How to troubleshoot the Wi-Fi network on a Mac

Overview

If you having difficulty joining the Chargifi Neutrons to your network, this article gives you information on how to debug the Wi-Fi network in which you are installing Spots.

Procedure 

1. Choose Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.
   
   
2. Type in the following command but replace {SSID} with the actual Wi-Fi SSID to which you want to connect the Neutron.
   
   /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport --scan="{SSID}"
   
3. Wait a few seconds and you should get a print out like the following:
   
   SSID BSSID     RSSI CHANNEL HT CC SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
   N11  88:1f:a1:33:cf:36 -59  1 Y GB WPA2(PSK/AES/AES)
   N11  88:1f:a1:33:cf:37 -55  52 Y GB WPA2(PSK/AES/AES) 
   
   Note
   This network is a hidden SSID but it is still reported by the tool.
   You can see the same SSID is running both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. The channel shows the frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz). Anything above and including channel 36 is a 5GHz network.

Result

This system print out allows you to check the following:

• SSID is correct (even if it is a hidden SSID)
• It’s a 2.4GHz network (check the channel)
• The security type that is used (only WEP, WPA2 (PSK/AES/AES) are supported)
• The signal is strong enough (a RSSI value lower than -70 is too weak for the Neutron to connect to the network)