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The problem started about 10 days ago (10/01/2019) after some changes were made to the Walmart in-store WiFi configuration. Since then I can't connect to the in-store WiFi from my LTE ZTE Maven Z812 smartphone.

The phone seems fine, connects to all other networks. Other phones also connect just fine to the Walmart in-store WiFi network. But when I try to connect to Walmart WiFi with Z812 I get an error WiFi connection failed and no IP address.

Resetting the adapter, forgetting the network, and rebooting the phone did not help.

I noticed that the store recently split 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz access points, there are different ESSIDs for them ("Walmartwifi 2.4" and "Walmartwifi"). The Z812 does not see the 5 GHz AP but sees 2.4 GHz just fine. I tried connecting to 2.4 GHz AP from another smartphone and it works just fine.

Any ideas what might be wrong? Is Walmart blocking certain models/manufacturers from using in-store WiFi?

Additional info: I don't think it is MAC filtering. It feels like something is broken in the IP negotiation process, but I don't understand why this specific phone and this specific network.

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    Blocking on Wifi level can only wok on base of the MAC address of the Wifi chip. Before Android 8 the MAC address was static for each device, therefore blocking would be possible, however since Android 8 for privacy reasons Android should use MAC Randomization (depends on manufacturer if enabled or not).
    – Robert
    Oct 10, 2019 at 7:07
  • Please use this link to regain access to your account by merging them.
    – Firelord ♦
    Oct 12, 2019 at 7:37

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This appears to be an interesting but known issue with 2.4Ghz only capable phones. Here is an article that explains the issue and why it is happening. If that doesn't work or you don't trust the url, just do a quick search on Android Central Forums for "why does my phone disable wi-fi connections" and it should be the top result there.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/865480-why-does-my-phone-disable-wi-fi-connections.html

I recommend going to your Wi-Fi settings, possibly advanced settings, and disable smart network switching. It might be "Switch to mobile data" or something else like that. Once you have that disabled forget the SSID and then try to connect again and see if it works for you. Hope that helps!

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