I have a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop from around 2016, and I've been having trouble with its Wi-Fi connectivity. It only shows a few Wi-Fi networks, but I can't find the internet network for my building, which my phone and all my other devices can connect to. I thought maybe updating the laptop could help, but it says my updates are pending and won't progress. The laptop runs fine otherwise, with plenty of storage and no lag. I've tried troubleshooting, but nothing seems to work. For context, this is my older laptop I used for gaming on Steam, and I'm trying to get it up and running again. Any advice would be appreciated!
2 Answers
It sounds like your laptop might be struggling with different Wi-Fi band frequencies. Many older devices, like yours, typically only support 2.4 GHz networks, while your phone might be connected to a 5 GHz network. If that's the case, it won’t show up on your laptop. You could check your router settings to see if it's broadcasting both frequencies, or try connecting to a 2.4 GHz network if available.
That makes a lot of sense! If your laptop is indeed limited to 2.4 GHz, it won't see networks operating on 5 GHz. You might want to check if there's a guest network available that runs on 2.4 GHz, or you could try resetting your router. And, regarding the update issue, you could try to troubleshoot the update settings through the control panel.
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