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In this article, I have tried to summarise the tips and help for wireless network setup trobleshootings. This is by no means the complete list because the certain wireless adapters and routers sometimes require specialist approach. A lot also depends on the wireless network configuration, operation system settings, hardware and many other little bits and pieces.

Initial preparations, driver installation.

• Make sure that the wireless facility is enabled on the wireless router. Also make sure that the connection availablity is not limited to the particular set of devices through the MAC address filtering or other possible means.
• Install / uninstall / reinstall drivers for the wireless adapter as necessary. Make sure that the wireless adapter drivers are installed correctly (from Computer > Hardware > Device Manager).
• For the laptops, make sure that the wireless button or wireless facility is on. The button is usually found on the side of the laptop. The wireless facility can be activated on some laptops by pressing Alt+F2 or other key combinations involving Fn key.
• Enable Windows Zero Configuration (WZC) service in Services; set this service to Automatic. If the wireless adapter configuration utility doesn’t work and it’s not possible to connect to the wireless network with this utility, switch to the Windows Zero Configuration utility and try to connect to the wireless network with it.

Router settings and setup.

• Switch off the router (disconnect from the power supply), wait from 20 seconds to 1 minute and switch it back on.
• Reset the router settings. Somewhere on the side of the router there should be a Reset button. If pressed and hold for some time (usually 5 to 10 seconds), it resets the router settings to the default values. See the router manual for whereabouts of the Reset button.
• Upgrade the wireless router firmware.

General wireless connection tips

• Try to connect to the wireless network in close proximity of the wireless router i.e. either move the router to more central location in the house or office or move the computer, which you are trying to connect to the wireless network, closer to the router.
• Try to connect without authentication: switch off the wireless signal encryption (WEP, WPA, WPA-2 etc). Router settings reset should disable the encryption.
• Try to connect with all installed firewalls disabled (including Windows own firewall) and all installed antiviruses not running.
• Change the wireless channel on the wireless router because of the possible interference with the other wireless networks in range. Channel value can be set from 1 to 11. Some wireless router manufacturers recommend channel 7, some recommend channels 10 and 11.
• Somewhere in router setting, try to lower MTU (maximum transmission unit).
• Make sure that the router is on mixed mode supporting B and G. May try to set it just to B or just to G and see what happens.
• Make sure both wireless router and wireless adapter are on the same channel and have the same RTS and Fragmentation values.
• For the laptops, check the wireless card power management in: Device Manager > Network Adapters > WiFi Card > Power Management > uncheck “allow to turn off device to save power”; Windows Power Management > Advanced > WiFi > Power Saving > set to maximum performance; Laptop Power Manager > Manage Settings > set wifi to max performance.
• After several connection attempts try to change SSID on the wireless router for the clean connection.
• In order to pin the problem down, try to connect to the wireless router using the different computer or the different wireless adapter borrowed from someone else. If the connection is successful, the problem is with the computer or the adapter, if not successful - the problem is with the router.
• If running Windows XP SP2 and connecting to the wireless router with encryption WPA2-PSK, a patch KB893357 should be installed for Windows XP on order for it to work with WPA2.

Protocol settings

• If on Windows Vista, try to switch off TCP/IP version 6 support.
• Run “ipconfig /all” from Command Prompt to check all the TCP/IP settings and try to hardcode the IP address for the wireless device (switch to the static local ip address) in Local Area Connection properties > TCP/IP > Properties > General by filling in “Use the following IP address” and “Use the following DNS server addresses” values.
• Try to repair TCP/IP stack for use with Windows XP with SP2: in Command Prompt, run reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. “netsh int ip reset reset.log” and then reset winsock entries to installation defaults: “netsh winsock reset catalog”.
• If “ipconfig /all” shows there’s TCP/IP Winsock2 corruption (after some software installation or virus cleanup), repair it by running WinSockFix or following Microsoft step-by-step instructions.
• For the quicker Internet access, it is sometimes better to set Preferred DNS server address to the one of your Internet provider rather that the wireless router’s IP address.

Other tips

• Make sure the computer is clean from viruses, spyware and various other malicious programs.