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CNET How To Basic Wi-Fi troubleshooting tips.
Molly Wood: I am Molly Wood from CNET here with a bunch of ways to troubleshoot a flecky Wi-Fi connection. Now these tips might help you if your wireless connection was working fine but all of a sudden you are having problems or may be you are adding a new computer to the network and its not behaving. Now these tips should apply to Windows XP or Windows Vista and then even thought the menu options might vary a little bit, this should work across most versions of XP and higher.
So let's get started with some basic troubleshooting techniques, if you just started having trouble with your network and you don't know why try unplugging your router for about 30 seconds and then plug it back in, sometimes you just need to restart. Also make sure the date and time are correct on your computers, sometimes if they are off it tweaks the wireless security I don't know why, but it does. Next makes sure your security key is entered properly, one of the kids might have changed it by accident, also check your computer to find out if the drivers on your wireless adapter need to be updated that is a common problem. And then finally check your router to see if it needs a firmware upgrade.
So you've done all that but you are still having problems let's move on to some slightly trickier stuff. First there might be too much traffic on your wireless channel, you can download free software like in SSIDer, inSSIDer NetStumber and then check for wireless networks in your area. The software can show you how many wireless networks there are and then what channels they are using. So if you see a lot of people on channel six, just log in to your router using its assigned IP address you can find this online or sometimes with the router documentation and then you can just change the channel to something less crowded. If you run into problems on other channels just come and keep jumping around.
While you are in there you might able to boost the power settings on your router, now every configuration page looks different but look for a power dropdown menu and then change it from say 4 to 10. If none of that works look around for sources of interference especially if you live in a crowded environment like an apartment building. Cordless phones very common suspect, also baby monitors. If you have some around try turning them off one by one and then connecting to your wireless network if it works fine without say the monitor on, you fond your culprit. You might need to move the router farther away from those sources or if your cordless phones are on the 2.4 GHz band you might have to buy new ones that use 5 GHz or have DECT technology. Hopefully one of these tips can get you back to happy wireless surfing if not check out our advanced Wi-Fi troubleshooting tips or when all those fails turn to Google. For CNET How To I am Molly Wood and good luck to you.
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