My PC will not connect to Wi-Fi but everything else will

Acutis · plain-English network help · Episode 2 of the Acutis Go tutorial series · updated September 2026

This page is the text version of the video. Every command below was run on a real Windows machine on 6 September 2026 and every line of output is shown exactly as it printed. The only edits are redactions: the live network is called HomeWiFi, the saved network is called OldNetwork, and the last three octets of MAC and BSSID addresses are masked. That includes the results that are inconvenient, like the router returning 100% packet loss and the scan claiming one visible network.

Commands used in this video

In on-screen order. The netsh commands run in Command Prompt or PowerShell; the Get- commands need PowerShell.

netsh wlan show interfaces

netsh wlan show networks

netsh wlan show profiles

netsh wlan show profile name="OldNetwork"

netsh wlan show interfaces | findstr "Authentication Cipher"

netsh wlan show profile name="OldNetwork" | findstr "Authentication"

Get-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias 'Wi-Fi' -AddressFamily IPv4

Get-CimInstance Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | ? IPEnabled

ping 192.168.0.1

netsh wlan show drivers | findstr "Radio"

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid | findstr "Stations Utilization"

What it actually printed

Colour key, the same as the video: green is the healthy line, amber is the line people misread.

Read State, Band, Channel, Signal and Rssi: this is what a strong, healthy link looks like and it is what you are trying to get to.

> netsh wlan show interfaces
    State                  : connected
    SSID                   : HomeWiFi
    Band                   : 5 GHz
    Channel                : 157
    Radio type             : 802.11ac
    Signal                 : 92%
    Rssi                   : -42

Read the count, then do not believe it: this list is a cache of the last scan, not a live look, so a tiny list does not mean the network is gone.

> netsh wlan show networks
Interface name : Wi-Fi
There are 1 networks currently visible.

Read the saved profiles: your machine does not join a network, it applies one of these, and the old one is the interesting one.

> netsh wlan show profiles
User profiles
-------------
    All User Profile     : OldNetwork
    All User Profile     : HomeWiFi

Read four lines: Connection mode, AutoSwitch, Authentication and Cipher. Each one is a way for a machine to sit there doing nothing while every other device is online.

> netsh wlan show profile name="OldNetwork"
    Connection mode    : Connect manually
    AutoSwitch         : Do not switch to other networks
    Authentication     : WPA3-Personal
    Cipher             : GCMP-256

Read what this machine is using right now on the network it is on: one setting, in use, working.

> netsh wlan show interfaces | findstr "Authentication Cipher"
    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
    Cipher                 : CCMP
  ^ what this machine is using on this network right now

Read the whole list: a profile is a menu, best first, and if the router's menu and this menu do not overlap the join fails with a useless error.

> netsh wlan show profile name="OldNetwork" | findstr "Authentication"
    Authentication         : WPA3-Personal
    Authentication         : WPA3-Personal
    Authentication         : WPA3-Personal
    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
  ^ the menu this profile will accept, best first

Read the address and PrefixOrigin: a real address from DHCP in the Preferred state means the router handed you a lease.

> Get-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias 'Wi-Fi' -AddressFamily IPv4
IPAddress    : 192.168.0.43
PrefixOrigin : Dhcp
AddressState : Preferred

Read DHCPServer and the lease time, then notice the DNS servers were set by hand, which is fine at home and a trap on hotel Wi-Fi.

> Get-CimInstance Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | ? IPEnabled
DHCPServer           : 192.168.0.1
DHCPLeaseObtained    : 9/4/2026 11:52:43 PM
DNSServerSearchOrder : {8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4}
  169.254.x.x here would mean NO lease at all

Read the loss figure and then ignore it: this router had just handed the machine its lease and was serving four other devices.

> ping 192.168.0.1
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
    Packets: Sent = 3, Received = 0, Lost = 3 (100% loss),

Read the last entry, 802.11ax: the card supports Wi-Fi 6, and the link negotiated 802.11ac only because the router is the older end.

> netsh wlan show drivers | findstr "Radio"
    Radio types supported     : 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n 802.11a 802.11ac 802.11ax
  ...but the link negotiated 802.11ac. The router is the older end.

Read both numbers: four devices on the network and 0% airtime in use rules out too many devices without unplugging anything.

> netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid | findstr "Stations Utilization"
             Connected Stations:         4
             Channel Utilization:        0 (0 %)

Three results that look like problems and are not

Pinging my own router returns 100% packet loss. Is the router broken?

Almost certainly not. The router in the video returned 100% loss to ping from the same machine it had handed a DHCP lease to twenty minutes earlier, while serving four other devices. Home routers very often ignore a direct ping on purpose and forward everything else normally. Silence to ping is not evidence of anything. If you want proof the router is alive, run tracert -d 1.1.1.1 and read hop 1, which is covered in Episode 1.

netsh wlan show drivers lists 802.11ax but my link is 802.11ac. Is my Wi-Fi card underperforming?

No. The card supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax); the router is the older end, and the slower end always sets the speed. A link negotiated at 802.11ac on an 802.11ax card means the router is older than the card, nothing more. Do not buy a new adapter over this.

The scan shows Connected Stations: 4. Are too many devices on my Wi-Fi?

Read the line under it. Channel Utilization: 0 (0 %) means the airtime is idle even with four devices connected. That one line rules out too many devices for free, without unplugging anything.

The checklist

1. Everything else works, so the internet and the router are fine. Skip them.
2. Bounce a phone off Wi-Fi and back to confirm the router still accepts new devices.
3. netsh wlan show interfaces. Are you associated, and what are the band, channel and signal?
4. netsh wlan show networks, and remember that list is a cache, not a look. Toggle Wi-Fi off and on to force a real scan.
5. netsh wlan show profiles, then netsh wlan show profile name="YourNetwork". Read Connection mode, AutoSwitch and Authentication.
6. If the security menus do not overlap, delete the profile and join fresh: netsh wlan delete profile name="YourNetwork".
7. Check the address. 169.254.x.x means no lease, which is a DHCP or authentication failure, not a signal problem.
8. Ignore the router ignoring your ping, and ignore an ac link on an ax card.

Chapters

• The question
• How joining Wi-Fi actually works
• The free test, before any commands
• Gate one: the radio, and the scan that lies
• Gate two: the saved profile
• WPA3, and why the phone joins and the PC does not
• Gate three: connected to nothing
• Three results that look like problems and are not
• The checklist
• Doing this on six hundred machines

How joining Wi-Fi actually works

Joining a Wi-Fi network is not one step. It is three, and they fail differently.

• Gate one, the radio. Your Wi-Fi card has to be awake and it has to hear the network being advertised. If the radio is off or the network is on a channel your card cannot use, nothing after this matters.
• Gate two, the join. Your machine has to agree with the router on how to prove who it is. This is the password, but it is also the security type, and that is the part nobody looks at.
• Gate three, the address. You are now on the network, but you still need the router to hand you an address. Until it does, you are connected to nothing.

Almost every case of "my PC will not connect but everything else will" is gate two. People spend their evening on gate one.

The free test, before any commands

Take your phone off Wi-Fi, onto cellular, and then put it back on the Wi-Fi. If the phone rejoins instantly, the router is handing out addresses and accepting new devices, so gates one and three work for at least one device, and that points you at gate two on the machine that is failing. If the phone also struggles to rejoin, you have a router problem and you can stop reading command output and go restart it. That is thirty seconds and it splits the whole problem.

Why the phone joins and the PC does not

Your machine does not join a network. It applies a saved profile, and that profile remembers settings from whenever you first joined, which may be years ago and may have been a different router. A profile does not list one security setting; it lists every combination it will accept, best first. The saved profile in the video lists five: three WPA3 entries then two WPA2 entries. That list is a menu. Your machine offers it and the router picks the best line both ends support.

Routers have been moving to WPA3. Phones and newer devices join without anybody noticing because their menu already includes it. An older card, an older driver, or a profile built years ago can have no WPA3 on its menu at all, and then the two ends have nothing in common. The error just says "cannot connect to this network". If you want the background on the two standards, read WPA2 vs WPA3. If the join works and the machine still misbehaves, the broader fix list is in How to fix Wi-Fi problems.