Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

GR53 — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 20:43:04 GMT

Earlier in the month, we switched from Sky to EE broadband due to Sky's absurd prices and terrible customer service. And while we were originally able to set the TV and router up just fine, and got our phones connecting to the Wi-Fi, the router was not showing up on our laptop's network list at all.

Now, it is an older model, but it had no issues connecting with our previous ISP or things like mobile hotspots, and all of the neighbours' Wi-Fi routers can be picked up. So we contacted EE's tech support, and spent around an hour on the phone trying to troubleshoot it, but ultimately accomplished nothing. Reset the broadband, manual connection attempts, create a compatibility mode connection in WPA 2 without WPA 3 active, etc. Nothing worked.

Got told to contact windows support, but they don't support these older models anymore, so it'd be a bit of a pointless endeavour. So instead got a relative who runs a tech support shop to take a look at it, trying everything up to manually scripting a connection profile, but again got nowhere. However, while our broadband router does not show up in the laptop's network list, the generic "EE WiFi" does, and so we were able to circumvent the problem (albeit not in an ideal fashion) by simplying connecting to that and logging in with our EE account to access the free WiFi.

However, come today, we can't connect anymore. Or, more accurately, we can connect to it from the list, but it doesn't give us any internet, and it refuses to load the ee.co.uk/public/ee page, saying it can't find the DNS, so we are unable to even login to the WiFi hotspot anymore. The TV still works fine, but it is extremely frustrating that the WiFi we are paying for is just not doing what it is supposed to. I'm currently having to type this from a mobile hotspot, which drains my battery and costs us extra money in mobile data.

How can we rectify this?

Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

Chris_B — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 21:51:03 GMT

@GR53 Have a read of THIS

Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

XRaySpeX — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 22:45:02 GMT

@GR53 : Older or weaker devices may not be compatible with the default WiFi settings of EE Smart Hubs. Try setting up Compatible WiFi on the router under Advanced > Wireless Settings > Config > Compatible WiFi (it defaults to 2.4 GHz only & WPA2) & connect your problematic 2.4 GHz devices to that.

Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

JimM11 — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 07:18:31 GMT

@GR53 Buy and older AP, connect that to the hub, and then your laptop may see that fine, some older devices will just not see the wireless wifi transmitted from the EE Hub's. With sky did you have the Black SR203 wifi 5 hub from them? What EE one are you using currently, see the link below for them!

https://ee.co.uk/help/broadband/getting-started/compare-our-range-of-broadband-hubs

topic Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect in Broadband & Landline

Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect

Re: Wi-Fi refuses to connect or detect