Troubleshoot a Wi-Fi® connection on a BlackBerry® PlayBook

• On the status bar, tap the Wi-Fi indicator and verify that the switch is set to On
  
  
• The connection might have timed out. Try connecting again
  
  
• The minimum Wi-Fi password length allowed on the BlackBerry PlayBook is 8 characters. Anything number less then 8 will prevent the connect button from being active
  
  
• The BlackBerry PlayBook™ might be too far away from the wireless access point or wireless router to connect. Move the BlackBerry PlayBook closer and try connecting again
  
  
• Verify that the BlackBerry PlayBook is in a Wi-Fi coverage area. If connecting to a home network, see if other wireless devices are able to connect. If connecting to an enterprise Wi-Fi network or a hotspot, contact the enterprise network administrator or an employee at the hotspot
  
  
• Verify that the time on the BlackBerry PlayBook is synchronised with the network time. If the times are different, it could prevent the BlackBerry PlayBook from connecting (for example, if connecting to the network requires a certificate to be installed on the BlackBerry PlayBook and the certificate has an expiry date)
  
  
• If the Wi-Fi network doesn't appear in the list of available networks, the network might be hidden. If the network name is known, try connecting to it manually
  
  
• Verify that the options for the Wi-Fi network are correct. To find out what options to use, for a home network, refer to the information that came with the home wireless router; for an enterprise Wi-Fi network, contact the enterprise network administrator; for a public hotspot, refer to any information provided for the hotspot or contact an employee at the hotspot who might have details about how to connect
  
  
• If the Wi-Fi network was manually switched and does not work, try manually switching to another Wi-Fi network
  
  
• When using the Push Button Setup method, verify that the access point uses Wi-Fi Protected Setup™, and that it has been set to send its profile. Verify that another device is not also attempting to connect at the same time, and that not more than one access point within range is in this mode. For more information, see the information that came with the wireless router
  
  

• The wireless router may need to be reset. Refer to the user manual for the wireless router. If connecting to an enterprise Wi-Fi network or a hotspot, contact the enterprise network administrator or an employee at the hotspot
  
  

• If using PEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST or EAP-TTLS to connect to a Wi-Fi network, verify that the root certificate has been installed for the certificate authority server that created the certificate for the authentication server. The certificate must be transferred to the BlackBerry PlayBook before it can connect to the network. For more information, contact the network administrator.
  
  
• If using EAP-TLS to connect to a Wi-Fi network, verify that the authentication certificate has been added to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The certificate must be transferred to the BlackBerry PlayBook before it can connect to the network. For more information, contact the network administrator
  
  
• If any kind of MAC filtering/whitelisting is enabled on the Wi-Fi network, ensure that PlayBook MAC address has been added to the whitelist. MAC address can be obtained from: Options -> About -> Network Information
  
  
• If using a hotspot that requires username and password or credit card information to provide Internet access, go toKB26582
  

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If problems occur when connecting the BlackBerry PlayBook to a Wi-Fi network for the first time, there are some details that can be accessed on the BlackBerry PlayBook that will help BlackBerry Technical Support diagnose the issue. Additionally, typical networking tools to troubleshoot most forms of network connectivity issues are also available. These tools and their locations will be expanded upon below.

Accessing the tools
During the initial setup, if there is a problem connecting to a Wi-Fi network, click the Settings icon  in the bottom left of the screen to access the diagnostic tools.

Once in this menu, click the drop-down list on the right half of the screen. A list of diagnostic options is available as shown in the image below:

After initial setup these options can be accessed using the following steps:

1. Click the Settings icon in the top right corner of the home screen.
2. Select Wi-Fi from the navigational menu that appears on the left pane.
3. In the bottom left corner of the right pane select the Wi-Fi signal icon with a question mark on it as show in the image below:

Note: A longer list of tools will be displayed in this drop-down list, after the initial set up as shown in the image below.

All of these tools are explained in more detail below.

Wi-Fi Troubleshooting Tools

Wi-Fi Information - This tool includes detailed information about a Wi-Fi connection such as SSID, Channel etc. If there is a failure related to associating with a Wi-Fi hotspot it will be shown in theFailure Reason section of this tool.

Note: The Failure Reason field is only available if you access this drop down option outside of the initial setup. For issues during the initial setup refer to the Logs tool.

Logs - This tool provides the ability to see any logging related to associating with a Wi-Fi connection. Touching one of the lines will display the entire error message. This information can help a system administrator determine cause of failure when attempting to connect a BlackBerry PlayBook to a corporate network.  It can also help any Wi-Fi service provider determine cause of failure from a home network or a public hotspot.

Network Troubleshooting Tools

Internet Connection - This is not a tool that can be used to perform any action or review, but provides information related to the network connection including the IP address assigned to the BlackBerry PlayBook, subnet, gateway and DNS servers.

Ping - In the initial setup this tool will allow the BlackBerry PlayBook to ping a host or IP address to determine response time. When this tool is accessed from the Settings > Wi-Fi option, additional pre-configured Ping options are displayed such as Ping Type, which provides a drop-down list of options namely IP Address or Name (a specific address or IP), Wi-Fi Gateway, (the network gateway) or Self(the BlackBerry PlayBook IP address).

Traceroute - Enter a destination IP address or domain name address to determine the number of router hops a request would take to reach the destination address.

DNS Lookup - In order to use this tool, type in the Primary or Secondary DNS address in the Serverfield. After doing this, enter any domain name in the 'Host' field and then click Send to confirm that the BlackBerry PlayBook can resolve the domain name to an IP address.