A city library laptop cannot join the staff WPA2-Personal SSID after a weekend password change. The SSID is visible and the radio associates briefly, then authentication fails. What is the most likely cause?
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Short Explanation
WPA2-Personal lives or dies on the shared passphrase matching on both sides. After a library password rotation, leftover old keys in the client profile are classic auth failures. Fix the PSK on the profile—don't invent RADIUS or channel-width requirements.
Full Explanation
WPA2-Personal (PSK) authenticates using a shared passphrase configured on the AP/SSID and on each client profile. A mismatched or outdated passphrase produces authentication failure even when the SSID is discovered and association is attempted. Personal mode does not use per-user 802.1X credentials, and channel width settings are unrelated to PSK validation. Updating the client profile with the current passphrase is the technician fix.