Collection of Windows XP wireless configuration screenshots from various sources, with commentary

The information on this page is provided "as is", heavily plagiarized from numerous sources. Work in progress. Last updated: 2004-10-04.

Prerequisites

Prior to configuration:

Install Windows XP Service Pack 1.
Your wireless card must be installed and recognized by Windows.
Your wireless router must be broadcasting its SSID.

What's in the System Tray

You should see something like this in the System Tray:

cg110202

Click on this and an exciting new world will open up to you.

If you see the Enabling... screen shown below, wait until the Wireless Network Connection balloon pops up in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Once you see this balloon or a similar balloon in the lower right, go through step 2 one more time.

You should now see a window called Wireless Network Connection Status. To the right of Signal Strength , you should see at least one or two green bars. The more bars you see, the more reliable your connection will be. If you only see one or two bars, you might want to see if you can get a better signal somewhere else. Once you have verified your signal strength, click Close.

Configuration

This section includes:

    Selecting the connection
    Wireless Network Connection Properties
    Wireless Network Properties

Selecting the connection

Open the Network and Dial-up connections folder. Select Start > Settings > Network and Dial-up connections

You will see a list of connections like this:

Wireless Network Connection Properties

Right click on the Wireless Network Connection icon and select Properties.

The General tab should look something like this:

Select Internet Protocol and then click on Properties to set TCP/IP properties.

The Wireless Networks tab looks like this:

Here you can:

Highlight the available network you want to connect to, and either select Configure or double-click to work on the Wireless Network Properties.
Double-click on a preferred network name to work on the properties.
Order or re-order the list of preferred networks
Add a new network to connect to, or Remove an existing one.

Wireless Network Properties

Place checks in the boxes, as indicated below.

Select the Authentication tab and place a check in Enable IEEE 802.1X authentication for this network. Uncheck all other check boxes.

If you click on Properties here you will see something like this:

10.	Uncheck the Validate Server Certificate check box.
11	Under Authentication Method select Secured Password (EAP-MSCHAP v2).
12.	Place a check in the Enable Fast Reconnect.
13.	Click on Configure.

14.	Uncheck the Automatically use my Windows...

Setting TCP/IP Properties (DHCP)

Right-click on the icon for your wireless network connection and select Properties.

You will see a window like the one below:

Select Internet Protocal (TCP/IP) and click the Properties button. If you cannot click the properties button you may not have administrator rights to the computer, log off and log in as a user with administrator rights.

You will see a window like the one below:

Make sure the Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically items are selected. Then click OK on this window and the previous window to close them.

Sources

Sources used include:

http://www.auckland.ac.nz/cir_students/index.cfm?action=display_page&page_title=wireless_network_winxp

http://www.bothell.washington.edu/infosys/knowledgebase/wirelessconfigxp.html

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg1102.mspx

http://j2ee.rpi.edu:8080/helpdesk/update.do?artcenterkey=134

http://www.colorado.edu/its/docs/wireless/WXPsetup.html