In reply to a post by Opabinia:

It is WPA/WPA2.

Try changing it to WPA2 only rather than the both mode of WPA/WPA2 which can confuse a lot of computers. The encryption type should be AES and not TKIP.

Edited by jchamier (Sat 07-Jun-14 20:49:35)

As an experiment, disconnect your and your wife's devices. Then turn off encryption and see if he can connect. Then implement WEP, try again, then WPA &c if he can connect without encryption but fails at an encrypted level then that is his equipment at fault.

Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions.

In response to napolibill:

Yep outage, we had nothing though the HH was still functioning as a wireless router otherwise just not for my VDSL connection. Very odd!

In response to John_Gray

Absolutely. He has a phone, tablet and laptop none of which apparently allow him to get a connection. That in itself strikes me as very odd. His equipment is certainly modern enough to support WPA2. Do you think he would leave home? That would be ideal I can buy more lizards.

There is a very good chance of interference from neighbouring connections. There are certainly a number of wireless connections in the area.

Reply to jchamier & MHC

That sounds like a very good plan. I will certainly suggest that tomorrow and see what happens.I think we already tried turning off all other devices other than my son's but it's worth another try to check.


The wireless signal strength to the best of my knowledge is fine. Wireless works fine from the room my wife and I share and the bathroom and the landing all of which are adjacent and only separated by thin internal walls. Not that this would rule out a problem in one room of course. I shall try your suggestions and report back what I find.

Very many thanks for all the help.

Reason I said turn off all others and then try your son's without any encryption is that you could open yourself up to a hacker - a small chance but you need to be aware and that means your data will be secure and just the router and sons PC vulnerable for a short time. But proving the PC and access point will communicate in that mode is a step towards solving it.

Pound to a penny he is entering the key incorrectly.

3 devices not allowing him to connect and the only common thing with the device is the owner definitely sounds like user error ie an incorrect encryption code

Most kit needs explicit selection of the correct encryption type. What they support is a different question.

As others have since said, the most likely is incorrect entry of the key. My question was merely an obvious preliminary.

AS your lady-wife's laptop is working elsewhere on WiFi, have you tried it and her phone in your son's bedroom - preferably when he is out!!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Most kit needs explicit selection of the correct encryption type. What they support is a different question.

Most clients autodetect, most routers/WAPs require explicit selection. There seems to be a trend in router/WAP vendors to set the box to WPA/WPA2 shared mode which breaks a lot of devices as the autodetection gets horribly confused.

Is he running Windows Vista?
We had huge trouble getting Vista to connect to a router once, my iPod touch connected right away.
We could only get vista to connect if we turned of the router security, not very good.
Try turning off the security for a test to see if his computer connects.