• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Wifi keeps getting stuck on "authenticating"

surgerush

Android Enthusiast
Oct 18, 2011
454
70
37
New York State
Pretty much every time I try to connect to my home wifi, it keeps getting stuck on authenticating then it will fail and do it over again and again until it says network disabled, poor connection, even though it has a full 4 bars... I've tried turning it off and back on, I've tried forgetting it and redoing it, I've tried restarting the phone.. The only thing that seems to work is for me to unplug my router and plug it back in while leaving the wifi on my phone on. When the router boots back up, then my phone will connect. I would say it's something wrong with my router, but my other phone has absolutely no problem connecting.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
No I mean like what encryption. Some devices aren't compatible with certain encryption strength. Turn off the password on your router and see if it will connect. If it does then you can try different encryptions to see what works. Just stay away from plain wep, it's slow


Ok, it WILL connect with the password off. The security mode is wpa/wpa2 personal, encryption technique is aes. The only other two options are wep.
 
Upvote 0
I wish I could help but I really don't have any ideas. Maybe a factory reset if you haven't tried that.

Are you running 4.0.4? Did it do it on 4.0.3?

I haven't done a factory reset so to say, but I have ran different ROM's, so pretty much the same thing. Basically when I got the phone, the first thing I did was upgrade it to 4.0.4, so I have no idea if it would have done it on GB or 4.0.3.

There should be a way to change it from aes, I know on my router I can.

I've had nothing but problems with aes.

I guess your only other option if you can't change it is to either get a different router, or run your network unsecured. I'm not sure if you would wanna do either of those.

If there is a way, I have no idea how to do it. I tried looking it up even, I really have no clue. I'm using a Belkin router if anybody may know how to? Yeah, buying another router isn't going to happen, I'd really rather unplug the thing every time I need wifi, sucks and very inconvenient sometimes, but it's not the worst thing. Running it unsecured wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't living in an apartment building.



Guess I'll just have to look more into changing that AES thing, hopefully I can find something.
 
Upvote 0
It should be in your security settings. There's should be a wpa/wpa2-psk or something similar and then wpa/wpa2-aes

At least that's how it is on my linksys and netgear

Ok, here's the settings I can change. Underlined settings are the current settings.


Security mode - disabled, 64bit WEP, 128bit WEP, WPA/WPA2-Personal(PSK)

Authentication - WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK

Encription Technique - AES (There are no other options unless it can be changed somewhere else)
 
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
Have the same issue with my phone (lg spectrum) and two nook tablets. I even went out and bought a new router...

Check and see if you can setup a "guest" network.com when connecting your phone should notify you that it is being redirected and promote you to open your web browser and enter the first password to get internet access. Easier than unplugging the first every time...
 
Upvote 0
  • Like
Reactions: Atma and surgerush
Upvote 0
I don't really have any other suggestions.. You could run your network open but make it so that only devices which mac address is entered in the router can connect, but you have to enter the mac address for each device that you want to be able to connect
Here's how:

Belkin : Support How Do I Set Up MAC Address Filtering?

That works for me, I only have a few things connected to my wifi, so not a huge deal to have to put the mac address in for them. Seems to be working great. Thank you VERY much!

I don't have to put the mac address in for things connected to the router by ethernet do I?

Edit: Never mind, I do.. Still not a big deal. Thanks again!
 
Upvote 0
No problem, glad it's working good! I personally think this option is even better than having security, as there is no way for someone to hack the password.

If their mac address isn't in there, they aren't getting on. Period. :beer:

Exactly, that's why I have no problem taking an extra couple minutes to punch in the mac address, it's just as easy as putting a password in on the device. I will probably keep my routers like this from now on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: carracerz14
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones