Can't find Wi-Fi networks? This you have to do

What to do if no Wi-Fi network appears

One of the issues that many users face at any given time is that Wi-Fi networks are not showing up. We do some research and find that they don't show us the networks that we know should be there. The problems can be various, as well as their solutions.

For this reason, we are going to explain what are the basic steps that we need to perform if at some point we are using our computer and find that the Wi-Fi networks are not displayed. That way we can try to fix the problem and everything back to normal. This is something that is relatively common and happens to many Windows 10 users.

Restart the router and the system

One of the basic steps that we need to do if the Wi-Fi networks are not showing up is to redémarrer . This should be applied to both the router and the system itself. In this way, we can solve many problems that sometimes arise that prevent our devices from working properly.

We will restart the router first. Sometimes there may be connection issues and they are fixed by restarting the device. But let's do it right. This means that we are going to keep the router turned off for at least 30 seconds. This way we make sure that the restart is effective. Later we turn it back on and check if the problem persists.

When problems arise with the connections, they are usually resolved through the router, but the fault may be present in our device. Therefore, if we have not found any changes, we can restart the system . This way, wireless networks may appear later.

Reinstall the network card

It may happen that the fault lies in our network card . Maybe we have updated the operating system and it has generated a compatibility conflict and it does not recognize wireless networks for this reason. Therefore, if we encounter this problem, we recommend that you update the drivers for the network card.

Beyond updating the drivers and if the problem persists, the next step we need to take is to reinstall the card. For this we go to Start, we write Device Manager and later we enter Network Adapters. There we need to select the wireless network adapter, click the right mouse button and click uninstall . Later the system will reinstall it.

Disable VPN if we use it

There may be times when the problem is due to some software we are using. One of the most common that can cause failures is the use VPN services . If this is the case and we find that we cannot find any Wi-Fi networks, a good tip is to turn it off and check if that fixes the problem. These tools are very useful and also increasingly used, but they could also generate problems of this type very frequently.

Something similar can happen if we use a firewall or antivirus. They can cause issues and we can verify this by simply disabling it momentarily. So we can detect failures. It is also quite common in programs of this type that we install in Windows 10.

Run the troubleshooter

Something we have at our disposal is the Windows troubleshooter . It is a tool that allows us to solve certain faults that may be in our network. To run it we need to go to Settings, enter Update & Security and there to Troubleshoot. There we need to select the network adapter.

Test an external network card

It is very common for users to connect to the Internet through the integrated network card to the motherboard. In principle, this is more than enough and there should be no problem. However, sometimes this internal network card does not have enough capacity to provide good connectivity or it may even have a problem. Therefore, it may be worth trying an external network card.

Computers can also be connected to the network with a external card . Usually it's just a device that we connect via USB. Sometimes it is as small as a USB stick, while at other times it can also have a larger external antenna. This gives us extra to search for wireless networks.

This type of device not only allows detect available networks which are further away, but it may also indicate that our built-in network card has a problem and we need to fix it. Maybe the failure is not physical, just that we need to reinstall the drivers or update.

If we are having trouble detecting Wi-Fi networks and have an external network card, a good idea is to try and search with it. This way, we will better detect these networks and we can rule out the problems in order to find the best solution. Many network cards are also available.

See if the antivirus or firewall is causing problems

Similar to what we mentioned earlier about VPN, it can also happen that a security program generates a conflict. This is especially common with the firewall. They are of course very useful in protecting our devices, but they could also be the source of network related errors.

Therefore, if we have problems with the appearance of Wi-Fi networks and everything we have shown previously has not had a positive effect, we should see if we have a security tool that generates some sort problem in our system. We could just temporarily suspend the antivirus or the firewall and see if this problem is resolved. In this case, we need to configure the program so that there are no conflicts.

Perform a scan on the computer

There are many varieties of malware that could affect us in one way or another. Many types of malware can cause certain Windows functions to be unavailable correctly. They could even cause the network to fail. Therefore, if we find that the Wi-Fi networks are not showing up and everything is apparently okay, another issue that we need to consider is to do a scan for threats. Maybe a virus is causing problems like this.

In short, by following these steps that we have mentioned, we can fix the problem when the Wi-Fi networks are not showing up. These are basic steps that we can take into account when this kind of problem arises so present among Windows users. As an extra measure, to make sure the problem is with our device, we can always scan for networks with another computer.