Xfinity WiFi not showing up: How to Fix it? – HomeNetworkON

After installing your new gigabit internet, you expect everything to work flawlessly. You start connecting all your devices one by one and all of a sudden you notice the Xfinity WiFi not showing up on one of your devices. You can even see your neighbors WiFi connections, but not your own. This can be pretty frustrating and luckily there is something you can do about that.

Why is Xfinity WiFi not showing up?

Some of the reasons why the Xfinity WiFi is not showing up on your devices are:

• you have accidentally disabled WiFi on your laptop
• your network adapter driver is obsolete
• the device doesn’t support 5GHz
• the network Name (SSID) is not broadcasting and so on

Now let’s go through each situation and see what you can do to fix the problem.

1. Restart your computer and gateway

The Xfinity WiFi not showing up can be just a glitch in the system. So, restarting your devices is a simple and, in some cases, a successful solution to the problem. Just restart your devices and see what happens. If the Xfinity WiFi is still not there, try the next solution.

2. Check the WiFi switch or key if your laptop has one

Some laptops have a special key on the keyboard or a physical switch on the laptop itself to enable/disable WiFi. If your laptop has such a key or a switch, make sure to check it and see if WiFi is enabled.

On some laptops you need to press the Fn key and the key with a WiFi antenna on it.

3. Update the Network adapter driver

IMPORTANT: Since you need a working Internet connection for this step, we recommend either connecting your laptop directly to the network using the network cable or enabling hotspot on your smartphone and connect to it until the network driver updates.

One of the common reasons behind Xfinity WiFi not showing up is an outdated network adapter driver. The solution is to update the network driver to the latest version and it is pretty simple and easy to do.

1.       Click on the Search icon and type Device manager. Press the Enter key on your keyboard.

2.       The Device Manager will launch. Find Network Adapters. Expand the section, then right-click on your network adapter and select Update Driver.

4.       In the next window click on Search automatically for drivers

5.       If there is a newer version of the network driver it will be installed. After the update process completes, check whether your Xfinity WiFi is showing up.

4. Check If Your Network Adapter Supports 5GHz WiFi

If you have enabled only the 5GHz frequency on your wireless router or it is just set up that way, it is possible that the network adapter installed on your device doesn’t support 5GHz.

You can easily check this in the Command Prompt on your Windows machine.

1. Click on the Search icon and type cmd. Press the Enter key on your keyboard.

2. In the Command Prompt window type the following command netsh wlan show drivers and press Enter again.

3. Scroll down to Radio types supported. The letters after 802.11. will show you whether your network adapter supports the 5GHz frequency.

• If you see 802.11n, 802.11g or 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b this means that your laptop can work only with 2.4GHz. 
• However, if you see 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11a / 802.11ac / 802.11c this means that it can work with2.4Ghz and 5GHz networks.

In case your laptop works with 2.4GHz only, you should enable it in the router settings. But if your laptop supports 5GHz but still can’t see your Wi-Fi network then check the other solutions.  

5. Check whether your SSID is broadcasting

One of the steps frequently recommended as an additional security measure for your wireless network is to hide the SSID or the network name. This means none of your devices won’t see your SSID, not just one or two devices. At the same time this may result in the Xfinity WiFi not showing up. If that is the case with your devices you need to enable SSID Broadcast. Here is how to do it.

NOTE: Please note that the following steps apply only to Xfinity gateways you have leased. If you are using another approved gateway you will need to find the router login steps specific for that router. However, the procedure is pretty much the same in all routers except for the default IP, username and password which can be different.

1. Login to your Xfinity gateway

Type 10.0.0.1 in your web browser and when asked for the login details type admin as a username and password as a password. Additionally, you can follow this guide to login to your Xfinity gateway.

NOTE: If you have changed the default login details earlier, use the new ones now.

2. Now, take a look at the left-hand menu and select Gateway. Then click on Connection and after that on WiFi.

3. When you click the WiFi link you will see you 2.4GHz and 5GHz network names on the right. Click the Edit button on the right.

4. The Private Wi-Fi Network Configuration (2.4GHz) will open. Or (5GHz) depending which one you have decided to edit.

Scroll down to the bottom and see whether Broadcast Network Name (SSD) is enabled. If it isn’t, check the checkbox and save the settings.

6. Separate the 2.4 and 5GHz networks

Xfinity gateways use the same network name and wireless password for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. This allows the Xfinity gateway to figure out which band performs better for your device.

However, you can separate these two by assigning them a separate SSID (Network name).

Access your Xfinity router admin page and go to Gateway, then Connection and finally Wi-Fi like in the previous step.

Click the EDIT button next to the desired frequency and in the Network Name (SSID) field type the new network name. It is usually enough to add _5G at the end to separate them.

Now check whether your device sees any of the WiFi networks and if you notice the Xfinity WiFi not showing up, try the next step.

7. Check and change the WiFi mode

Login to your Xfinity router.

Go to the WiFi menu under Gateway>> Connection as described in the steps above.

Locate the Mode field and change the mode from “802.11 g/n/ax” to “802.11 g/n“.

Save the settings and check whether the device sees your Xfinity WiFi now.

Final Thoughts

We hope that you have fixed the Xfinity WiFi not showing up issue by now and that your device is connected to your network. However, if for any reason you haven’t managed to fix the problem it is necessary to contact the Xfinity support and explain your problem.