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Finding WLAN issues from the Windows Client Side

What happens when you've done everything from the wifi side of diagnosis a problem dare I say a ghost problem?

What if the situation within your network seems perfect, you can't find anything in packet captures, Prime or off your WLC - What other options do you have? 

Luckily, I found plenty!

One of the handiest tools I like to use when onsite and starting to check clients out is the NETSH command in command line.

Doing a roaming analysis via the client versus on Prime isn't a bad thing some days to give you a real world perspective of when roams happen.  Of course, client debugging in WLCs help too but I figured I'd show you what I do when walking around with a laptop to see the BSSID you are connected to.

I use 

netsh wlan show interface 

Which outputs this:


    Name                   : Wi-Fi
    Description            : Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controller
    GUID                   : 5704986f-1ddc-4478-8365-30e40b272150
    Physical address       : b4:ae:2b:d2:97:72
    State                  : connected
    SSID                   : hhonors
    BSSID                  : 00:3a:99:00:ad:81
    Network type           : Infrastructure
    Radio type             : 802.11g
    Authentication         : Open
    Cipher                 : None
    Connection mode        : Auto Connect
    Channel                : 6
    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 54
    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 54
    Signal                 : 76%
    Profile                : hhonors

I find that this single command for Windows PC is essential to know and don't normally see too many people reference it.  Well, now you've seen it.  I use it in a way that I'm just pressing the up-key continually to see changes to the MCS rates as well as seeing what BSSID the client is using.

So what if you can't replicate the problem?  You can't see any traps or anything in Prime?

I found out that there is a more advanced logging via NETSH

1. Type command prompt at the search box in the taskbar.  Right click command prompt and run as "Administrator > yes"

2. At the command prompt type in netsh wlan show wlanreport

This will generate a beautiful network report that is saved as an HTML file which any browser can open up.  The report shows all the Wi-Fi events from the last three days and groups them by the sessions.  It also shows the results of several network-related command line scripts and lists all the network adapters on your PC.


3. Be Amazed! 

Microsoft has more details on this specific tool here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4000462/windows-10-analyzing-wireless-network-report 

and more details about NETSH here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking/technologies/netsh/netsh

Another NETSH command that is kind of awesome is (Scenarios show you all that you can do with it and no worries about needing to get out Wireshark or an adapter capable of packet captures, you can do all of this natively in Windows already.

>netsh trace show scenarios

Available scenarios (19):
-------------------------------------------------------------------
AddressAcquisition       : Troubleshoot address acquisition-related issues
DirectAccess             : Troubleshoot DirectAccess related issues
FileSharing              : Troubleshoot common file and printer sharing problems
InternetClient           : Diagnose web connectivity issues
InternetServer           : Set of HTTP service counters
L2SEC                    : Troubleshoot layer 2 authentication related issues
LAN                      : Troubleshoot wired LAN related issues
Layer2                   : Troubleshoot layer 2 connectivity related issues
MBN                      : Troubleshoot mobile broadband related issues
NDIS                     : Troubleshoot network adapter related issues
NetConnection            : Troubleshoot issues with network connections
NetworkSnapshot          : Collect the current network state of the system
P2P-Grouping             : Troubleshoot Peer-to-Peer Grouping related issues
P2P-PNRP                 : Troubleshoot Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) related issues
RemoteAssistance         : Troubleshoot Windows Remote Assistance related issues
WCN                      : Troubleshoot Windows Connect Now related issues
WFP-IPsec                : Troubleshoot Windows Filtering Platform and IPsec related issues
WLAN                     : Troubleshoot wireless LAN related issues
XboxMultiplayer          : Troubleshoot Xbox Live Multiplayer connectivity-related issues

I find for WiFi related information netsh trace show scenario WLAN & netsh trace show scenario NetConnection could be useful information. (*Updated per Poros*)

Two other commands in addition to this would be
  • persistent (allows you to resume even if there is a restart and until the netsh trace stop command is used.
  • maxSize (default is 250, set to 0 is no maximum)
Did you also know there is an option to log more WLAN related data in the event viewer?

The picture should show you where but you need to turn the logging on within event view.

It is under Applications and Service Logs > Microsoft > Windows > WLANConn & WLANDLG  Remember you need to turn logging on.



This could also help you troubleshoot many WLAN related issues.

If having to utilize only Windows 7 - There still some hope although we don't have as much data from it as we'd like located here.


I hope this helps provide you a way to get more in depth look at what your Windows clients are doing without having to run a packet capture but still gives you a look at what your WLAN Adapters are doing within Windows.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 7, 2019 at 8:21 AM

    Wow! Great, article. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. porosMarch 1, 2020 at 11:47 AM

    Cool article. Small inaccuracy:

    "I find for WiFi related information netsh trace show WLAN & netsh trace show NetConnection could be useful information."

    The correct commands are **netsh trace show scenario WLAN** and **netsh trace show scenario NetConnection**

    ReplyDelete

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