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Without knowing any specifics of the wireless network, what is the first problem/cause that pops into your mind when someone says ? The Wireless network is not working?? I know it is a very vague question, I am just curious as to what people think first.

After stating what your first perceived problem was, what would be the first question you ask to the person with the problem?

The first problem that pops into my mind is a client issue.

The first counter question that pops in my mind is, ?Can anyone else connect to the wireless network???

I am curious to see your responses.

Here are my list of Questions first one same as yours .

1. Can anyone else connect to the Wireless ?
2. Is your WLAN card able to see the SSID ?
3. Since when you started noticing the issue ?
4. By not working do you mean to say not working at all or working intermittently ?
5. Did you check if your WLAN card drivers are updated ?

I think these would be my initial questions .

Great questions Anees. There is so many variables when determining the reason for the outage. In an interview once they asked me a question like this. It was very vague. In a small rectangular area with one AP, some clients have connectivity issues while others did not. What is wrong with the wireless network? I asked if I could ask more questions to help determine the reason for the problems but they would not let me? or did not know how to answer the questions.

2.4 or 5 GHz AP or both?
2.4 or 5 GHz clients or both?
Frequency of the problem?
During the problem can the affected users associate or even see the ssid?
They would not answer any of these. So I just gave them the best answer I could.

Remember, be sure to ask as many questions as possible to determine a problem. Starting with Layer one and work your way through the possibilities.

Sean said:
[quote]In an interview once they asked me a question like this. It was very vague. In a small rectangular area with one AP, some clients have connectivity issues while others did not. What is wrong with the wireless network?[/quote]

Ha! That's a broad question! Maybe they were just wanting to see what answers you would come up with.

Seeing as you just passed the CWDP, I'll quote it for anyone who hasn't read it:
[i]
"Most causes of production wireless problems reside in recently induced configuration issues of some sort"[/i] pg. 54

But I have a feeling they were looking for this:
[i]
"...if a single OFDM rate is set to basic or "mandatory", it will eliminate every 802.11b device from ever associating to the AP[/i]" pg. 30

haha. They did not know exactly what they were asking I do not think.

""...if a single OFDM rate is set to basic or "mandatory", it will eliminate every 802.11b device from ever associating to the AP" pg. 30 "
I do not think this is what they were going for even if they knew what the above meant. They said the clients would work great then all of a sudden some would stop working. I believe they meant without someone abruptly changing the config. I could not even ask if the config had been changed.

I told them, If the Ap is a dual radio AP, the 2.4 GHz clients were possibly being affected by a nearby Microwave and the other clients were fine because they were connected to the 5 GHz radio lol.

They would not even answer if a Microwave was near hahaha.

That's one cryptic interview. If nobody was messing with the config (hackers included) and the clients were previously connected, it certainly sounds like interference or a change in the RF like inventory, access point moved/blocked, etc.

It almost sounds like they were wanting some free consultation under the guise of an interview. :)

Haha could be... or they just wanted to hear my deductive reasoning process.

From interviews I have given and/or been in, I would say it was a combination of both.

Especially if a worker bee was in the presense of their boss.

Since it didn't lead to a job, maybe the boss had been arguing that the oven would have no effect.