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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 Apple devices)
• Wrong Wireless channel
• Number of devices allowed to connect simultaneously
• Incompatible wireless mode
• MAC address filtering
• 802.11n Bandwidth (Apple devices particlularly)
• 802.11n Guard Interval
• Huawei HG635 SSIDs (network names) not visible
• Router firmware recently upgraded
• Windows XP & WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption
• Windows Vista Local Only connections
• No IP Address allocated by DHCP
• Apple's recommended Wi-Fi settings

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:-

(http://192.168.1.1)

The router will respond with a username/password prompt:-

enter the details:-

username: admin
password: admin (or your own password if different)

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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:-

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Specific router issues


D-Link DSL-2780 router - does seem to be a bit hit and miss when it comes to iPads.

Network Name (SSID) & password


Make sure you are connecting to the correct SSID & using the correct password. Some devices,
particularly Apple ones, do not like any unusual characters in the SSID or password.

Only use a mixture of upper & lower case letters & numbers. Other characters can trigger an AES
encryption bug in the device.

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Wrong Wireless channel


Most routers have their wireless channel set to "Auto", which is OK unless there is interference
from other nearby wireless networks etc. Setting it to "Auto" is supposed to get the best channel,
but it often does not work very well and setting it to a dedicated channel number usually gives
better results.

However, there is a very easy mistake to make here, thinking you can use any of the 11 channels
available in the 2.4GHz band, but in actual fact, you should only use channels 1, 6 or 11. For the
reasons behind this see:-

http://www.metageek.net/support/why-channels-1-6-and-11

To change your channel, logon to your router, go into "Advanced" mode, then it depends on the
make/model of router that you have.

Huawei (not HG635) & some D-Link DSL-3780s


Go into:-

Basic – WLAN

The channel option can be seen below:-

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D-Link DSL routers including some DSL-3780s
Click on "Setup" across the top tabs and then "Wireless Settings" down the left. Then click on the
"Manual Wireless Network Setup" button.

Then in the "Wireless Network Settings" section, the channel number field is hown below:-

On the 3780 click on “Advanced” followed by the “Advanced Wireless” page and look in the
“WLAN Performance” section:-

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Huawei HG635 Super Router
This router is different to most others in the TalkTalk range, once logged on, click on the "Home
Network" tab at the top. Click on "Wireless Settings" down the left. Scroll down the page to
"Advanced Settings" & expand that if minimised.

There you will find the channel setting, one for the 2.4GHz band and another further down for the
5GHz band. This is the one for the 2.4Ghz band:-

Note: in some rare cases, after setting the 2.4GHz channel to a dedicated number, some devices can
no longer detect the network name (SSID). If this is the case, also in the "Advanced Settings"
section, set the “802.11n bandwidth” to 20MHz and the “802.11n guard interval” to “Short” in the
2.4GHz band. You may also need to set the 802.11n/ac guard interval to “Short” in the 5GHz band
as well.

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SSID (network name) & Wireless Password


Try renaming your 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:-

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On D-Link DSL routers(inc some DSL-3780s)
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.

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Number of devices allowed to connect simultaneously

This can be caused by the DHCP server in the router having a too small start & finish IP address
range.

Some routers also restrict the number of simultaneous devices allowed to connect to the router's
wireless network. With a standard TalkTalk configuration, this can be increased up to a maximum of
253.

If you log on to the router & go into advanced mode, then depending on the router you have check
these two settings.

Huawei (not HG635)

DHCP server
Basic > LAN > DHCP

This should be set as follows:-

Max Number of devices


Basic > WLAN

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D-Link routers

DHCP
Click the "Setup" tab along the top & "LAN Setup" down the left. In the DHCP section, set them as
follows:-

There does not seem to be any option to limit the number of simultaneous connections.

Huawei HG635 Super Router

DHCP
Click on the "Home Network" tab across the top and then "LAN Interface" down the left. In the
DHCP Server section, set the address range as follows:-

There does not seem to be any option to limit the number of simultaneous connections.

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Incompatible Wireless Mode


If a router is set to 802.11n only and some devices can only work up to 802.11g, 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:-

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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

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:-

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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:-

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802.11n Bandwidth or channel bonding (Apple devices particularly)


First what this parameter is for & then why some Apple devices do not like it.

Traditional 802.11 channels are 20 MHz wide, The ability to add a second channel was introduced
with 802.11n, older standards 802.11b or g do not support this. It is supported in both the 2.4 &
5GHz frequency bands, but it works best in the 5GHz band. This is because there is only space for
three traditional, non-overlapping channels in the 2.4GHz frequency band (channels 1, 6 & 11).
Therefore, there is only enough space for one bonded channel in that portion of the RF spectrum.

With 5GHz, there are over 20 non-overlapping channels, so you can have several bonded channels
operating within close proximity to each other without co-channel interference.

There can be problems using a 40MHz channel bandwidth setting in the 2.4GHz band, particularly
if you use a lot of bluetooth devices, as the two can clash.

In the 5GHz band it is really a no brainer (unless Apple), always use it.

Depending on the make/model of router this can be called:-

1. .11n bandwidth
2. Channel width
3. Bandwidth
4. Channel bonding

You may see your network card reporting a speed or bandwidth of 150 or 300Mbps in the
connection status (see this example from Windows 7):-

The settings for this (depending on make/model of router) is 20/40MHz or some combination of the
two on Huawei routers. Some routers now even off 60Mhz as an option (3 channels).

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On some D-Link routers the options for this setting are confusingly labelled:-

Setting No. of channels used Frequency width


Up to 135Mbps 1 20MHz
Up to 270Mbps 2 40MHz

Taking the Huawei as an example, if using the option "20/40MHz" the router will negotiate with the
network card when a wireless connection between the two is established. Both devices will use the
highest supported common setting. So if the network card only supports a bandwidth of 150Mbs,
the they will both only work at 150Mbps, even though the router can run at a higher bandwidth. If
the network card supports 150, 300 and greater bandwidth settings, the highest common one is
300Mbps.

Assuming the router is setup to use wireless channel 6, and the router & network card have
negotiated to use 40MHz. This means that channel 6 can handle a bandwidth of 150Mbps, but that
it requires an extra channel to use, if the amount of data flowing across your network card exceeds
150Mbps. That extra channel it can then use is channel 10. This allows up to a total of 300Mbps
when using both channels.

Depending how technical you are, why am I one moment talking Mbps and then in frequencies
MHz? Each channel on an 802.11n uses a 20MHz frequency band. Some D-Link routers show the
setting as "Channel Width" and give it in Mbps.

Apple
This all sounds great, unless you use any Apple devices, as they don't particularly like the
20MHz/40MHz 802.11n bandwidth. This can cause these devices not to be able to find the wi-Fi
network in question. To check this log into the router & follow as per the particular router.

Note: if you want to use the increased bandwidth this option offers, then if at all possible lock the
router down to 802.11n mode only. If set to allow connections on "b, g or n" and a device running
802.11g connects to the router for eaxample, all devices then have to run at 802.11g and this facility
is no longer available.

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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.

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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 based on what is required, if it
uses one channel this is the equivalent of 20MHz & two channels uses 40MHz. Some D-Link
routers do not have the "Up to 270MHz" option and so the best that can be acheived here is "Up to
135MBps", which is 1 channel with a frequency width of 20MHz anyway.

On the 3780 the bandwith option is in the "WLAN Performance" section, which is off "Advanced
Wireless" down the left hand side:-

Here the bandwidth option is called "Channel Width":-

More details on this setting:-

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405996,00.asp

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Guard Interval
The guard interval is the space between symbols (characters) being transmitted. This is often
confused with the space between packets, which is the inter-frame space (IFS). The guard interval
is there to eliminate inter-symbol interference, which is referred to as ISI. ISI happens when echos
(reflections) from one symbol interfere with another. Adding time between symbol transmissions
allows these echos to settle out before the next symbol is transmitted. In normal 802.11 operation,
the guard interval is 800 ns.
With 802.11n, shorter guard intervals are possible. The short guard interval time is 400ns, or half
of what it used to be. Shorter wait time (guard interval) between symbols increases throughput.
However, if it's too short, the amount of ISI will increase, and throughput will decrease. On the
other hand, if the guard interval is too long, there is increased overhead due to the additional idle
time. Using Short Guard Interval increases the data rate by roughly 10-11%.

On Huawei routers, look in Basic > WLAN, however, unless firmware updates have made it
configurable, it is not an available option in the D-Link routers.

This parameter is included in this document, because some devices may not like a short guard
interval & therefore may not be able to connect to this network.

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HG635 SSIDs not visible


There can be a problem under certain configurations, where a dedicated channel number on the
2.4GHz band and Auto on the 5GHZ, causes the 2.4GHz to SSID to “disappear” (particularly with
Apple devices & Nexus phones, but it can even happen on a PC).

If this is the case, go to:-

Home Network > Wireless Settings

In the "Advanced Settings" section, set the “802.11n bandwidth” to 20MHz and the “802.11n guard
interval” to “Short” in the 2.4GHz band. You may also need to set the 802.11n/ac guard interval to
“Short” in the 5GHz band as well.

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Router firmware recently upgraded

If your router has recently had it's firmware upgraded to a different version, it can behave
unexpectedly like this, until a factory reset has been performed on the router.

Waning: this will cause all configuration data that you have put into the router yourself, to be lost.

I have produced a guide on how to perform a factory default on the TalkTalk routers & get back on
line. Please let me know if you want a copy & I'll attach it to your thread.

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Windows XP & WPA2 Personal encryption


With 802.11n all consumer routers should be running the security mode "WPA2 Personel" with
AES encryption. 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".

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Windows Vista & Local Only connections


This tends to be caused by Windows Vista not liking the network adapter being configured for IP
V6.

See this search through YouTube where these videos show how to resolve the issue.

No IP Address allocated by DHCP


Once connected to a wireless network, your device needs an IP address, before it can communicate
with the router or internet. In fact it actually needs four things, all of which are normally allocated
by the DHCP server in the router. The required information below gives some example addresses
etc & may vary on your network:-

1. IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.25)


2. Subnet mask (e.g. 255.255.255.0)
3. Default gateway (e.g. 192.168.1.1 – the same IP address as the router)
4. DNS server(s) (e.g. 192.168.1.1 – the same IP address as the router)

So if connected, but can't access the router or internet, were you allocated these correctly?

This can normally be checked quite easily, but varies with the type of device you are trying to
connect with. Some of the possible devices are shown in this document.

• Windows PC or Laptop
• Windows Phone
• Apple MacBook, iPhone or iPad
• Android phones

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Windows PC & Laptop
Go to:-
Start > All Programs > Accesories > Command Prompt

issue the command:-

ipconfig /all

In this example the PC is connected by wireless and the ethernet cable is diconnected. If you are
trying to connect via an ethernet cable, you will see what IP address etc you have been allocated,
only if the "Media State" shows as "Connected". The addresses & subnet mask required are
highlighted in yellow below:-
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : My-PC


Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection: <--Wireless settings section

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :


Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TP-LINK Wireless N Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-27-19-B2-56-D1
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::982b:aaf4:7d39:7402%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.65
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday 31 October 2014 08:28:50
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday 01 November 2014 08:28:50
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 301999897
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-19-CC-67-08-00-30-67-12-69-E8

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1


192.168.1.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: <--Ethernet cable (wired) settings section

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected <--If cable used & shows


Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home disconnected check connection
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-30-67-B7-55-B8
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

IP address starts with 169.x.x.x


Windows uses this address whenever the DHCP IP address allocation procedure fails. If this is the
address allocated to your Windows PC/Laptop, go back to the Command Prompt & enter this
command. In most cases this will get you a valid IP address:-

ipconfig /renew

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Windows Phone
To find the IP address information allocated on a Windows 8.1 phone, touch "Settings" then
"Wi-Fi". Find your network you are connected to from the list & touch it. The DHCP allocated
information will be seen further down the resulting page.

iPhone, iPad & MacBook

On the iPad etc, tap on the “Settings” icon:-

Then tap on “General” and “Wi-Fi” and look for the network name you are connected to.
Next tap the blue arrow next to it. This will display the wireless TCP/IP configuration settings.
Click on the “DHCP” tab below:-

To renew the IP address, click the "Renew Lease" button above.

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Android Phones

Note: with all vesrions of android, they will only show the phone's IP address, not the subnet mask,
default gateway, or DNS servers.
To display everything you would need an Android app such as:-
"IPCONFIG -Get MAC IP ADDRESS"
This app was just selected from Play Store but was not tested.

Android 2.x
Open Settings
Touch Wireless & Networks”. Then press the Menu key & choose “Advanced”. Look at the IP
Settings section.

Android 3.x
Open Settings
Touch Wireless & networks on the left
Touch Wi-Fi settings
Then press the Menu key & choose “Advanced”. Look at the IP Settings section.

Android 4.0
Open Settings
Under the Wireless & networks heading on the left, Touch Wi-Fi
Then press the Menu key & choose “Advanced”. Look at the IP Settings section.

Android 4.1 & later


Tap Settings > “Wi-Fi”
Then press the Menu key & choose “Advanced”. Look at the IP Settings section.

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Apple's recommended Wi-Fi settings

See:-

https://support.apple.com/en-is/HT202068

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