Wireless network takes too much time to connect

Are you using windows networking to manage the wireless connection or a thirdparty piece of software supplied with your device driver?

Could you look through your computer event log for any errors or warnings which appear when attempting to connect?

Try connecting another computer via Cat5 to the wireless access point and watching the device logs whilst trying to connect via wireless to see if any errors are occurring and post them here.

Are you using a static IP address or DHCP from the access point?

Tough questions for a newbie like myself, but here goes:

I didn't know that I was using any software to actually manage my wireless network. I definetly didn't buy a third party program. I just followed the dlink installation instructions to get my network running so I guess I'm using whatever my laptop came with to manage the wireless network.

When I try to manually connect when I start up my computer, I just get a simple error message letting me know that I couldn't connect to (insert my wirless network name here). I doesn't say why. I do get an option to try and diagnose the problem, but even when I do that it only tells me it can't connect and to try again later...nothing more.  After a while it will just automatically connect...I can't get it to connect manually before it's "ready" to on it's own...lol.

I could connect another laptop to the wireless router, but how would I then find the device logs to list here for your review?

I don't have a static IP Address. This is just a simple home internet connection so my IP address is always changing (I think anyway).


Thanks.

Okay, so you're more than likely using third party software for managing your wireless. This can often be the cause of delays.

Do you know what sort of security you're using? WEP or WPA/WPA-PSK?

Consult your access point's manual to get to the admin page and login to find your security settings if you don't know.

Regarding those errors, try checking your event log (Control Panel -> Admin. Tools -> Event Viewer) for any related entries.

Why do you think I'm using a third party program? Wouldn't that mean I purchase a seperate program (if that's the case I did not).

Got to my dlink account page:

Connection type is DHCP
Security type is WPA-Personal

Went into control panel > Admin tools > Event Viewer:
Where do I go from here to find the logs that might help you? I wasn't able to find any wireless networking related logs.

Just about every wireless driver installs a third party application which supersedes Windows Wireless Networking these days.

Application or System is usually your two ports of call for finding errors.

Oh' ok. So would you suggest I turn that program off and use Windows to manage my network? If so how would I do that?


I find a bunch of things listed under system in the event logs, but can't find anything to do with the wireless network.

Usually somewhere in the custom software will be an option "Let windows manage my wireless settings".

Do you know your WPA password (known as a pre-shared key)? If not, you may need to reset that in your access point configuration.

Also if you can, login to your access point and look thru it as much as possible and record all settings and let us know.

There a few different tabs with settings. Which setting should I list here for your review?