Inspiron 11 - 3000 series - WiFi issues

DELL

Inspiron 11

3000 Series 

Windows 10 w/ update to 11

Hello & thanks for being here. This is long, it's, a lot of detail - but it's my only way to explain.  I'll thank everyone in advance, right now :-) ty.

I've really been stressing about this.

Ok, in a nutshell: I'm unable to connect to the Internet using the Wi-Fi router in our house - I also can't connect to the free Wi-Fi at Wendy's on this laptop - even tho the router at the house is perfectly intact, also at Wendy's - I can PICK UP BOTH SIGNALS AT BOTH PLACES, USING MY SMARTPHONE - and everyone around me is able to connect to the Wi-Fi where I live and at Wendy'ss - so iI shouldn't be having these issues! .

ALL the other networks in my neighborhood DO appear on the laptops' Wi-Fi 'available network' list, BUT The actual available network inside my house will NOT connect and does NOT show on the 'available network' list....

And in the area around Wendy's, again - ALL the other available networks in the area DO appear on the list But NOT the actual open available network at Wendy's.

I don't get it?

Our landlords contacted frontier to check things on their end, and of course all is fine. 

The other networks in my area DO appear on the Wi-Fi 'available network' list BUT The actual available network inside my house will NOT work

I'm unable to verify this, but it seems that the LOCKED 'available networks' in my area are showing on the 'available networks' list - while the UNLOCKED 'available networks' are NOT showing up on the 'available networks' list

So far, I've been following the suggestions from DELL, reading the help guides, running the troubleshooters, device managers, etc - trying to isolate it down to something I could fix.

SOMETHING OF NOTE:

Any Error Messages I get when I run Troubleshooters or Device Mgr, et al - always say something about the

"Preferred Network is Unavailable"

" U are Not Connected To The Preferred Network"

" There is No Preferred Network Available"

?????????

Duh!

I'm not connected to the 'Preferred Network' because it's Not showing or is Not being Allowed to show, on the 'Available Network' list

Also, i wondered if I should change any of the firewall settings? There is a firewall but I hesitate to mess with it and let in the wrong thing.

 I should mention I've gotten it online by connecting to the hotspot on MY phone. However I was only able to do that once, which makes me question whether I was mistaken that one time. . 

It doesn't have an option for Cellular in the Network Connections list. Does that mean it won't connect via cellular at all? Is there a\an adapter?

And am I to understand that most laptops do NOT connect to cellular? 

(I'm good with computers but I've never owned a laptop before)

My last attempt to fix the laptop was a Full System Restore last night. 

I'm sure it put things back in order -  but it didn't bring the Wi-Fi connection back up.

I really need this laptop to functiom well enough for me to find remote employment asap. I'm 68, disabled, not doing physically what I once did. But there is nothing wrong with the brain lol. 

Please Help if u can?

. Michelle