Wrong network selected
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My phone often tries to connect to my neighbour's network, which of course is password protected and inaccessible, so I have to manually select my own network whereupon it connects happily. Is there a way to make my network the preferred one so that it will automatically connect. Forgetting my neighbour's network is no use because the phone immediately detects it again.
I use a Nexus 5 on Stable OTA-23, though I assume this problem is not specific to this phone.
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I would look at your network first. Odd that your neighbours is "stronger" than yours. Try rebooting your router and change the Wi-Fi channel. If that fails, use the "Forget this network" and reboot the device.
You can use the app wifiscanner to see what channels and strength the wifi signals are. -
@mrt10001 The router is supplied by my ISP so I am not going to change any of its settings, too many other devices rely on it for internet connectivity.
From a logical perspective, because the problem exists only on this one phone, this phone is where the solution should be applied.
As mentioned earlier forgetting the other network is pointless because it is immediately rediscovered.
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@cliffcoggin Are you with BT as your ISP? I have issues with certain devices on their hubs because of the way they have set up their 2.4ghz and 5ghz WiFi Old devices on the 2.4ghz band will prefer to connect to my other router as I have given the different frequencies a different SSID.
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@mrt10001 Plusnet is my ISP, and the router works perfectly with two laptops, a printer/scanner, my wife's Android phone, and a satnav. It also works well with the Nexus 5 once the correct network is selected, so the problem is getting the Nexus 5 to prefer my network. If there is no way to make the phone do that I shall try moving the router for a stronger signal, though there is only limited scope to do that without long extension cables which kind of defeats the purpose of wifi.
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@cliffcoggin When you reboot the device does the WiFi mac address change?
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@mrt10001 I had to find out what a MAC address is and where to find it before I could answer that question. The answer is no it did not change after two reboots, and each time the phone automatically connected to the correct network if that is relevant.
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@cliffcoggin It's not the issue I was thinking which is good. If it has connected to the correct network twice, it should be good.
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@mrt10001 Thanks for trying to help. I'll experiment with moving the router location to the other side of the desk.
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Do you have a password set on your WiFi access point?
If you disable WiFi on the phone and then re-enable it, when you force the reconnect to it do you have to enter the password?
It seems odd to me that your phone would prefer to connect to a WiFi access point you have never connected to over your own that you have connected to.
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@mark1250 Yes it is password protected, and no I do have to enter the password each time because it is memorised by the phone.
Lest there be any misunderstanding let me emphasise that 9 times out of 10 the phone will connect correctly without any intervention by me. It is only occasionally that I need to push it to my network.
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After three days of normal wifi connection, today my phone latched onto my neighbours's network again, so moving the router has not solved the problem. It looks like there is no solution and I shall have to accept occasional manual network selection.
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@cliffcoggin Try setting the MAC address of the phone to be locked to an IP address (setting a static IP) on the router.
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@mrt10001 I don't see how that would change anything. An IP address is only assigned after connecting.
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I don't get it. It shouldn't connect to a wifi that has never connected. Unless it has the same SSID (name).
Does it have the same SSID (name)?
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@cliffcoggin please correct me if i have gotten the details wrong.
The phone has been connected to your WiFi access point. You have entered and saved the WiFi access point's password in the phone.
Now, on occasion (1 time out of 10 of leaving and returning to the WiFi access point's coverage range) the phone does not auto-connect to your WiFi access point.
On the occasions when the phone doesn't auto-connect to your WiFi access point, the neighbor's access point as well as your access point are listed in the available access points when the WiFi menu is opened. To connect to your WiFi access point, you just select it from the WiFi menu and the phone connects.
Is this what is happening?
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@mark1250 said in Wrong network selected:
@cliffcoggin please correct me if i have gotten the details wrong.
The phone has been connected to your WiFi access point. You have entered and saved the WiFi access point's password in the phone.
Now, on occasion (1 time out of 10 of leaving and returning to the WiFi access point's coverage range) the phone does not auto-connect to your WiFi access point.
On the occasions when the phone doesn't auto-connect to your WiFi access point, the neighbor's access point as well as your access point are listed in the available access points when the WiFi menu is opened. To connect to your WiFi access point, you just select it from the WiFi menu and the phone connects.
Is this what is happening?
Yes indeed. Correct on all points.
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mount root in rw mode
sudo mount -o remount,rw / -
sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/neighbour's_network
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add autoconnect=false in [connection] section
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restore root in ro mode
sudo mount -o remount,ro /
it will work
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@br1 I don't really understand what any of that means, so clearly too risky for me to attempt.
I plan to submit a bug report as Mark1250 suggested if and when I can find my way aroung Github, which is as clear as mud at the moment.
