Wi-Fi Support

Learn about the benefits and unique challenges of wireless networking and how wireless networks extend the mobility of users, improve productivity, simplify network deployments, and reduce costs.

Get the new solution that enables Windows XP to support Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the standards-based wireless network security solution from the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Read how Microsoft can provide safer wireless networking, from passwords to certificate-based authentication, in either a two-page Executive Data Sheet or a four-page Expanded Overview.

Download the Wireless Update Rollup Package that contains all the latest fixes and updates for wireless LAN networking in Windows XP.

Download the WPA Wireless Security Update that enables computers running Windows XP to use WPA, an interim standard that addresses the issues associated with WEP encryption.

Learn about the Microsoft 802.1X Authentication Client, which allows computers running Windows 2000 and Service Pack 3 to use IEEE 802.1X to authenticate wireless connections. Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 includes Microsoft 802.1X Authentication Client.

Additional Microsoft 802.1X Authentication Client packages for Windows 98/Windows Millennium Edition and Windows NT® 4.0 Workstation are available through the Microsoft Premier and Alliance Support organizations to customers with Premier and Alliance support contracts. For details about obtaining the clients, please contact your technical account manager. Microsoft 802.1X Authentication Client packages for Windows 98/Windows Millennium Edition and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation are not available for redistribution.

This article explains the elements of wireless LANs, the processes of connection, authentication, and encryption, and the components of secure wireless LANs that are provided with Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000.

This article describes how to deploy secure IEEE 802.11 wireless access with IEEE 802.1X authentication using wireless access points, wireless client computers running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000, and a wireless authentication infrastructure consisting of Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Active Directory domain controllers, certification authorities, and Internet Authentication Service servers.

Find out about the tools used to troubleshoot a Windows XP wireless client, a wireless access point, and Internet Authentication Service (IAS), and how to troubleshoot the most common problems with IAS authentication and authorization.

Learn how to configure secure wireless access using IEEE 802.1X authentication using Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol-Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol version 2 (PEAP-MS-CHAP v2) and Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS) in a test lab using a wireless access point and four computers.

This chapter of the Deploying Network Services book in the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit contains guidelines and recommended processes for designing and deploying a wireless LAN network.

Get guidance from the Windows Server 2003 Certificate Services Solution for planning, implementation, operations, and testing WLANs, as well as additional resources such as installation scripts, security templates, and monitoring scripts.

Learn how to obtain and install a WLAN Server Certificate from VeriSign, Inc., on IAS RADIUS servers to enable password-based authentication for wireless connections using PEAP-MS-CHAP v2.

Learn about WLAN technologies being deployed today, including WLAN topologies and the challenges associated with deploying a WLAN.

Understand the security issues with 802.11 wireless networks and how Windows XP can be used to make 802.11 wireless networks as secure as the 802.11 technology allows.

Read about the requirements for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) servers, wireless access points, and wireless network adapters and support in Windows 2000 for 802.11 wireless technologies.

Get guidelines for making wireless technology manageable by creating wireless access points that support specific functionality and are configured in several ways.

Learn how to configure computers running Windows XP to create a wireless network for a home or small business.

Understand the history of the deployment of the Microsoft Corporation WLAN, the technologies used to provide wireless access security, and its current configuration and infrastructure. This paper concludes with a list of WLAN deployment best practices.

Learn about the efforts of the IEEE and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to address secure wireless access. This white paper compares PEAP with other standards-based and proprietary schemes and makes a case for using standards-based protocols and describes why PEAP is the best common authentication method for wireless network access.

Learn how to share an Ethernet-based Internet connection with wireless computers using an ad hoc wireless network.

Learn about the new IEEE 802.11g that allows standards-based wireless LAN networking at 54 Mbps.

Discover how to configure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) on your home network using Windows XP (Service Pack 1) and the new WPA Wireless Security Update in Windows XP download from Microsoft.

Learn how to connect a downstairs network to an upstairs network in a home, using the Windows XP Network Bridge and a wireless network adapter.

Find out how to create an ad hoc wireless network, connecting wireless computers together without requiring a wireless access point.

Find out how Windows XP Expert Zone columnist Barb Bowman used Windows XP Professional and 802.11b to connect neighbors in her condominium complex.

Learn how your WLAN might be vulnerable and how to fortify it.

Learn about the evolution of wireless networking technology since 1999 and how easy it is to configure in Windows XP.

See this December 2003 article about Wireless Provisioning Services (WPS), extensions to the Windows XP wireless client that make it easy to connect to wireless Internet service providers.

See this July 2003 article about how to use the new Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11) Policies Group Policy extension in Windows Server 2003 Active Directory domains to automate the configuration of wireless network settings for Windows XP (Service Pack 1 and later) and Windows Server 2003 wireless client computers.

See this March 2003 article about WPA, its security features, and the changes that need to be made to wireless equipment and wireless client software to support WPA.

See this December 2002 article about the new Microsoft 802.1X Authentication Client, a free download that enables computers running Windows 2000 (Service Pack 3 and later) installed to use IEEE 802.1X to authenticate network connections (including wireless).

See this November 2002 article about how Wireless Auto Configuration for Windows XP dynamically connects to wireless networks based on the set of available networks and the set of configured preferred networks.

See this July 2002 article about how PEAP with MS-CHAP v2 uses passwords for secure wireless authentication.

See this April 2002 article about how Windows XP supports IEEE 802.1X authentication for all LAN-based network adapters, including Ethernet and wireless.

See this March 2002 article about the basic components of wireless networking and how Windows XP provides built-in support for IEEE 802.11b.

This Microsoft Press book provides a technical overview of 802.11-based wireless LAN networking and its related authentication technologies for a Windows environment and includes step-by-step instructions about how to deploy password or certificate-based authentication for secure private, public, and home/small business wireless networks.

Get an overview of current and future efforts by Microsoft to support Wi-Fi–based WLAN networking from this PowerPoint presentation delivered by Windows Networking and Communications Corporate Vice President Jawad Khaki at the 802.11 Planet conference in Boston on June 26, 2003.

Refer to the full set of product documentation for wireless networking that is provided with Windows Server 2003.

Refer to Windows XP documentation for an overview of wireless networking as well as information about how to configure wireless connections.

This section of the Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference contains in-depth technical information about 802.11 wireless LAN support in Windows Server 2003.

Get information about the changes that engineers need to make to IEEE 802.11 wireless access points, and that driver developers need to make to NDIS drivers for IEEE 802.11 network adapters to support the wireless additions to Windows XP.

Browse the Windows Platform Development site for information about how to develop device drivers for Windows wireless technologies.

Refer to the Windows Device Development Kit for details about 802.11 WLAN object identifiers (OIDs) that are supported by NDIS 5.1.

Learn about best practices and recommendations for designing IEEE 802.11 network adapters to work with Windows XP and the Windows family of operating systems.

Browse the Wi-Fi Alliance Web Site for information about this group of companies (including Microsoft) that are working together to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products.

Get links to information about IEEE wireless standards, including IEEE 802.11.

Join this newsgroup, a public forum for Windows wireless users to ask questions and share information.

Get links to resources about IAS, the Microsoft implementation of RADIUS that performs centralized connection authentication, authorization, and accounting for many types of network access.

Get links to white papers describing support for security in Windows Server 2003.

Get links to white papers describing support for public key infrastructure (PKI) in Windows Server 2003.