Huawei Mate SE smartphone doesn't see Wi-Fi networks from Netgear XR500 router

[dc2018]

I'm using this Netgear XR500 router for most of my Wi-Fi devices (laptops, desktops, iOS iphone & iPad, etc.)

But when I was testing my other smartphone, Huawei Mate SE, it doesn't see the Wi-Fi network from this router. (And yes, I restarted the phone multiple times.) Any idea why?

Here's the screenshot of the Wi-Fi config page from the Duma OS on the router:

https://i.imgur.com/Xup1OR0.jpg

[Netduma-Fraser · Accepted solution]

In advanced WiFi settings disable MU-MIMO & HT160. It may be that the phone doesn't support these and therefore can't see the network while they are enabled.

[Netduma_Alex]

The Huawei Mate SE only supports 2.4GHz, but Smart Connect should allow it to connect properly. As a test, could you disable Smart Connect and see if the 2.4GHz network is visible? If this works, a good temporary measure might be to use the router's Guest Network function to create a seperate 2.4GHz only network just for your phone to connect to.

[dc2018]

That's what I tried to do after I posted it. After disabling it (it kicked me off my main PC that I'm using to post this, so this caused some additional issues) but the Mate SE still didn't see any Wi-Fi networks without Smart Connect. It's only when I plugged in my old LinkSys router that smartphone was able to connect to it. So what could be the issue here?

[Netduma-Fraser · Accepted solution]

In advanced WiFi settings disable MU-MIMO & HT160. It may be that the phone doesn't support these and therefore can't see the network while they are enabled.

[dc2018]

Yes, thanks. Disabling "MU-MIMO" was the solution. "HT160" (whatever that is) was already unchecked.

But now I'm wondering, what am I going to miss without that "MU-MIMO" setting on my other devices?

[Netduma_Alex]

Any MU-MIMO compatible devices may go a tiny bit slower than they would have done had MU-MIMO not been disabled.