Nokia E71 WLAN / Wifi Connection Problem

I’ve recently signed up with Vodafone on the $49 cap to get my free Nokia E71. Took some photos of it but unfortunately it’s on my cousin’s camera and he’s in Adelaide right now. Will blog about it once  I can get a hand on the photos.

So it’s been like 3 days since I’ve gotten the phone and I had some trouble connecting my phone to my home wireless network. Everytime I tried to connect, I kept getting this error message,

WLAN: Unable to connect.

WLAN Network Not Found.

It friggin’ took me 3 days to figure this one out. Was driving me insane.

So here’s a few tips on how to troubleshoot your wlan problem.

nokia-pc-suite

  1. Update your Nokia PC Suite software by going Web, Nokia PC Suite on the web and then select your region.
  2. Once you’ve updated your Nokia PC Suite software, update your phone software (circled in red). Make sure you make a backup beforehand with your software and your phone is fully charged.
  3. Go to your nearest starbucks / mcdonalds free wifi access and try it there. If it works, then it must be a router issue. If it doesn’t, I’d recommend contacted Nokia support or sending it back for repair.
  4. If your have MAC filter turned on, either disable it or add your Nokia E71 MAC address to the list. To get your MAC address, type in *#62209526#.
  5. Disable your router firewall & security settings. Try connecting again.
  6. If you use a static IP address (default auto), go to Menu, Tools, Settings, Connection, Access Points. Then edit your network, and under Options, go to Advanced Settings. Go to IPv4 settings and go to Phone IP address. Put in your static IP address. You can also configure proxy servers, IPv6 and DNS in the Advanced Settings too.
  7. Make sure your wireless network name (SSID) has NO spaces. This was the culprit that caused me 3 days of anguish and misery. If you do have spaces, rename it without spaces.

Hopefully these steps will help you troubleshoot your wlan/wifi problem. If all else fails, contact Nokia support or bring your phone back to your dealer.

26 Comments on "Nokia E71 WLAN / Wifi Connection Problem"


  1. Try this: when the list of APs found is presented, count to 5, then choose the one you want.

    For me this has solved the issue, as I suspect that the phone is not dropping the connection after the scan quickly enough so when you try to connect it fails.

    Reply

  2. @Zohaib
    Opera Mobile goes to the login page automatically for me and will save your password. Then all your other wifi apps should work (but not mail, it seems to want its own connection and will not work when you are logged in)

    Reply

  3. plz help me in our university there is wifi network without password we can use it but its only work on laptop and iphone it doesn,t work on nokia phone plz help me how can i use it???

    Reply

  4. i have nokia E71 since last one year. m using fring and nimbuzz on my phone.
    my mobile getting hang some times and restart.
    what should i do.
    please help me

    Reply

  5. hey can any one tell me how to connect my e71 to wifi my modem has in -built router adn i gave proper ip address and etc but still it is recognising my wifi and when i start using web browsing it is displaying “no gateway reply” so wat should i do and over come this problem

    Reply

  6. Upgraded the software on my e71recently.My wi-fi was working just fine before then. Now I cannot connect. I get the message WAL. WLAN CONNECTION ALREADY ACTIVE,CLOSE IT AND TRY AGAIN.I also have the wlan icon constantly on my phone which used not to happen before.Assist

    Reply

  7. Dear
    i have one problem i cant connected with my PC or Laptop i didn’t know he problem i installed the software i use UPS cable i have also Bluetooth but it doesn’t work too please let me know
    Abebe

    Reply

  8. danny
    i hav a broadband connection at home, so i hav routed it thru a wireless router so i can use it on wlan for my laptops.
    wrks like a charm on the laptops.
    when i try and connect to the netwrk thru my fone nokia e71, it finds the netwrk but gives me an error “unable to connect.wireless netwrk not found”
    i think there is a problem wid the access point setup but i cant figure out wat
    if i get an error like gateway reply not found i can wrk arnd it by adding in the advance setting (ipv4 ipv6 etc.)
    so plz help me out
    thank

    Reply

  9. Hey, I got my E17 last week and I’m having issues connecting to my home WiFi. It can find it without any problems, but when I try to connect to it, it says ‘Unable to connect; Invalid WPA pre-shared key’.

    I’m not very tech savvy, and not sure if I’ve put in all the settings in correctly. I’ve tried connecting to free WiFi and it says ‘No gateway access’ or something about a gateway. Is it something I’m doing or should I take it back to Optus and get them to figure it out for me?

    Reply

    1. I have this phone for a yr and a half and still don’t know the fix for this problem – “no gateway reply”. I have tried connecting to secured/unsecured wireless networks. Thomson and other routers. It suddenly starts connecting without any configuration changes, other times doesn’t. I have no option but to buy a new phone :(

      Reply

      1. I have an E75 and I have never been able to get it to connect to my WLan at home. When I search for wireless Lans, it finds mine straight away. As soon as I click start web browsing it says connecting and then fails with comment(WLAN Unable to Connect Wlan not found)and I have set it up with the correct password, turned of the firewall and security setting on the laptop. Running out of ideas. Can any one help please

        Reply

  10. Just thought i’d add my findings… obviously i’ve come across this discussion while troubleshooting my E71 wlan problems.

    Everything had been fine until recently when my home network starting playing up… dropping connections, wlan not found etc. I suspected a dodgy application or the recent firmware update (europe) but have since found it was because i’d changed my router config to use wireless-n, as opposed to b/g. As soon as I put it back to b/g everything settles down again, no probs.

    Just means my PC in the attic can only use 54mps rather than the nice to have 270mps.

    I would have expected the E71 to degrade gracefully to wireless-g just like my laptop does.

    Reply

    1. Hey Davey,

      My home router is a N+ router that supports b & g and it works perfectly fine. I think you have to make sure your N router has backwards compatibility (b&g) and make sure you have this feature enabled.

      Reply

      1. Hi Danny,

        I’m using a Netgear DGN2000 (flashed with latest DGTeam firmware), it supports the following configs:

        b only,
        g only,
        b & g,
        ‘Up to 130mps’,
        ‘Up to 270 mps’

        When it was set to 270 both my laptop (g only) and desktop (n) both worked fine, meaning the router is backward compatible. Only my E71 struggles to find and/or maintain a connection. In b/g modes it’s fine.

        I conclude it’s the phone as opposed to the router.

        Reply

  11. I have the Nokia E70, dropped it a few times accidently..

    then I realised I wasn’t picking up the home wifi anymore.

    default SSID, dlink no spaces..

    so I figgure it has to be a hardware issue..

    sometimes I find the home network for 5 seconds.. then dissapears

    so something has probably come loose, I’m going to take it in to a phone repair soon.

    Reply

  12. Hi Danny, Thanks for the post. My E71 was failing to pick up my home network most of the time, but did sometimes find it. I thought the phone was faulty. My SSID had a space in the name, I renamed it without a space and the E71 now finds my network first time, every time.
    You’ve saved me a lot of grief.
    Thanks again,
    JohnA

    Reply

  13. I would like to add to that list another tip which finally worked for me.
    My E71 Wifi worked fine just after setting it up with my access point which has stable configuration since years and all devices works fine (also preE71 phone = E61).
    After installing some applications (I really do not know WHICH ONE exactly had broken my WiFi connection on E71) my phone stopped to transmit data over WiFi. It is precise description – “stopped to transmit data but still have no problem with Access Point connection!”. I have connection setup, I can see single bytes transmitted according to connection counters but no real transition of any data :(
    One post suggesting building special configuration file for one of the program with especially stressed option to define MTU to 1500 bytes, gives me an idea what could be wrong. So I have changed my access point MTU from 1500 to 1492 and… surprise! E71 starts to transmit data again.
    It looks that one of installed application plays with E71 networking parameter (MTU) and has changed it during installation (maybe application defaults?) BUT does not change it back during uninstall :(
    Probably reset to factory setting would help but I have tried to avoid this.
    Suspected applications:
    – Smart Connect,
    – WeFi
    – JoikuSpot

    Good luck!
    Dariusz

    Reply

    1. I do not have a problem web-browsing via WLAN, but it doesn’t want to do e-mail over Nokia messaging. When GPRS is off, I get no e-mail and when I synchronise, it switches GPRS back on again.

      I want to use my home WLAN when I am at home, not my telco provider.

      I just bought an e71 because they were so successful and I figured that meant it would be simple. So far, that is not what I am finding.

      Reply

      1. Bill I have the exact same problem now on the E71. Browsing through the WLAN is not a problem but can’t sync my Gmail mailbox anymore on the built in Nokia Mail for Exchange. I only works if I use the GPRS of my provider but that’s not what I want when I’m at home… Any solution yet?

        Reply

    2. go to acesspoints and duplicate the one that youre accessing.. and acess again the web using the wifi .. and that shoud work

      Reply

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