Wireless Connectivity Trace Logging
While troubleshooting wireless client connectivity issues, it is quite necessary to look at what each module on the client is logging. By default, these modules are not set to debugging mode (or tracing as MSFT calls it).
To obtain detailed information about how the Wireless Zero Configuration service is connected to a wireless network for computers running Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Server 2003 with SP1, try the wireless connection again and view the wzcdlg.log and wzctrace.log files in this folder:
- "c:\windows\Tracing"
Logging can be enabled through the following command from the command prompt:
- netsh ras set tracing * enabled
After enabling logging, you can either restart the computer or restart the Wireless Zero Configuration (for Windows XP) or Wireless Configuration (for Windows Server 2003) service with the following commands:
- net stop wzcsvc
- net start wzcsvc
The wireless logs are located in the following folder:
- c:\windows\tracing
The following log files are most useful for troubleshooting wireless issues:
- wzctrace.log: Used mostly for 802.11 association. This file is present only on computers running Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1.
- eapol.log: Used mostly for IEEE 802.1X authentication.
- wzcdlg.log: Used for user interface changes, such as changes made through the View Available Networks or Choose a wireless network dialog boxes.
- netman.log: Used for user interface changes.
- netshell.log: Used for user interface changes.