions:

1) What is the most likely issue here ? Maybe the network adapter built into the neighbor's laptop lacks the ability to handle the so-called (newer terminology) Wi-Fi 6 protocol? That is my best guess and strange that T-Mobile never mentions that.
2) Will a plug-in USB dongle network adapter bypass the internal network adapter in the Lenovo laptop and potentially provide an inexpensive workaround such that the "Locate Networks" feature of the laptop will then see the T-Mobile wi-Fi 6 network?

Has anyone seen this issue before and have suggestions?

 

[Bighorn]

Your neighbor should, if not already done, is to check the Wireless Adapter in Device Manager, Network Adapters for its version, should be 802.11n. The newest is 802.11ac or 802.11ax. I've only had to deal with a couple of the Cellphone units and they only worked when near the computer, get the impression they were not to be the same as a Wireless/Wi-Fi Router which has greater range.

 

[JWR]

Your neighbor should, if not already done, is to check the Wireless Adapter in Device Manager, Network Adapters for its version, should be 802.11n. The newest is 802.11ac or 802.11ax. I've only had to deal with a couple of the Cellphone units and they only worked when near the computer, get the impression they were not to be the same as a Wireless/Wi-Fi Router which has greater range.

His network adapter internal to the laptop works fine on the 802.11n . The T-Mobile reveiver/modem unit was sitting on the same table less than a foot from the laptop. Distance is not the issue. His laptop sees networks across the street and 1/2 mile away but will not see the T-Mobile box at all. I am guessing that the T-Mobile box uses 802.11ax (which is now called Wi-fi 6 ) and that might be the problem. Just looking to see if anyone else has had this problem or know more about it. Thanks.
p.s. : His laptop also connected just fine with his older Verizon DSL system and with my cellphone configured as a hot spot.

 

[bobgay6155]

The source of the wi-fi signal is a T-Mobile "in-house internet" product which is sold employing 1 of several receiver/modems. The main one & claim to fame is the one that is about the size of a quart jar and their spec pages just say it uses Wi-Fi 6. In the case I am helping on for a neighbor, his wrist watch and two Android cellphones are connected easily. My own Lenovo Idea Pad 5 (bought in Nov 2022) found the T-Mobile network coming from the box and connected easily.

His older Lenovo laptop (not sure of model but ~6 years old) absolutely refuses to even find the network much less connect to it !

Both Lenovo laptops are running Win 10 (mine came with it and his was just updated to Win 10.) We contacted T=Mobile support and they walked us through setting up a side network using only 2.4gHz rather than the basic 2.4/5.0 that it uses as default. New SSID etc. That changed nothing and his laptop still refuses to admit the existence of the T-Mobile wi-fi networks. T-Mobile Support threw in the towel after several calls, said the problem is with the neighbor's laptop and gave up. So all of this mess leads me to a couple of questions:

1) What is the most likely issue here ? Maybe the network adapter built into the neighbor's laptop lacks the ability to handle the so-called (newer terminology) Wi-Fi 6 protocol? That is my best guess and strange that T-Mobile never mentions that.
2) Will a plug-in USB dongle network adapter bypass the internal network adapter in the Lenovo laptop and potentially provide an inexpensive workaround such that the "Locate Networks" feature of the laptop will then see the T-Mobile wi-Fi 6 network?

Has anyone seen this issue before and have suggestions?

If the issue is #1 then #2 should fix it. I have an old surface laptop that came with 8.1. i also have T-Mobile home internet gateway. it runs at around 400 mps so i have 2 tvs and a laptop running never any buffering. everyone is happy except my surface. when i power up i never know if its going to connect to the gateway. everyone else is, but not the surface. It has a marvel network adapter in it . i suspect its the adapter so if your friend has a marvel adapter in it i would highly suspect that in which case go with # 2 and go on device manager and disable the network adapter

 

[JWR]

I think (hope , not yet tested) that the problem is that the T-Mobile "house network" uses a receiver/modem/hotspot that is running what has been renamed "wi-fi 6" which is 802.11ax (while wi-fi 5 is 802.11ac, etc.) Apparently the TMobile box is putting out a wi-fi signal NOT backwards compatible to older versions of wi-fi. I am waiting on a so-called wi-fi 6 USB plug in to try on the neighbor's laptop and see if it will then 'find' the TMobile network or not. I strongly expect that it will. What puzzles me is that the laptop does not "find" the TMobile network at all using the old internal network adapter. I could understand it as appropriate if the laptop found all wi-fi signals in range and would then just tell you if some of them are not protocols that it can handle. That would be fine. But just to act as if it does not exist is ridiculous.

 

[Macs R We]

Here's some advice from a guy who hand-built a wireless network to serve three rural towns and ran it for 15 years.
You already did the 2.4 GHz thing, which would have been my first guess.
Second guess: the older machine's radio may only know how to communicate in TKIP ciphers, while your AP may know (or be set to) only AES/CCM ciphers. It's possible the router has a setting to enable the older cipher. It's much less efficient, but if you need it for an old PC, you need it.
Third guess: PC knows only how to use WPA authentication, and your AP may be set to WPA2 authentication. Again, it's possible the router has a setting to enable that.
These three items take care of 99% of the "I can't connect" issues I encountered in all those years.

 

[JWR]

If the issue is #1 then #2 should fix it. I have an old surface laptop that came with 8.1. i also have T-Mobile home internet gateway. it runs at around 400 mps so i have 2 tvs and a laptop running never any buffering. everyone is happy except my surface. when i power up i never know if its going to connect to the gateway. everyone else is, but not the surface. It has a marvel network adapter in it . i suspect its the adapter so if your friend has a marvel adapter in it i would highly suspect that in which case go with # 2 and go on device manager and disable the network adapter

Yes, #2 did "fix it." The USB plug in dongle (network adapter stating it was for Wi-Fi 6) worked immediately. That is great but does not explain why the T-Mobile network wouldn't at least SHOW in the older laptop (even if you can't handle the signal) nor why T-Mobile get away without saying that wi-fi 6 was a REQUIREMENT not just a capability. Oh well. I'm going to call this one closed.