Laptop on WIN10 can’t see my Three 5G Home Broadband connection

[Marco]

Hi, 

I am using the Zyxel NR5103E Home Broadband for the last 5 months and my HP laptop running on Windows 10 is the only device I own who doesn’t show my Three Home Broadband network in the “available WiFi Networks list”. 
My iPad and my 2 android smartphones are able to detect it! 
I’ve switched router off/on but no change.

Any idea what could be the problem? Thanks for your help

[Spud]

ISTR years ago a Windows 10 PC couldn't see the router if 2.4GHz wifi was using channel 13. Reason? Channel 13 was not used in the USA (but 13 fine in the UK).

[Marco]

Hello, 

I’m not sure how to check what channel the 2.4GHz is using though. Can you explain how to find out?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Spud]

On Android I use "WiFi Analyzer (open-source)" to find least-crowded channels on 2.4Ghz and it also tells you what channel your own wifi is using. In the router settings your wifi will probably be set to "auto" but you can change this and choose a channel you picked out in WiFi Analyzer as least-crowded.

[Anvil_Iron]

With a mobile phone as a hotspot, can the laptop connect to it?

Does the laptop support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands?

[Marco]

Hello, 

Yes I’ve tried today to use my mobile as Hotspot and laptop saw it and was able to connect to it.  
My laptop is over 10 years old, so I don’t think it would support 5GHz. 

I have modified the router settings a while ago to use only 2.4GHz as none of my other devices are 5G ready and it was causing some apps to malfunction when both 2.4 and 5GHz were selected in the settings.

I’ve never used my laptop since I have this new Three 5G Home broadband. Only just started using it again recently.

I’m not sure what could be the issue and I’m considering resetting router to factory settings to see if it does anything.

I appreciate your help and will keep you posted.

Thanks

[Anvil_Iron]

Under WiFi Network Setup > Channel (at the end), it states which 2.4GHz channel is currently being used by the router. Mine shows, Current：11.

Under Channel Status, Click Scan. It will show the 3 main channels (1, 6 & 11) populated for 2.4GHz. Best to stay with one of these as their bandwidth don't overlap and interfere with each other. You can try settings the channel to say 6 and reboot the router to see if this works.