Troubleshooting a Wireless Network
- Monday, December 29, 2003
Home networking is generally a pain and can be very confusing. The complexity of the network increases when the connection is wireless. At some point, you may have a problem, and getting it straightened out can be a serious exercise in frustration. Why will you have a problem? Who knows. Maybe you were dusting and accidentally reset the router. Or maybe it just decides to stop working for no reason at all. Better not to focus on why your network has gone south, and start working on getting it back working. (Click the picture to see a larger image.)
Like most home network's with high-speed internet access, you probably have a cable or DSL modem, a wireless router (which is often called an Access Point), and your computer(s). If you're not using a router (wired or wireless), stop right now and go buy one at your local computer or electronics store.
Some more advice before we get started. Stay away from Microsoft's Internet Connection Sharing and Network Bridges. These are intended to make one computer on your network act like a router. It's confusing and super complex. For $40 you can buy a router that will take care of all that, and it'll come with instructions. Even better, a physical router will act as a firewall and help protect your network. While we're at it, stay away from any Microsoft wizard, they just mess things up.
We'll tackle getting your network fixed in 3 steps: (1) physical connection with link lights, (2) wireless connection settings, and (3) Windows networking settings. All 3 pieces must be working to get your network running. So here's a guide to troubleshooting a home network:
- Turn Everything Off -- Unplug each network component if necessary, then turn everything back on in the following order: Cable or DSL modem, Router (Access Point), and Computer. Give each a minute or two between so they can be ready before the next piece of equipment gets turned on. Sometimes just rebooting everything will fix the problem, so check if your network is working now.
- Check for Link Lights -- Link lights are actual physical lights on each network component that shows if the connection is physically connected correctly. They should light up (and possibly blink) even if the network isn't working right. First, start with the Cable or DSL modem, and make sure it's link light is on. Sometimes it'll be marked as LAN or PC/Activity. Mine blinks off and on, so that might be fine on yours too. Next check the wireless router, which will have 2 or more link lights. One of the lights is usually marked WAN, which stands for Wide Area Network. The WAN is the Internet side of the system, and indicates if the connection is good between the router and the modem. If your router has ports for wired connections (usually 4 ports), you'll also have link lights for each of these wired network connections. This is the LAN, or local area network, side of your home network. So, if you have 2 computers plugged into the router, you should have 2 LAN link lights. For wireless routers, there's usually an additional link light labeled WLAN (or wireless LAN) for that connection. Finally, your computer will also likely have a link light. For wireless laptops, this light is on the wireless card, or near the wireless on/off button. Wireless link lights sometimes blink when the connection isn't established. If that's the case, check the wireless connection described below. For wired computers, the link light is usually near where the cable is plugged in. Wired link lights won't blink, they'll either be connected and on, or disconnected and off.
- Check the Wireless Connections -- These are the settings that tell your wireless card how to connect to the wireless router. You'll need to check these settings on both the computer and the router. This can be the most confusing part of configuring a wireless home network. Just remember, that all these settings much match on both the computer and the router. Here's a great page that describes the Wireless LAN Card settings for Access Point communication. In short, there are four settings: (1) Channel, (2) Mode, (3) SSID, and (4) WEP. If all that matches on both the computer and router, you should at least have solid link lights. If you still can't connect to the internet/network, then there's a problem with your network settings, so . . .
- Check the Network Settings -- Try rebooting again, then check if you're getting an IP address. To do that, go to the Control Panel, click on Network and Internet Connections, and Network Connections again. Click once on the blue network connection, and your IP address should be listed in the panel on the right under details. An IP address is usually assigned to your computer by the router with a program called DHCP. If your link lights are solid, and you've followed the wireless connections above, but you don't have an IP address, there's only a couple possible reasons left. Either your router isn't set to assign them, or your computer's not set to set to obtain an IP address automatically. On the router, look for a DHCP setup page and make sure it's enabled. On your computer, check the TCP/IP properties of the network connection and make sure it's set to obtain an IP address automatically. Here's a page with some detailed steps on troubleshooting your TCP/IP connections.
By now you should have a network connection. If not, try rebooting everything again, then run some ping tests. For instructions, see this page on troubleshooting your TCP/IP connections under the section called Pinging.
See Also:
Network Ports and Cables
Broadband Routers
Wireless Networking
posted by Kevin Watts | 
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