- Types of Wireless Access
- What's Down the Road
- Wireless Network Adapters
- Connect to an Existing Wireless Network
- Additional Wireless Connection Considerations
- Connect Automatically
- Connect to a Secure Network
- Connect to an "Unseen" Network
- Disable the Existing Network Connection
- Secure the Wireless Connection with 802.1x Authentication
- Secure the Wireless Access Point
- Infrared Communication
- Wrap Up
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Wrap Up
The previous two chapters are really part of a single discussion. Chapter 9 dealt with setting up and connecting to a network; this chapter looked at issues specific to configuring a wireless connection. Thus, almost everything discussed in Chapter 9 applies here, too.
The first part of the chapter presented an overview of how to simply connect to a wireless network from almost anywhere a WLAN is available. Notice, too, that many of these steps have changed dramatically in Windows XP since the release of Service Pack 2. Many of these changes, however, have been designed with ease of connection in mind. As long as most of the defaults mentioned are left alone, I don't anticipate that you'll have any difficulty connecting to a wireless network while sipping your latte.
Wireless networks are not very secure by default, in no small part because of their very nature—you don't have to have physical access to a port to have access to the network. To counteract this, we also looked at how to configure security over wireless connections where data encryption is either required or preferred.
Finally, we looked at the steps necessary to set up an infrared connection. This is still technically a network connection, although very limited in its scope. We identified some instances where an infrared connection might be needed to get data from point A to point B.
In the following chapter, I'll show you some ways to put your network to work. We'll look at how to make resources available over your network, and further, how to lock down those resources so that data you make available is not changed by anyone other than those users you specify.