Another WIFI Issue

[Zwan05]

Blah, ok so i just got a Droid 3 (my first Droid). I am coming from a BB so im not that android literate yet so i ask for your patients. As i got this phone yesterday i have the most current version of Gingerbread. I cant connect to my wireless router for **** (microsoft MN-700). Ive done everything router wise, it wont even connect with no password. When i connect it cannot obtain the IP address. Ive also done the hard reset on my phone and my modem/router. Any thoughts

[xaelith]

Well let's try to narrow down the possibilities of where the problem lies. Two things to try (if you haven't already):

1) Connect another device wirelessly (laptop, a friend's phone, your blackberry if you still have it, etc.) to the modem. If that device connects just fine, then it may be the phone. If not, then it might be the router.

2) try to connect the phone to another wi-fi network. If it connects there, then it may just be that the phone doesn't want to play well with your particular router. If not, then when you can, have verizon check the phone out, and if they can't get it to work, they'll give you a new device.

My first Droid3 had a lot of static on the line when I would send or receive calls except in speakerphone mode. I took it to verizon, and because I was still within the 14 days of when I purchased the phone, they gave me a new one free.

[Fr33dom]

Make sure you are not limiting access by MAC address.

[Zwan05]

So its an issue between the phone n my router. I get wifi at public places. How do I know anout limiting my mac?

[xaelith]

From my understanding, that's a router setting, and usually not set if you have it set to allow all traffic. Even if you had the same model as I have, I wouldn't be able to tell you where to look to change it at this time.

[Fr33dom]

From my understanding, that's a router setting, and usually not set if you have it set to allow all traffic. Even if you had the same model as I have, I wouldn't be able to tell you where to look to change it at this time.

Correct. It normally would have been set that way by the consumer. If you setup your own router and don't know what this is about then I doubt its set that way. It isn't all that easy to do, but some routers do set it to some extent (at least other forums have posts suggesting so). So I would look at your router for something like access restrictions.

I recently read about some issues with Android and 802.11n routers but have been unable to confirm. A quick search for your router indicates some others have issues connecting to it. Either way, we need to ask some questions to go forward.

1. Is your router still supported with updates and if so, when is the last time your router was updated?
2. What encryption standard are you using on the network (WPA, WPA 2, WEP)?
3. Is your router set to multimode or N only?

I'm sure there are more, but I've only had 1 cup of joe so far.

Basic troubleshooting would include:

1. Power cycle both devices.
2. On the Android, remove and re-enter all wifi settings, try a power-down with a battery pull. Perhaps a bit later we'll get to a factory reset, but its probably a bit early for that right now.
3. Temporarily disable the encryption for the network and try to connect. If it still fails, try switching between multimode and N only.
4. Try changing the networks broadcast channel (get wifi analyzer from the network to find a clear channel).

If the router is old and not supported then its time for a new one. They all have bugs and require updates, so running an old one is probably unsafe anyway. I'd recommend one from Buffalo Technology if you have a geek around to help configure it--you could also use their easier to configure ROM, but I don't recommend it.

Lifehacker is running a series on networks and routers called Know Your Network. Its a good place to learn. It starts here: Know Your Network, Lesson 1: Router Hardware 101

[Zwan05]

Well I think its g wireless... how would I know if its supported or not?

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

[Zwan05]

So I got it to connect by adding the mac to my router, but guess what?! It still doesn't work. It wont load any pages on the browser or dolphin. Any new thoughts. I tried changing my security settings no luck.

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[Fr33dom]

Well I think its g wireless... how would I know if its supported or not?

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

Follow the instructions at this link: MSBBN: How to update the firmware and software for your Microsoft Broadband Networking device

[Fr33dom]

So I got it to connect by adding the mac to my router, but guess what?! It still doesn't work. It wont load any pages on the browser or dolphin. Any new thoughts. I tried changing my security settings no luck.

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

This could get ugly fast if you didn't fully understand what you were doing so I hope you did that in Security - MAC Filtering. BTW, I am using an online version of the manual for your router which can be found at: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...tion_guide.pdf.

On that MAC Filtering page near the top under MAC address control is a checkbox and the text next to it says "Enable MAC filtering and" then there is a pick list. Is Allow selected there and is chosen and the checkbox checked?

Presuming the answer to the last questions are yes and yes, Your MAC address for each client should be listed under MAC address table near the bottom of the page.

I suppose since you appear to be connecting that all of that makes sense to you and is set properly. One thing you could do is uncheck the checkbox for testing purposes. But lets look elsewhere first.

Since you're connecting but not able to see web pages, I'd guess that you could have some content filtering set. MS is going to call this client filtering so look for it under security. If your IP address is listed toward the bottom of the page, un-check the checkbox at the beginning of that row. This is actually a disturbing screen because it looks like it would only allow single IP addresses instead of address ranges. So don't worry if nothing is set here. If there are a bunch of settings then I'd guess they've been assigned statically. Let me know and I'll attempt to help there, but it can be real messy.

Another place to check is Parental Controls, also under security. and like the client filtering, it is by IP address so if there are things set here they we have a mess to deal with elsewhere. You can delete your IP address from here if it exists or un-check the checkbox next to it.

So considering those last two, another question comes to mind. Do you have kids that use networked devices in the house?

If neither of those last two screens have anything in them then referring to my last post, did you do the basic troubleshooting?