Connecting to networks

Connect to networks from within the app

 

It's very easy to connect to a network which is in reach!

  1. Click/Tap on the blue icon in the command bar you see in the screenshot.

  2. Select the network you want to connect to.

  3. If the network is "hidden", enter the correct SSID.

  4. Enter the password.

  5. Hit the "Connect" button.

In case the network is known by your device, you don't have to enter the password every time, just hit the "Connect" button instead and it should connect.

Also "Auto reconnect" will be remembered for the last few networks you connected to. It will be removed from the list as soon as you uncheck it.

IMPORTANT: Recently, there seems to be an issue if you are plugged in via Ethernet, so maybe try to unplug the cable if you experience problems… I think this is a Windows 10/11 issue (because in the Developer Insider Preview it seems to work again).

Connect.png
 

Error messages

Connect to a Wi-Fi network for information...

If networks are found but it does not show yours as connected, could have a number of different reasons. It is also totally normal that it could take a few seconds until the network is shown as connected and this message disappears!

Try to check whether the following may be the case:

  • Connecting your device via "Ethernet" cable is not enough, you have to be connected via Wi-Fi too. (In Windows 10/11 it has to say "Connected" on the Wi-Fi network, not only on the Ethernet connection!)

  • In case you're using an external (secondary) Wi-Fi adapter in addition to the build in one, you have to enable this eventually in the settings of my app.

  • Only use standard "English" characters in your SSID (e.g. "a-z", "A-Z", "0-9, " ", "_", "-"), any special characters (like "ä", "ö", "ü" or "ß" for German) are probably not supported in the standardization and could cause you a lot of problems (not only with my app, with your whole network too).

  • Try a device reboot!

 

Unknown error [BSSID]

This is NOT an issue with my app itself. The problem is caused by Windows 10/11!

In most cases this happens because of a Windows 10/11 update, which I could easily resolve by just rebooting Windows 10/11 again (there are probably some drivers or other things not fully installed yet... most likely the Wi-Fi adapter driver or something related).

Another reason could be a Third-Party-Antivirus-Solution, because they are too aggressive and not well optimized for the fast release cycle of Windows 10/11. I know from feedback, that in case it is the Third-Party-Antivirus-Solution, only uninstalling the Antivirus fixed this (disabling was not enough).

As a result, I can not access the needed API to get the BSSID, therefore I can not tell which is the correct connected network (since version 2.4.0, I will use the SSID as backup with a notice in case the BSSID is not accessible which could lead to the wrong connected network shown as connected).

And if my app is affected by this, it is more than likely that other apps and even Windows 10/11 itself could be not working correctly or is showing some strange behavior... especially with UWP apps and the store.

Possible solutions:

  1. Check for Windows 10/11 updates (including the store app)

  2. Reboot your device

  3. In case you just updated Windows 10/11, please wait at least 24 hours before writing me or giving me a bad rating (in most cases it just resolves itself shortly after the Windows 10/11 update, based on a lot of feedback I've got). Maybe some drivers need a little bit longer to update/install...

  4. Check for updates of your Third-Party-Antivirus (if it's any other than the build in Windows Defender)

  5. Disable your Third-Party-Antivirus (especially when installing a Windows 10/11 update and apps).

  6. If none of the above works, uninstall your Third-Party-Antivirus and enable the build in Windows Defender (this is the most likely what will work based some feedback and user experiences).

Maybe Windows 10/11 or the Third-Party-Antivirus will get updates and this also could fix the issue (in almost all cases my app worked at some point again without any doing from me or the user... often within hours/days and sometimes weeks/months).

It is indeed possible that some of my competition still works, but only because they maybe don't work correctly or haven't figured out how to access/don't use the BSSID as identifier... they may only use the SSID and this could lead to wrong information very easily because there could be more than one network with the same name). Also roaming through different Access-Points with the same SSID within a network requires the BSSID. To learn more about SSID/BSSID, check out my "Wi-Fi basics" tutorial.

Hope this helps to clarify that this is not my fault, often it simply is triggered by another peace of software (especially if you are on the Insider-Preview). Even an Ex-Mozilla engineer says that Third-Party-Antivirus-Solutions are a problem.

If you still have questions, an e-mail is much better than a bad review/rating because via mail I can very easily respond to you (and I will).

Matt Hafner