Way to disable "ad hoc" wireless connection on domain without GPO

[Guest]

We are on a W2K3 corporate network. Everytime we image a new laptop with
XPsp2 and run sysprep, the built-in Windows wireless client setting for
"networks to access" defaults to "any available network".

Our problem is this includes "computer-to-computer" networks. For security
reasons, we do not want users making these ad hoc connections. They should
only be connecting to our AP's.

Is there a script, registry edit, or local security policy setting that will
lock down this setting/grey it out or, at least, set it back to "Access point
(infrastructure) networks only" after sysprep finishes? We do not wish to
use Group Policy or any other wireless interface (e.g. Intel, Dell, etc.).

I've searched high and low for an answer to this with no luck. Any help or
suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Offhand I don't know of a way to do what you want other than to try Group
Policy. Why would you not want to use Group Policy?? It has the advantage of
enforcing the setting where simply setting it to infrastructure only via a
registry edit could allow a user to change it to what they want. You could
try a registry snapshot/comparison program like regshot to see if you can
determine the registry settings that configure the setting you want.

Steve