I am having issneues connecting my Glowforge Aura to the internet. I have worked extensively the last two evenings with Customer Support Staff member Chris. Despite his EXCELLENT help I am unable to operate my new Aura.
Under Chris’s direction I have tried setup.glowforge.com several times. I am unable to get past STEP 2 in the ‘connect you Glowforge to WIFI’.
Again, with Chris’s help I have started, restared Glowforge, computer etc. I have switched from an old laptop to a newer laptop. I have tried connecting via my iPad and the hotspot on my Android phone. I have tried using Chrome as well as Fire Fox.
I am able to switch between my home network and the Glowforge temporary networks . I cannot get beyond this page. The NEXT icon is not lit up to allow me to proceed.
UPDATE : I have tried everything I know how to do and a few things I looked up on YOUTUBE that I didn’t know. This beautiful Glowforge is sitting here idle and I am sitting here pouting. I rebooted the router. Our router has both 5 and 2.4 bandwidths(?) Is that the problem? I know Aura needs 2.4 and when I get properties for it it lists 2.4. I am so disappointed. Tried using my Android phone, but when I have it in airplane mode I have no internet. I be missing something in this process. Hate to give up, but I’m about to. 
UPDATE: I believe I have made some progress. I now see both my home internet and the Glowforge internet in my internet settings. Long story as to how I got the Glowforge link to stay there! However, I still cannot progress beyond step two in the ‘connect your Glowforge to wifi’ dialogue. I am beginning to think the issue is on Glowforge end. Will try again tomorrow, but don’t expect it to work. Will call Customer Service again Monday. In the meantime, I am bringing shipping box in from the garage. Thank you everyone for your input.
I think you should try again to use your phone as a hotspot. Turn off your normal wifi and try the setup with your phone.
Turn airplane mode off.
I don’t usually have the phone in airplane mode. In another group that I belong to someone said they circumvented a similar problem by using their phone hotspot with their phone in airplane mode. At this point, I was willing to try anything!
Thank you for your response.
Haven’t tried that, but I certainly will. I’m getting desperate.
Thank you for your response.
In airplane mode Bluetooth and wifi are turned off. Someone gave you bad advice. This is the place to ask questions, many here have years of experience with these machines. 
I’m learning.
Thank you for your response.
There have been a couple of times when I was working with a web form that refused to light up the “next” button… and I was able to activate the button by editing the page in the inspector view. Sometimes there’s a button=disabled parameter and you can just … Delete it.
Something to look into…tomorrow.
Thank you for your response.
It is absolutely a last resort and could only help if there was a really particular kind of bug in the web setup. It’s definitely a Hail Mary!
TBF, I have my phone in airplane mode at my job all the time cause, sub-basement = no signal. You can turn Wi-Fi and BT back on while still in airplane mode. iPhone’s at least will remember this and keep them on the next time airplane mode is activated.(I have it automated by GPS on work premises.)
I’m just not sure how airplane mode would help in this situation.
Possibly by forcing the phone to wifi vs defaulting to the wireless carrier’s network & picking up Internet access from there.
Right, but if you’re trying to setup a GF product, the WiFi needs to be free to connect to the product, not local internet. Maybe if product was BT and you were passing WiFi credentials that way it’d make sense.
I am up and running! The one thing that I think finally helped me was turning off my computer and Glowforge while on the GF network was connected. In the support document, if you read beyond the screens showing you what to do, it tells you to do this and for me it worked. After leaving it on the GF network, shutting everything off and restarting, the GF App showed my Laser as READY. Not sure how, why or what…but I’m relieved! Now to learn all I can. Thank you everyone for your input and suggestions.
Congrats! I know you had a frustrating start, but I hope you will soon be learning, and designing and creating.
Correct. That’s the idea behind using Airplane mode - keeps the phone from defaulting to using the phone carrier’s DNS which would take over when the local wifi network connection is disconnected. By switching to airplane mode and then turning wifi on you get to use the GF’s local wifi access point before switching back to the local wifi network.
Ah. See, iPhones will connect to your normal WiFi signals regardless so long as WiFi is active. You have to know how to change WiFi networks.
Thank you so much! Learned a bit in the process, so all is not lost. Thanks for your response!
Glad that your Aura finally connected to your WiFi. Appreciate your patience and excited to see what you make!
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