Two new "cures" for Nexus 7 wi-fi exclamation mark error (Android 5.0).

[CambridgeChris]

My Nexus 7 (2013) recently upgraded to Android 5.0.1 - then the missing wi-fi trouble occurred.

Having struggled with intermittent loss of w-fi, with an exclamation mark next to the wi-fi "fan" symbol,
I have now found two tricks that have improved the situation for my device.

1) Change your router to a different frequency band.
Too many near-by routers, using the same, or adjacent, frequencies, can cause the problem.
(if you install inSSIDer on your PC, you can see which frequency bands your neighbours are using).

2) Go to settings ... wi-fi.
Press and hold on the network you're connected to.
Click "Forget network".
Then click on the network name again. You will have to re-enter the router password.
You should find that the exclamation mark has vanished, and wi-fi is working again.

Repeat this for various different frequency bands until you find one that works well.

If you've found the "best" possible frequency band, and wi-fi still occasionally vanishes,
just repeat step 2.

It worked for me - whereas the various other proposed "solutions"
- reboot the tablet, reboot the router, turn "airplane mode" off and on again ..
all had no effect in my case.

Good luck if you're still struggling!

 

[B. Diddy]

Good tips! Find other possible solutions here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...roubleshooting-wi-fi-connection-problems.html

 

[Lupelamenta]

In my experience of this issue, these fixes are temporary. I live in an apartment building so I changed the channel. Yes, this worked for a while and then dropped out again. Then I tried turning it on and off. I gave the tablet a static ip; et.al. Everything worked for a while and then stopped.

I discovered the solution after spending a weekend away using a friend's router. Away from my home router, all the the wi-fi problems disappeared. I concluded that I needed a new router. I began copying all the settings on my old router in anticipation of buying a new one.

That's when I discovered the solution.

Here's how I fixed my wi-fi issue. My Linksys router settings had something called QOS under Applications and Gaming. I didn't know what that was, so I did a little research. QOS stands for Quality of Service.

When I first installed this router, I only had a PC on my network. Now I have phones, smart tvs, tablet, et.al. on the network. Apparently, QOS ensures prioritizes the way these devices use the bandwidth on my network: crowd control, if you will.

Under applications and gaming QOS, I enabled upstream bandwidth and WMM support.

Voila....no more wi-fi dropouts. (It's been two months!)

Try it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Good tip, thanks! I should add that to the guide. Although from what I found on the web, it sounds like QoS and WMM can actually slow things down in general in some situations. You can just turn of QoS completely, can't you?