Wi-Fi connection problems not Apple devices

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1 The possible reasons why a device might not connect to a wireless network on a broadband router include:- Wi-fi not enabled on router Specific router issues Incompatible wireless mode MAC address filtering n Bandwidth (Apple devices particlularly) Windows XP & WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption Router Log in To check most of the settings in this document, you will need to log in to your router's web management system. To do this open a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome) and in the address bar enter this address:- ( The router will respond with a username/password prompt:- enter the details:- username: admin password: admin (or your own password if different) Author : Keith French Page 1 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

To enable the wireless network function, press and hold the WLAN button for over one second, and then release the button. To check this via the router's configuration, log into the router.

2 Wi-fi not enabled on router Is the Wireless light on the router steady green, if not the wireless may not be enabled. On the some routers such as Huawei, this can also be done via the WLAN button on the side of the router. To enable the wireless network function, press and hold the WLAN button for over one second, and then release the button. To check this via the router's configuration, log into the router. Then:- Huawei routers & some D-Link DSL-3780s Go into Advanced mode, then:- Basic > WLAN Check that "Enable WLAN" is ticked. D-Link DSL routers Click the "Advanced" button on the initial summary screens, then click on "Setup" along the top & "Wireless Setup" down the left. Next click on the "Manual Wireless Network Setup" button. Make sure that the "Enable Wireless" option is ticked:- Author : Keith French Page 2 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

3 Specific router issues D-Link DSL-2780 router - does seem to be a bit hit and miss when it comes to ipads. Author : Keith French Page 3 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

4 SSID (network name) & Wireless Password Try renaming you SSID (network name) to remove the hyphen (-) used in the default "TALKTALK-xxxxxx" SSID. If using your original wireless password, also remove any hyphen characters from it. Alternatively use your own password, but do not use any "odd" characters in the password, with some MAC OSX versions, this triggers an AES encryption bug and causes connection problems. The wireless password can be changed by logging into the router, click on "Advanced". Huawei & some DSL-3780 routers:- Go to:- Basic > WLAN Then enter the new SSID in the SSID field & the password in the "WPA pre-shared key" field:- Author : Keith French Page 4 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

5 On D-Link DSL routers(inc some DSL-3780)s Go to the "Setup" tab at the top, then "Wireless Settings" on the left. Then click on the "Manual Wireless Network Setup" button, go to the "Wireless Network Settings" section. Enter the new SSID in the "Wireless Network Name (SSID)" field:- For the password, go down to the "Pre-shared key section. Enter the new password there. Author : Keith French Page 5 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

Incompatible Wireless Mode If a router is set to 802.11n only and some devices can only work up to 802.

Log into the router & then follow the guidance based on the router concerned.

only some DSL-3780s) Click on the "Advanced" button in the initial summary screens.

6 Incompatible Wireless Mode If a router is set to n only and some devices can only work up to g, they will not be able to connect. Log into the router & then follow the guidance based on the router concerned. Huawei router & some DSL-3780s Go into Advanced mode, then:- Basic > WLAN D-Link DSL routers (including only some DSL-3780s) Click on the "Advanced" button in the initial summary screens. Then go to the "Setup" tab at the top, then "Wireless Settings" on the left. Then click on the "Manual Wireless Network Setup" button:- The Wireless Mode setting is shown below:- Author : Keith French Page 6 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

7 MAC (Media Access Control) Address Filtering If any MAC address filtering has been setup to only allow certain devices MAC addresses to connect to a Wi-Fi network, any new devices must be allowed via the router's configuration, before they will be able to connect to the router. Most routers support a whitelist (only these devices can connect) & a blacklist (any device can connect except these specific devices). The Whitelist is the one that should be used, as it is more secure than the blacklist. Huawei routers & some D-Link DSL-3780s D-Link DSL & some DSL-3780 routers Author : Keith French Page 7 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

Huawei routers & some D-Link DSL-3780s Login to the router and click the Advanced tab on the left, then go to:- Basic > WLAN Click on the "WLAN Filtering" tab along the top.

Check if the device in question has it's MAC address allowed:- D-Link DSL routers(icluding some DSL-3780s) To display the "Whitelist" for a D-Link, log into the router & click on the "Advanced"

8 Huawei routers & some D-Link DSL-3780s Login to the router and click the Advanced tab on the left, then go to:- Basic > WLAN Click on the "WLAN Filtering" tab along the top. If the "Enable" option is ticked, then filtering is active. Select the "Whitelist" and a list of all of the MAC addresses of the devices that are currently allowed, will be seen. Check if the device in question has it's MAC address allowed:- D-Link DSL routers(icluding some DSL-3780s) To display the "Whitelist" for a D-Link, log into the router & click on the "Advanced" button in the initial summary screens. Then click on the "Advanced" tab along the top, followed by "Wireless MAC Filter". If any MAC address filter currently exists the "Status" will be "Activated" and the "Action" set to "Allow Association". The list of allowed MAC addresses will be dispalyed in the list below. Check if the device in question has it's MAC address in this list:- Author : Keith French Page 8 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

802.11n Bandwidth (Apple devices particularly) Apple devices don't particularly like the 20MHz/40MHz 802.11n bandwidth.

9 802.11n Bandwidth (Apple devices particularly) Apple devices don't particularly like the 20MHz/40MHz n bandwidth. To check this log into the router & follow as per the particular router Huawei & some DSL-3780 routers Go into Advanced mode, then go to Basic > WLAN In there change the "11N band width" option from 20/40Mhz to just 20MHz & see how that goes. Author : Keith French Page 9 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

D-Link DSL routers & only some DSL-3780s Click the "Advanced" button from the initial summary screens & click on "Advanced" tab along the top, followed by "Advanced Wireless" on the left.

10 D-Link DSL routers & only some DSL-3780s Click the "Advanced" button from the initial summary screens & click on "Advanced" tab along the top, followed by "Advanced Wireless" on the left. Set the banwidth to "Up to 65Mbps" for 20MHz & "Up to 135Mbps" for 40MHz. On the 3780 the bandwith option is in the "WLAN Performance" section, where it is called "Channel Width":- Author : Keith French Page 10 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

11 More details on this setting:- Author : Keith French Page 11 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

Windows XP & WPA2 Personal encryption 802.11n uses WPA2 AES type encryption, and Windows XP, even after updating drivers, will often be trying to use WPA TKIP by default.

12 Windows XP & WPA2 Personal encryption n uses WPA2 AES type encryption, and Windows XP, even after updating drivers, will often be trying to use WPA TKIP by default. Before changing the encryption to AES type, the XP machine MUST be running SP2 at least, so if it hasn't been updated with all service packs, you will need to do this, as well as updating adapter drivers, update it to SP3 for best results! Once your machine has new drivers and all Service Packs installed, XP needs to be set to AES and not TKIP type encryption:- 1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel. 2) Control Panel window will appear. Double click on Network Connections. 3) Network Connections window will appear. Right click correct Wireless Network Connection 4) Wireless Network Connection Properties will appear. Click Wireless Networks tab. 5) Tick Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings. Click Add to create preferred wireless network, or view wireless networks to change properties of the existing connection. 6) Wireless Network Properties window will appear. Here is the place you key in your wireless network information, it must match with the settings you set on wireless router. If not, you will fail to join the network. Key in SSID of your wireless network. Set "Network Authentication" to "WPA2-PSK" & "Data encryption" to "AES". Author : Keith French Page 12 of 12 Date : 10/10/2014

Wi-Fi connection problems

Wi-Fi connection problems The possible reasons why a device might not connect to a wireless network on a broadband router include Wi-fi not enabled on router Specific router issues Network name (SSID) & password (often affects