Automatically Connecting to WPA Protected Wireless Network

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In my current house, I have an 10/100 T-Base Ethernet network of 2 computers.
Within the next month, I will be moving to a new house. Because the new
house has 3 floors, I will be instituting a wireless network w/ WPA security
to connect the computer on the 1st floor to the computers on the second
floor, which are connected via Ethernet.

I want the computer on the 1st floor to connect to the wireless network as
soon as windows starts -- BEFORE the users logon. That way, the mapped drives
will connect to the mini-server as the user logges on. Is there any way I can
do this. I know if it was all wired I wouldn't have a problem, but the other
members of the household do not want to go through the trouble of paying to
have wire(s) connected between the first and second floor.

Just to let you know, I am not a novice. I am quite experienced in
networking but have never done anything like this w/ wireless. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Christopher Isherwood.
 
Your problem is that many wireless NICs don't start up until after login.
You might be able to resolve the problem by using the Windows Wireless Zero
Configuration service instead of the wireless NIC's configuration program -
if the card supports WZC. Otherwise you may have to replace the wireless
NIC, configure the PC to auto-log-on, or find another solution.

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Christopher Isherwood said:
In my current house, I have an 10/100 T-Base Ethernet network of 2 computers.
Within the next month, I will be moving to a new house. Because the new
house has 3 floors, I will be instituting a wireless network w/ WPA security
to connect the computer on the 1st floor to the computers on the second
floor, which are connected via Ethernet.

I want the computer on the 1st floor to connect to the wireless network as
soon as windows starts -- BEFORE the users logon. That way, the mapped drives
will connect to the mini-server as the user logges on. Is there any way I can
do this. I know if it was all wired I wouldn't have a problem, but the other
members of the household do not want to go through the trouble of paying to
have wire(s) connected between the first and second floor.

Just to let you know, I am not a novice. I am quite experienced in
networking but have never done anything like this w/ wireless. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Christopher Isherwood.
Click to expand...

I just tested five different wireless network adapters. All of them
connected to the wireless network and obtained an IP address before
the user logged on. All of them successfully connected to a mapped
network drive -- two of them before the user logged on, and the other
three after the user logged on.

However, YMMV, depending on the computer's firewall program, the
wireless network adapter's driver program, and the wireless network
adapter's connection utility.

P.S. Are you related to the famous author? I've read some of his
works on Vedanta.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

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