Can't connect to wifi

I have a Netgear router and my phone and my consoles connect fine on wifi. My Dads phone however won't. Its a cheap Galaxy Mini running Android Gingerbread. It says 'out of range' when I connect even tho a scan picks it up. The router is fine as like I said all other devices connect ok. Any ideas?

Wireless may be set to N only. Try changing to mixed G and N. Failing that, try changing to G only just to see if it can then connect...

If still doesn't work consider changing more settings on your wireless access point to see if it will eventually connect. i.e., security settings, 20/40Mhz spectrum, etc.

Failing that, I would say the phone is defective.

Cheers. Rebooting the router allowed it to connect. However as soon as he was out of range of the signal, when he comes back in range the same problem occurs.

Sounds VERY familiar. Lots of devices do this, even some new laptops are like that.

It's one of those quirks of wireless, sometimes it is the WAPs fault, other times it is the wireless client's fault. We have a batch of new laptops at work which do this, if you walk out of range and come back they just stay there showing connected yet won't pass any data, sometimes takes about 2-3 minutes before they start to behave again.

You can try adjusting things to see if it helps, but often it is a compromise sort of thing. If you reduce the DHCP duration on your router when it gives out the address lease to the device if it is short enough it should mean the device will check in more frequently for new IP information and it might be enough to keep jogging it, but of course that affects your other clients. it can be caused by every sort of setting going. Wireless channel (so experiment changing between 1 6 and 11), encryption type, and other settings on your access point.

Edited by Pipexer (Sat 13-Apr-13 16:26:10)

Wonder if the "out of range" message is referring to the IP address assigned by the DHCP, rather than physically being out of range of the router?

I havent set up a static IP so the DHCP is assigning the IP address on his phone

Another quick question. Does a device remember the IP it had and try to connect on the IP the next time its turned on?

For example my Xbox always connects on 192.168.0.7, even though .4 and .5 are free to use

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Another quick question. Does a device remember the IP it had and try to connect on the IP the next time its turned on?

No, if it's DHCP the first action is to request a lease.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Another quick question. Does a device remember the IP it had and try to connect on the IP the next time its turned on?

No, if it's DHCP the first action is to request a lease.

So how come every device i have always uses the same IP address, even when others before it are available?

The lease expiry must be set to be very long in that case.

When i check with ipconfig on my PC its 24 hours, not sure if that applies to all devices or just the PC