How to gather information to troubleshoot a wireless connectivity problem in Windows XP

This article describes how to collect information to troubleshoot a wireless connectivity problem on your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer. This information is required when you contact Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) for help troubleshooting a wireless connectivity problem.

Before you contact Microsoft PSS for wireless connectivity problems, follow these steps to collect the required information:

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. The Windows operating system, the build number, and the latest installed service pack are listed under System on the General tab. Write down this information.
2. Write down the vendor of your wireless network adaptor and the model number.
3. Right-click the wireless network connection in the Network Connections folder, and then click Properties.
4. On the General tab, click Configure, and then click the Driver tab. Write down the following information for the driver:
   • Version
   • Date
   • Provider
5. See the documentation that was supplied with your wireless access point to obtain the following information:
   • Wireless access point vendor
   • Model number of the wireless modem
   • Wireless access point firmware version
6. If you used a wireless configuration tool to configure your wireless settings instead of using Windows XP, write down the tool name and the tool version number.
7. Write down the type of wireless network to which you are trying to connect. For example, you may be connecting to a private network at work, to a home network, or to a public wireless network.
8. Write down the settings that are configured for your wireless connection and for your wireless access point. For example, write down authentication and encryption settings.

The information that you have collected will help the PSS support engineer to identify the cause of the problem.

Sometimes, PSS support engineers must view log files that record the activity of Windows components. To collect the log files, follow these steps:

1. On the Windows XP desktop, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type netsh ras set tra * ena, and then press ENTER. This command enables tracing.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Note the time, and then reproduce your wireless problem. Write down how long it took you to reproduce the problem.
5. Move to the %windir%\Tracing folder. This folder should contain the following files:
   
   Wzctrace.log
   Eapol.log
   Rastls.log
   Wzcdlg.log
   Xmlprovi.log
   Netman.log
   Netshell.log
   
   Have these log files ready to send to PSS for analysis together with the time that it took you to reproduce the problem.
6. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
7. To disable tracing, type netsh ras set tra * dis, and then press ENTER.
8. Restart your computer.

If your problem relates to the user interface, such as to a dialog box, obtain a screen shot of the user interface item. For example, if something looks incorrect in the View Available Networks dialog box, capture a screen shot of the dialog box that you can send to PSS. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the user interface that is incorrect, and then press ALT+PRINT SCREEN. This command copies the active window to the Clipboard.
2. Paste the screen shot into an e-mail message. You can also paste the screen shot into Paint, save the image as a file, and attach the file to an e-mail message.

PSS may also require status information for the Wireless Zero Configuration component or for the Wireless Configuration services. To obtain this status, follow these steps:

1. On the Windows desktop, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type sc query wzcsvc, and then press ENTER.
3. Capture a screen shot of the command output.

For more information about how to troubleshoot wireless network connections in Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: