Actiontec MI424-WR router connects to internet with Ethernet but no wifi

[boukraus]

First time poster but I am at my wits end. I have been a Fios customer since July and I have had a decent experience with the occasional glitch from time to time but this has me going nuts! I went away on a business trip for a week and when I left everything worked fine and when I came back and tried to log on I had no internet. Well I thought all I had to do was reset the router and I would be good to go. I checked the one machine I have hard wired to the router via Ethernet cable and what do you know? It can connect to the internet! So none of the laptops are able to connect wirelessly to the internet. I looked in the area where you have to log in using a username of admin and password but I forget what its called. I looked everywhere in there and it says everything checks out OK, signal, WEP Key, connectivity, etc; everything checks out. The laptops get the signal from the router but can't connect, In other words the wireless functions on all my machines can detect the router but when I try to connect to the network it doesn't work. I have one laptop running windows 7 and vista on the other.  I did the troubleshooting from windows on both of them several times and it always points to the router being the problem. On a third laptop that I dusted off that runs Linux I tried to connect wirelessly and it couldn't but it connected via Ethernet right away.

Like I said earlier, I tried powering off the router, unplugging it, resetting it in the back, unplugging everything and nothing works, all I get is that the computers detect the signal but can't connect. Sorry if I seem to be babbling but I wanted to make sure I mentioned everything.  The router is the Actiontec MI424-WR.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[eljefe2]

If you reset the router in the back you cleared any previous configuration settings you entered.  That puts you back to the default encryption, WEP, and the default WEP password shown on the router's label.

Are those the settings you're using in the laptops your trying to connect?

[boukraus]

Good morning eljefe and thank you for replying. Yes thats what I did, those were the settings I was using anyway. The information on the routers label was what I was using to set up the network. In other words its what I had all along. I didn see a real need to change any of it.  So any suggestions?

Thanks again for your time.

[eljefe2]

How are you determining that the laptops in question are getting a signal from your Actiontec?  Are you seeing the correct SSID, and not possibly another nearby wifi network?

As a troubleshooting step, I'd suggest going back in to the router's user interface and (temporarily) turning encryption completely off.  See if your laptop(s) will connect without any encryption.

If your laptop(s) still won't connect without any encryption, I'd suggest giving Verizon tech support a call.  They're pretty reasonable about sending a replacement router.    They will probably walk you through some troubleshooting steps themselves but if none work a replacement Actiontec would confirm or eliminate the possiblty that the router has just failed.

Good luck.

[boukraus]

Hi eljefe and thanks for your response. It was the correct SSID that the laptops werepicking up. I tried what you suggested and turned off the encryption temporarilly and it worked. When I turned it on again it wouldnt work. A real head scratcher for me. Well I took a chance and renamed my network plus used a new key and now everything works again. I guess it just didnt like the default factory information. I will see if my PS3 and Wii are able to connect later, but from the looks of things its good to go. What puzzles me is that this even happened at all.....

Thanks for your time.

[eljefe2]

Good news baukraus.

My next suggestion, if no encryption worked, was going to be to try  re-entering the SSID and password key.  Glad you thought of that already.

As for what caused the issue in the first place, might've been something as simple as an momentary interuption or spike on your a/c line.  Or....who knows?  Hopefully it won't happen again.

--g4

[irbrenda]

I've been following this thread because I had the exact issue two weeks ago.  Verizon reset my ONT and the Actiontec Rev. F and I was able to connect from the desktop via ethernet but none of my wireless laptops (4) were able to.  Saw the router but could not get online.  I am a tech myself and had to call Verizon tech support to see if it was again something on their end.  They couldn't figure out what was wrong.  I tried no encryption and connected.  I then had to re-enter the SSID and the WEP key and for whatever strange reason, everything was working again.  No rhyme or reason to know what went wrong.  I had never changed any original settings either for this to happen upon resetting all.  Go figure.   Glad you got it working too.

[FSC2]

You probably have a mac. Erase your keychain. Enter the password manually.

If you have windows,

Erase the profile of your wi fi configuration.

Create a new profile and enter your ssid and wep key.

That should do it since you said the internet works without encryption.

If you would like to doublecheck what your settings are login to your router.

Check ssid (if it is broadcasted) and your encryption type.

your wep key and ssid are in the back of your router if choose to do a factory reset( red button on the back of the router)

[boukraus]

I got around to connecting my PS3 and printer and all is good to go. Its quirky for me to even need to do that just because I was out for a week. I'm nervous to see what I'll find when I get back from my next trip. I want to thank eljefe for his guidance. I will use this instead of customer service or the useless in home agent in the future.

Thanks!

[eljefe2]

Glad to be of some help boukraus.

I hope your problem was a fluke and won't happen again.  I've been away numerous times and never had to tinker with my Actiontec when I got home. (My router is plugged in to a UPS which does avoid the possiblity of power spikes.)

One suggestion...you might try saving your router's configuration.  If the problem ever happens again you could try restoring the configuration file before going through the trouble of resetting everything independently.

You can save the config file in the router's setup by clicking Advanced > Configuration File> Save Configuration File.  But having said that, if you ever have the same problem I'd suggest you contact Verizon tech support and ask them for a replacement router.  It should do what it did.

Good luck.