Why Can Some Phones Connect to the Same WiFi While Others Cannot?

Have you ever encountered a situation where your phone and your friend/colleague's phone are both on the same WiFi network, but their phone can connect successfully while yours cannot? It can be very embarrassing and frustrating. If someone can help solve the problem, I believe you would be very grateful.

So, why can some phones connect to the same WiFi network while others cannot? This is actually a very common problem, and there are many reasons why this phenomenon occurs. The following content will explain this problem and provide solutions, so that you can easily resolve the embarrassment of not being able to connect to WiFi.

Different brands or models of mobile phones may support different wireless standards or frequency bands, such as 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac. If the wireless standard of your phone is incompatible with the WiFi network you are trying to connect to, you may not be able to establish a connection.

Solution: Check the specifications of your phone and the WiFi network to ensure compatibility. If the wireless standard used by your phone is older than the network, you may need to replace or upgrade the wireless hardware of your phone to connect to WiFi. If your phone supports newer wireless standards, but the network does not, you may need to use a different network. For example, if your phone supports 802.11ac but your network only supports 802.11n, you will not be able to connect to that network and will need to try connecting to another network.

The strength of the WiFi signal can affect the ability of a mobile phone to connect to the network. If one phone is near the router and another device is far away from the router, the phone that is farther away may not receive the WiFi signal or only receive a weak signal, which can ultimately lead to an inability to connect to WiFi or unstable connections.

Solution: Place the device as close as possible to the router to increase the signal strength and improve the success rate of the connection. In addition, you can try moving the router to a more central location or using a WiFi extender to increase the signal strength.

If a WiFi network is password-protected and you enter the wrong password, it will definitely fail to connect successfully.

Solution: Make sure you enter the correct WiFi password. Passwords with uppercase and lowercase letters are case sensitive. It is recommended that you verify the password with the network administrator and try to connect again to avoid temporary restrictions on login due to repeated input errors.

Some network administrators may have set up MAC address filtering on routers to limit the devices that can connect to the network. If your phone's MAC address is not on the allowed list, it won't be able to connect to the network.

Solution: Check your phone's MAC address and confirm with the network administrator whether it has been added to the allowed list.
Steps to view MAC address on an iPhone: Go to Settings → General → About → Wireless LAN address, which is your iPhone's MAC address.
Steps to view MAC address on an Android phone: Go to Settings → WLAN → Menu → Advanced → View MAC address.

The number of connections to a network is limited, and if it reaches the upper limit, new devices will be blocked from connecting.

Solution: Wait for a while until a device in this WiFi network is disconnected, and then your mobile phone can try to connect to this WiFi.

If multiple devices attempt to connect to the network using the same IP address, it may result in conflict, causing some devices to be unable to connect.

Solution: Check if other devices are using the same IP address as your phone and change the IP address of one of the devices to resolve the conflict, so that your phone can successfully connect to WiFi and use it.

If there are hardware or software problems with the phone,it will also cause the phone to fail to connect to WiFi.

Solution: First, try turning off the phone, then restarting it to see if the problem is resolved. If not, you can continue to check your phone for available updates. If there are, update the phone's operating system and reset the network settings. If the problem still cannot be resolved, you may need to contact the phone manufacturer for repair service.