Troubleshoot Wireless Networks
WiFi tends to be temperamental, not to mention annoying and tear-yourhair-
out frustrating. So, what do you do when you can??™t connect to a wireless
network you??™ve just set up?
Your instinct might be to attempt to connect again through the ???Connect to
a network??? window. Or, if you??™re connecting to a network with a hidden
SSID (described in the previous section), you may click the Set up a connection
or network link to attempt to enter all the information about your network
again. Of course, Vista will either let you complete setting up this
network only to have it not work, or complain that a network by that name
already exists. Arrgghhh.
Instead, you should go directly to the little-known Manage Wireless Networks
window (Figure 7-10) via a tiny link by the same name on the left of
the Network and Sharing Center window.
Here, you??™ll see all the wireless networks you??™ve ever saved or set up manually,
whether they??™re in range or not. Double-click a network in the list to
show the Wireless Network Properties window (Figure 7-11). All the options
here are described in ???Sniff Out WiFi Hotspots,??? earlier in this chapter.
Here??™s how to solve some of the more common wireless connection problems:
Build Your Network | 363
Networking and
Internet
Windows cannot connect to xxx. This can be caused by a variety of problems,
but Windows won??™t tell you which one. The most likely cause, at
least when you??™re connecting to an encrypted network, is that you
entered the wrong WPA passphrase or WEP key.
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