Raspberry PI won't connect to either my guest or main SSID

[billrouter]

I have two ASUS XT9's that are at opposite ends of my apartment. They're about 65' apart and on different floors. I have a music studio area in the middle. Everything works fine but a Norns Raspberry Pi project. It won't connect to either guest or the regular network.

When I take the Rasp PI closer to one of the ASUS', it connects. A Mac and Win11 machines are in the studio too and connect fine as is.

Any suggestions for what I might reconfigure?

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have two ASUS XT9's that are at opposite ends of my apartment. They're about 65' apart and on different floors. I have a music studio area in the middle. Everything works fine but a Norns Raspberry Pi project. It won't connect to either guest or the regular network.

When I take the Rasp PI closer to one of the ASUS', it connects. A Mac and Win11 machines are in the studio too and connect fine as is.

Any suggestions for what I might reconfigure?

If using the 2.4 band, beware nearby USB3.x high speed data comms EMI affecting the Pi 2.4 WiFi connection. Or maybe the 2.4 WLAN signals are too equal/strong at the Pi location... perhaps a minor relocation to give one signal preference would help... or wire it.

Or maybe some other nearby EMI or just magnet/speaker interference is affecting the Pi WiFi connection. Beware EMI from nearby cordless peripherals like mouse/keyboard/headphones/etc.

OE

 

[bennor]

Everything works fine but a Norns Raspberry Pi project. It won't connect to either guest or the regular network.

When I take the Rasp PI closer to one of the ASUS', it connects. A Mac and Win11 machines are in the studio too and connect fine as is.

May help others if you provide the Pi model and Wifi band (2.4 or 5 GHz) you are trying to connect to.

As the other response indicated, could be EMI or similar interference in that one specific location. Could be the construction of the building or materials in the path of the signal is reducing it just enough for the Pi to have trouble accessing it in its present location. Could be simply the small antennas on the Pi's WiFi chip/board are too small and the only solution is to move the Pi closer to the WiFi router/AP/Extender.

 

[bbunge]

One solution is to add a USB WIFI adapter. That will give you a better antenna.

 

[billrouter]

Thx all!! I don't have the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands separated. There's just one SSID and I assume it auto-switches. I don't do anything fancy on the router and use mostly stock settings.

The routers are in the same locations as my netgear setup that I replaced. However I did have a 3rd satellite in the studio itself for a while. I'm trying to avoid getting a 3rd unit if I can help it. And so far this is the only thing not connecting well.

There are a ton of cables of every kind around the desk - one could barely imagine more wires between speakers, synths, DAW interfaces packed into a small area!! The norns is also in a lasercut wooden box.

The Norns is running Rpi 4 model B. I was trying to avoid using a wifi adapter as the the more stock the norns is the easier it is to update and maintain. But I just tried a dongle I had lying around that thankfully seemed to be a type it recognized with no changes, and that seems to do it!
The norns alone was reporting a wifi signal of -67db which I guess is borderline. But with the wifi dongle, -38db

Thx!

FWIW, I also found a discussion about the wifi nub being pretty weak in the raspberry pi here: https://llllllll.co/t/norns-wifi-difficulties/45262/3

 

[billrouter]

Well the Norns still connects fine but a different Raspberry Pi musical device called an OrganelleM won't connect!

I tried what I did for the above Norns device, moving close to one of the two Asus access points, and also tried the other dongle that worked with the Norns, but neither solution has worked.

I verified its wifi dongle works because it has it's own wifi AP for setup and that worked fine. I was able to configure my network and the guest network. But then when I try to actually connect it's not connecting.

FWIW, I have a 3rd raspberry pi music device that connects just fine using the wifi on the raspberry pi 4 board, no dongle. And all these devices are in the same general area.

Thx!

 

[sfx2000]

Just a couple of things...

1) Pi's WiFi drivers don't play well with WPA3 and/or PMF...
2) Pi's WiFi sensitivity is pretty low compared to Phones and Laptops - Rx they're not that bad, but they are Tx limited...

 

[billrouter]

I've been trying to connect to a guest network that's 2.4 only and is set to use WPA2_Personal.

I've tried other Asus settings but am not sure what else to test.

I've moved the device close to each base station, tried different dongles... The dongles work because the devices have an access point for setup that I can connect to.

This is the only device I can't connect to the ASUS so far.

 

[bennor]

Does the Asus WiFi SSID and or the WiFi password contain special characters (like dashes or underscore symbol) or is very long string?

No issues with a Raspberry Pi Zero W connecting to either an Asus RT-AC68U or a RT-AX86U Pro's 2.5Ghz WiFi set to WPA2-personal. In years past didn't have a problem connecting a Pi 3B+ to a RT-AC68U. Note I have the 2.4GHz and 5GHz separated using different SSID's.

 

[billrouter]

The main password contains underscores but guest pw is simplistic.

How do I separate the two bands? I can try that.

 

[bennor]

How do I separate the two bands? I can try that.

Not sure on the ASUS XT9. I assume you would disable Smart Connect and make sure each WiFi band has it's own unique SSID name.
[Wireless Router] How to configure the Smart Connect in ASUS Router?

 

[John Fitzgerald]

The main password contains underscores but guest pw is simplistic.

How do I separate the two bands? I can try that.

Just in case you are trying your password with a prohibited character, direct from ASUS website:
The standard input characters include letters(A-Z, a-z), digits(0-9). The hyphen ( - ) and under line ( _ ) characters may also be used but not as the first character.

 

[billrouter]

Just in case you are trying your password with a prohibited character, direct from ASUS website:
The standard input characters include letters(A-Z, a-z), digits(0-9). The hyphen ( - ) and under line ( _ ) characters may also be used but not as the first character.

The thing is all my other devices all connect using the same pw.

 

[Ripshod]

Try disabling ax/wifi6 on both bands.

 

[John Fitzgerald]

The thing is all my other devices all connect using the same pw.

Raspberry Pi also has it's rules for passwords so, the 2 formats may not be compatible /conflicting with each other.

ASCII characters should work but no harm in trying a more simple password, to rule out a conflict if that is determined to be the issue.
ASUS has a max length of 16 characters, if I recall correctly.

 

[bennor]

The thing is all my other devices all connect using the same pw.

All depends on how the device was coded to handle WiFi SSID names and passwords. Using different standards can be a thing. Also foreign language characters may present issues. If you do a internet search for "raspberry pi wifi special characters" you will find a number of returns with lots of discussion on the issue/subject.

To troubleshoot, start out with a simple SSID name and password with no special characters and go from there with your tests on what works and what doesn't.

 

[billrouter]

Try disabling ax/wifi6 on both bands.

802.11ax / WiFi 6 mode is disabled already. Still not sure how to split the bands.

 

[bennor]

Still not sure how to split the bands.

Did you try the suggestion(s) in post #11?

 

[Tech9]

Still not sure how to split the bands.

 

[sfx2000]

I suggest a syslog to indicate what is happening when the RPi tries to attach...