Recently, my Linksys WRT54G wireless router could not connect to the Internet. The odd thing about this was that just the day before I didn’t have any problems. I have two computers and a Wii connected to the router. Once computer is a desktop that is hard-wired into the WRT54G with a network cable. I was able to connect to the Internet with the desktop without any problems.
The second computer is a laptop, and like the Wii, it is connected to the router through the wireless connection. Neither system was able to connect, which indicated there was a problem with the wireless signal. After some testing I managed to find a solution.
Couldn’t Connect Wirelessly
As mentioned above, the hard-wired desktop was able to connect to the Internet through my Linksys WRT54G wireless router, but the other two systems couldn’t connect. Since the wireless connection didn’t work, I used my desktop to examine the wireless settings in the router.
I checked to make sure my router wasn’t hacked, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed everything was still set properly and the router was secured. Next I checked all the settings, and everything was as it should be.
Then I thought about the fact that there are many wireless networks in my neighbourhood. In fact, at this moment I count at least five wireless networks, and I have great signal strength to some of them.
Thinking about this, I decided to change the wireless channel from 6 to 11. After changing the changing, the laptop and Wii were instantly able to connect to the Internet. It looks like my wireless network had a contention with the previous channel, which isn’t surprising considering that channel 6 is a default, so chances are many of the other wireless networks were using that channel.
Changing the Wireless Channel on the WRT54G
If you are having problems connecting to the Internet with your WRT54G Wireless-G router, then you can try changing the channel to see if that fixes your problem. To change the channel, use the following steps:
- Log into your router’s administrative pages.
- At the top, click the “Wireless” menu item.
- In the “Basic Wireless Settings” page, select a different channel beside “Wireless Channel”.
- Click the “Save Settings” button at the bottom to save your changes.
Other wireless routers would have similar settings. Hopefully, this was the problems and you will get your Internet connection back.