In concluding our discussion of wireless LAN operations, we will turn our attention to a series of techniques you can use when your wireless LAN clients appear to receive a signal from an access point but are unable to communicate with one another. If you are using the configuration utility program that bundled with most client wireless LAN network adapter cards, you will note a signal strength indicator. That indicator may be in the form of horizontal or vertical bars or a series of bars, or may simply indicated a received signal in terms of its strength. Following steps can be performed if your wireless LAN is not working.

1. Observing the signal: It is important to note that if you observe a high level signal strength, this only means that the client station can "hear" the signals from the access point. By itself, this does not mean that the client and access point are compatibly configured. If the client does not display any received signal indication or has a low level of signal strength, it is possible that the antennae on one or both devices need to be repositioned.

2. Placement of AP (access point) and the client: If you fail to obtain signal continuity, you should check your environment for potential sources of electromagnetic interference. For example, microwave ovens and cordless elephones operate in the 2.4-GHz frequency band. Another potential source of interference are Bluetooth compatible devices, such as PDAs and some cell phones since they also operate in the frequency band used by the 802.11 standard (Standard for wireless)

3. Firmware/software on the client: Make sure that the firmware (pre-written hardware program) on the AP and the firmware/software on the client are up-to-date. Also check the vendor's website for updates to the hardware you are using. These updates will contain bug fixes and can also have new features.

4. Check compatibility: After determining the signals continuity between a wireless LAN client and an access point. now you have to check the compatibility between the two devices. To test the communication between devices, you can Ping the access point from the client. If you receive a response, this means that you have the communication continuity between the client station and the access point. But unfortunately if you do receive the response to the Ping, it is likely to have equipment configurations of client and the access point.

5. WEP enable/disabled setting: Go for checking the WEP enabled/disabled setting on each device as well as composition of the secret key on each device. And now you can again Ping to check the communication.

6. Checking IP address assigned: If you receive a response to Pinging the access point but till cannot connect to a distant computer, then the 'problem is more like with the configuration of the access point's WAN connection. So check for the configuration used for DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, to assign the IP address to the clients automatically). By following the steps described above ,you should be a61e to resolve configuration problems.