Setting Up a Wireless Network
Suppose you want to configure a wireless network on a Windows laptop. It is not as difficult as you might think. Here are the steps that you will follow to successfully configure the wireless network.
The first thing to do is double-click “Wireless Network Setup Wizard” in the Control Panel. which will guide you through the configuration process.
On the Welcome page of the wizard, you will click “Next” to continue.
On the “Create a name for your wireless network” page of the wizard, you can specify a service set identifier (SSID) – or text identifier – for the wireless network you’re creating.
By default, Windows assigns a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption key to secure access to a wireless network. However, you can choose to assign a WEP key manually instead, or to enable Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption.
WPA provides better security, but not all devices are compatible with it. You choose to accept the default option to enable Windows to assign a WEP key to the network automatically, and you assign the network the name “EasyNomad.”
You type EasyNomad in the Network name (SSID) text box, and click Next.
On the “How do you want to set up your network?” page, you can choose to configure the required network settings once and save them to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive for use on other devices. Alternatively, you can choose to configure settings on each computer in the network manually. Using a USB flash drive is easier and more secure.
Accept the default selection of the “Use a USB flash drive” (recommended) radio button, and select “Next”.
You will then need to plug the flash drive into a USB port on the computer and wait for the drive letter to display in the wizard.
Once the flash drive letter displays, you will select “Next” to continue.
The network settings are saved to the flash drive. To transfer these settings, you need to plug the flash drive in the following order:
1. Plug into the wireless access point
2. Plug into each node you want to add to your network
3. Plug back into the computer on which you’re running the Wireless Network Setup Wizard
After you have performed all of these steps in the order indicated, you will select “Next”.The wizard successfully completes and the wireless network is ready to use. By default, the wizard is configured to delete all network settings from the USB flash drive for security reasons.
To exit the wizard and return to the Network Connections window, simply select “Finish”.
Setting up the network is not as difficult as you think. If you would like more information on taking your skills to the next level, you might want to persue a computer certification path.
