The wireless network in my house went haywire. It worked on three PCs, one had
a horrible connection, and one cant connect. Between Hubby and me, we spent a
lot of time researching and trying to figure out the problem. We narrowed down
the possibilities few by doing tests. Hubby is the network king in our house
and I learned a bit in working with him. In fact, I solved the problem
temporarily.
I believe the wireless on the router is bad. It works fine when we hook miles
of cable to it (Ive tripped over them, knocked things down, and chased after a
toddler who grabbed one.). Im tired of looking at the cables, so were
contacting the maker of this router as well as hunting for deals for a new
wireless router with g (as in 802.11g).
Here are some of the tricks and troubleshooting tips Ive learned in playing
with the router:
Look at how many computers can connect and how many cant. This tells you a
story. If all of them dont work, then the problem is most likely the router
itself. Maybe it needs a simple hard reset. Try a soft reset first (turning it
off and back on). If that doesnt do it, do a hard reset following the
instructions for your router. Mine required holding the reset button while
turning it off and back on and not letting go until about a minute after
turning it back on.
If no computer wirelessly connects to the network, check to see if the
router still works by connecting to it with a cable. If it works here, you know
the router is still alive. It doesnt necessarily mean the wireless is dead.
Obviously, if your router is strictly wireless and not dual like mine (cable
and wireless), this wont work. Instead, you can test by bypassing the router
and plugging your LAN cable directly into the DSL/Cable modem.
Do a little pingin. It could be the ISP is down and not a router problem.
Open a command prompt window (Start > Run > type cmd > hit Enter) and type
ipconfig /all and you should get a response back with your IP address, subnet
mask, default gateway and other items. What you are looking for is the IP
address of the Default Gateway.
At the command line, type ping XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX where XXX = the numbers
listed as the Default Gateway. For example, my default gateway address is
192.168.1.1, therefore, I would type ping 192.168.1.1″ If you get a
response, then your router is working. Next, try to ping a site. You dont need
to know the IP address. You can ping by Web address. For example, type ping
www.marqui.com and you should get a response with the ping times from an IP
address. That IP address is Marquis. How did your computer know this? Through
DNS (Domain Naming Service), but thats another topic. If you cant ping a site
on the Internet, the problem is most likely with your ISP.
Have a cordless phone? Some cordless phones disconnect wireless connections
while youre using it. Stupid, but it happens. I have one that does just that
and another that doesnt mess with it. Aggravating. I wanted to return the
phone, but it was a no return phone. If I had known it would mess with the
wireless, I would have never bought it. So I learned that the next time I buy a
phone, to check to see if it will kill the wireless or not.
Ensure configuration is correct. Check the routers manual to complete this
step.
Try changing the channel. If that doesnt work, change the SSID (aka name)
and the channel. If your wireless SSID is Wireless and is on channel 5.
First, try changing the channel to 11 or anything other than 5. If that doesnt
work, then create a new SSID like Router and pick a channel, any channel. It
never hurts to reboot the router after each change, although when making
changes to it, it resets itself. This step is what got our network working
again.
The process for changing it depends on your router. For mine, all I had to do
is enter its IP address (200.200.1.1, for example) in the browser, enter the ID
and password, and I am in. Its similar to a software or application screen.
Enter info, select drop-down boxes, and click buttons to change / save.
Another good thing to know is to point your mouse over the wireless icon in
the system tray. It provides basic information about your wireless connection.
It provides information on the SSID, speed, and strength. The blacked out part
in the image is where the SSID is located. Also, get more information by
right-clicking on the icon and selecting View Available Wireless Network or
Open Network Connections.
You may have WEP turned on. This secures others from using your wireless
because it requires a password. If its on, verify each PC has it enabled and
the correct password or passphrase.
This is a handful of what you can do. Other options are more detailed and
complex. But this is a good start and will help eliminate a majority of
possibilities.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
