Your Helium miner has to be connected to the Internet for it to work and earn HNT for you. The two methods of connectivity are over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Of these two methods, Wi-Fi is most convenient for obvious reasons.
It frees you up to place the miner anywhere on your property without the need for wires.
But sometimes it’s a challenge to connect to Wi-Fi.
Problems range from being unable to set up a Wi-Fi connection for the first time to periodically losing connectivity. Let’s take a look at these challenges and how to overcome them.
Miner not pairing to Wi-Fi
If your miner won’t connect to your Wi-Fi network the first time you set it up or if when you move your miner it won’t connect to a new Wi-Fi router, here are a few potential solutions:
- Your miner could be too far away from your Wi-Fi router. Try bringing the two closer together. Calculate the range of your Wi-Fi AP indoors.
- Some miners like the Nebra hotspot don’t have 5 GHz Wi-Fi capability and will only work on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. Make sure that the 2.4 GHz is enabled and running on your Wi-Fi access point
- ‘Forget’ the miner on your router. Change Wi-Fi password. Now go through the pairing process on helium app and connect to Wi-Fi with new password
- Set up with Ethernet by plugging your miner directly to the modem or access point. Then turn off the miner, remove the Ethernet cable and turn it back on. Try connecting over Wi-Fi connection – you might have to try this a few times but it should work eventually.
- Move your Miner away from microwave ovens as this could result in RF interference which will disrupt wireless connectivity in the 2.4 GHz band.
One of the biggest issues with older Helium miners was that the antenna for the Wi-Fi card was inside the enclosure. The enclosure attenuates RF signals in and out of the antenna and therefore significantly reduces the wireless range. Newer miners such as the one from Nebra below have external Wi-Fi antennas that make connectivity more reliable.
Miner connected to Wi-Fi but offline
- Many RAK or MNTD miners have faced this issue. Make sure you replace the SD Card using the process outlined here. You will need to purchase a new 64 GB SD Card. Once the SD Card is replaced, connect to the Wi-Fi network. Depending on how long your miner has been offline, it might be a while before your miner shows up as Online in Helium Explorer
Miner connected to Wi-Fi but now disconnects frequently
- The distance between your miner and your access point is too large – in this case try bringing the hotspot closer to the access point
- Don’t place your miner close to a microwave oven – it can create RF interference that will prevent connectivity
- If you are in an apartment building, there are many access points in neighboring apartments. This causes interference and can cause your miner to disconnect. Try switching to the 5 GHz Wi-Fi if your miner supports it
Summary
Connecting your miner to the Internet using Wi-Fi is very convenient. No messy cables to manage and you can place your miner anywhere. Wi-Fi makes it easy to experiment with different locations in your house for best HNT earnings.
However Wi-Fi can be very unreliable and many people prefer to use a wired Ethernet connection specially if you are installing your hotspot in a remote location.
In this post we have provided solutions to common Wi-Fi problems and hope that it will help you get a reliable wireless setup.