Windows XP Networking Tutorial: Wireless Network Configuration Tips Working with WCN in Windows XP SP2 Joseph Moran
Windows XP SP2's Windows Connect Now (WCN) provides a way to avoid some of the repetitive, time-consuming and error-prone tasks involved in configuring a wireless network.
Configuring or reconfiguring a wireless network — or just adding a new device to an existing network — can often be a hassle. In fact, keeping configuration effort to a minimum is one of the main reasons many people choose (unwisely) to do discouraged activities such as using default SSIDs, setting simplistic and easily guessed encryption keys, or altogether skipping the use of security encryption on their WLANs. This is especially true when there are lots of wireless systems that need to be set up, because few people relish the task of typing in long and cumbersome text strings over and over again.
But if you have several systems running Windows XP SP2, there is a way to avoid some of the repetitive, time-consuming and error-prone data entry. Using a built-in technology called Windows Connect Now (WCN), you can automate the wireless configuration process for many PCs and possibly for other types of wireless devices, too.
Save a Step (or Several)
Here's how WCN works in a nutshell — instead of typing your SSID and encryption key individually into multiple systems, you can enter your WLAN configuration information once into a WCN wizard. It's then automatically stored in an XML file and copied to a USB flash memory drive, which you can then use to set up additional wireless systems and devices without having to re-enter the information again for each device on the network.
Like most technologies, WCN isn't without its limitations. It was originally intended to be built into a host of wireless-enabled devices including routers and printers, and when the feature first debuted there were a handful of such devices that supported it. These days, however, relatively few non-PC devices support WCN (there's a list of compatible devices on Microsoft's WCN web site, but most are dead links indicating a product that's been discontinued).
If you have a wireless device with a USB port, check your documentation to see if it's WCN-compatible — one currently available product that supports WCN is D-Link's DNS G-120 storage adapter, as does Microsoft's own Xbox 360 game console.
In spite of the drawbacks, WCN can, at the very least, be a useful and time-saving way to configure wireless settings on multiple PCs running Windows XP SP2 — which represents a significant percentage of what people are still running. (Unfortunately, it doesn't work with previous Windows versions, nor unsurprisingly, with non-Windows systems.)
