Help Wifi Connection

[Sulmin]

I have the Ascend from Metro PCS. When I do a search for my router I can pick up a few but mine is no were to be found. I have even manually punched in the user name and code and it still doesn't appear. Any advise would be great.

Thank you for your time,

Sulmin

 

[dylo22]

Does your router show up when you search for it on a computer? If it doesn't, you may have your SSID disabled on your router.

To enable it you need to log into your router and look for an option for displaying SSID.

What router do you have?

 

[Sulmin]

My rout shows up on other computers but not on the phone. I have a links wireles N router.

 

[BlastGT1]

If a computer is connected to the wireless, then the router will always show up. If SSID Broadcasting is turned off, then you either will see nothing, or at best you may see something that says "Unnamed" or "Unidentified" Network.

As stated, check your router's wireless settings and see if the SSID Broadcasting option is enabled or disabled. Also, if you're absolutely sure you're tying in the correct network name and password and it's still not connecting, you might try power cycling the router. This means unplugging the power cable from the back of the router for about 30 seconds, then plugging it back in and letting it reinitialize. This will drop any active connections, so make sure nobody's going to die if they lose internet for a solid minute. This is the equivalent of rebooting your PC, and sometimes will clear up odd router issues.

Take it from a guy with a network engineering degree and ISP support experience, routers can be oddballs sometimes.

EDIT: One more thing occurred to me. Do you have MAC Filtering enabled by any chance? This would stop you cold from connecting new devices. You also need to check the number of host machines allowed to connect to the router in your network configuration. Normally this defaults to anywhere from 50-253 based in IP address range specified, but it never hurts to look.

 

[Sulmin]

Thank you both very much for your help.

Sulmin

 

[BlastGT1]

You're welcome. Please let us know if you were able to resolve the issue, just in case this thread is helpful for someone else down the line.

 

[Sinner67]

My rout shows up on other computers but not on the phone. I have a links wireles N router.

If your Linksys router is only a "N" class, you probably won't be able to see it with your Ascend. It only supports b and g.
If your router can support b and g, make sure the settings aren't set for N only also.

 

[BlastGT1]

If your Linksys router is only a "N" class, you probably won't be able to see it with your Ascend. It only supports b and g.
If your router can support b and g, make sure the settings aren't set for N only also.

Good point.

 

[Sulmin]

It is a N router.. So there is nothing I can do?

 

[dylo22]

It is a N router.. So there is nothing I can do?

What kind of dlink router (model) is it?

I don't think you problem is because it's a N router. Almost all N routers are backwards compatible with b/g. Your phone should be about to see it.

 

[Sulmin]

My router stays N or G,B so I am sorta screwed since I need the N for distance on my other computers.

 

[BlastGT1]

Your router should have a Mixed mode that will support both. You said the router make is Linksys, right? What is the model? Provide that and I can find the settings info for you.

 

[Sulmin]

I am sorta screwed it is a WRT320N. only dose one or the other. not both at the same time.

 

[BlastGT1]

Ouch. I just did research to confirm that, and yeah, you're screwed. I can't believe they would make one like that, it's ridiculous.

Have you thought about flashing DD-WRT firmware onto that router? I haven't been able to find yet if it would fix that either/or wireless issue, but it might be worth looking into. I have an older Linksys router that never gives me a bit of trouble since the day I flashed DD-WRT onto it.

 

[oshaguar]

I am an above average computer user, but know diddly squat about IP settings, router etc... Since we are on topic and we seem to have two gurus I wanted some help. Anyhow, I have an oldschool Linksys BEFW11S4 it used to work like a charm and no problems. Then about a month ago it started acting weird. I would be able to connect directly, but not via wifi (it would allow you to connect via wifi only once and then not let you the second time, no matter if it was locked or unlocked). I restored to factory settings, but it continued. I just decided to unplug the darn thing and live with 1x an my neighbor's poor signal wifi connection. But would like to get my BEFW11S4 back to life. Any suggestions, settings? Note: I tried upgrading firmware in the past for the router, but nothing happened. Don't know why

 

[dylo22]

Did you start encounter connection issues before or after the firmware upgrade. It difficult to pinpoint. It could be a compatibility issue with the network card on your computer or the configurations are not setup properly.

Here's the basic setup configuration:

Internet Connection Type: Obtain IP automatically
Local IP address: 192.168.1.1
Subnet Mask; 255.255.255.0
DHCP: Enabled

Also make sure you don't have MAC address filtering turned on.

As a side note, you should consider upgrading your router. They aren't that expensive these days and it will probably save you a lot of headache. Just a suggestion.

 

[oshaguar]

Yeah I will get a new one since it was my BDay this month, and I'm sure I can milk someone into buying me one. I was just curious, that's all and I always take the opportunity to learn something new.

 

[BlastGT1]

That model is pretty old, it's probably just breaking down. I checked to see if DD-WRT firmware was available, but it's not.

I mention DD-WRT because it's 3rd party firmware that is more stable than the stock Linksys firmware, and it enables a lot of extra features, one of which is the ability to boost wireless signal strength. I've been running it on my Linksys WRT54GS for a couple of years now, and it's been far more stable than when it was running the stock firmware.

Linksys isn't the only router brand supported, there are many more. I would advise that, while router shopping, you go to:

Router Database | www.dd-wrt.com

Enter the actual model number of any routers you're interested in, and if it's in the database, it will typically show you whether it's supported or not, with a link to the page for the download. They also have instructions on how to flash the firmware. If you have any trouble with finding the model on that page, go to this one:

Supported Devices - DD-WRT Wiki

You can manually look up the make and model there, and each mode;'s specs will tell you what builds you can run. Example, my router can only run the Micro build, because it has very little memory, but other routers can run larger versions. I would also recommend Newegg, they almost always have the best prices on computer stuff, and everyone raves about their customer service. Some of the routers now even say DD-WRT support in their descriptions, which should tell you how prevalent DD-WRT firmware has become.