Cisco Anyconnect Not Connecting To Wifi



Jan 15, 2019 Also, if the Wifi adapter is enabled, AnyConnect will show that No Wifi Adapters Available. Also, after attempt to connect to wifi fails, it kills the Cisco AnyConnect NAM service. Here is an odd part - The device WILL connect on wifi if it is out of range of our networks (similar to how VPN would work). Jan 15, 2019 Also, after attempt to connect to wifi fails, it kills the Cisco AnyConnect NAM service. Here is an odd part - The device WILL connect on wifi if it is out of range of our networks (similar to how VPN would work). The user can connect to home SSID and then VPN into network.

Symptoms

When you have the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client installed on a Surface Pro 3, you may experience one of the following symptoms:

  • If you try to connect to a wireless network by using the Cisco Network Access Manager (NAM), you cannot connect to the wireless network.

  • You can connect to an open (that is, unsecured) wireless network by using the Cisco Network Access Manager (NAM). However, you cannot use the Cisco NAM to connect to a wireless network that requires a password or other authentication.

  • If you use the Windows 8.1 Networks interface to connect to the wireless network, you can connect to the wireless network.


I use Cisco AnyConnect on my Windows 7 computer to make VPN connections. It also has capability to connect to WiFi. But I always had problems in connecting toWiFi with AnyConnect. Connection drops frequently and it keeps saying ‘Acquiring IP address‘.

AnyConnect installs a service called ‘Network Access Manager‘ which seems like takes over the native Windows WiFi connecting client. So when I click on the network icon in the System tray it says ‘No connections are available'(See below snapshot). Without AnyConnect, it always displays the WiFi connections available.

If you are facing the problem then you can try the following solution that worked for me.

Linksys
  • Open Services management console by running Services.msc from Run
  • Find the service ‘Cisco AnyConnect Network Access Manager‘.
  • Right click and stop the service.
  • Now Cisco AnyConnect will say ‘NAM service unavailable
  • Now Windows will use the native WiFi client to connect to the WiFi
  • When you reboot your system, the NAM service will start and may cause problem again. You can disable this service in Services management console to prevent that.

AnyConnect has settings to disable the NAM feature. But that did not work for me. Even after disabling NAM service, I could not connect to WiFi. Windows network icon shows the WiFi connection but gives the error ‘Windows was not able to connect to…‘. I followed the below steps to do this.

Cisco Anyconnect Not Connecting To Wifi Connection

  • Opened Anyconnect window and click on Advanced.
  • Clicked on ‘Networks’ tab in the left side pane.
  • Clicked on Configuration tab. Changed the NAM to disabled as shown below.