Which of the following is a potential cause of a wireless segment not connecting to the wired network when the SSID is the same?

• A. Channel mismatch
• B. Password is incorrect
• C. Firewall blocking
• D. Bad cabling

Answer: (A)

When the wireless segment and the wired network share the same network name, the connection can still fail if the radio link that carries traffic between them isn’t aligned on the same channel. A channel mismatch means the access point’s backhaul or the client’s link is operating on incompatible or non-overlapping frequencies, so the wireless traffic never makes it onto the wired network even though devices can see and join the same SSID.

If the password were wrong, devices wouldn’t even authenticate to the wireless network, so there wouldn’t be a usable wireless connection to begin with. Firewall blocking or bad cabling are plausible causes too, but they either affect traffic after a connection is established or point to a physical fault, respectively; they don’t specifically address why a wireless segment wouldn’t connect to the wired network when the SSID is identical.