Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 7: Setting Up a Wireless Windows Network
Follow these general guidelines for installing a PCI adapter card:
1. Insert into the CD-ROM drive the CD that accompanied the adapter.
If necessary, choose Start➪Run (in Windows) or open Windows Explorer
to run the Setup.exe program on the CD.
2. Select the option for installing the PCI card driver software.
At this point, the driver is only copied to the computer’s hard drive. The
driver is added to the operating system in Step 4.
3. If you’re prompted to restart the computer, select No, I Will Restart
My Computer Later, and then click the Next (or Finish) button.
In some cases, Steps 2 and 5 are accomplished in a single softwareinstallation
step. In other cases, you only install the wireless station
software at this point.
During the install process, many Windows-based computers prompt you
to restart the computer by displaying a pop-up box with a question similar
to “New drivers have been installed, do you want to restart for the
changes to take effect?” The normal reaction may be to do what it asks
and click the OK button — but don’t do it! The software installation
needs to be fully completed before the computer can be restarted. You
know that it’s completed because the installation wizard (not a Windows
pop-up) prompts you for your next step. After the software has completed
its installation process, it prompts you in its own software
window to restart your computer, or it informs you that you need to
restart to complete the installation.
4. While the wireless station software is being installed, you may need to
indicate whether you want the PC Card to be set to infrastructure (AP)
mode or to ad hoc (peer-to-peer) mode. Choose infrastructure mode.
You may also need to provide the SSID (network name) and indicate
whether you will use WEP/WPA or WPA2 encryption.
We recommend WPA2 because it’s the most secure encryption for your
wireless network.
5. After the PCI card driver is installed, shut down the computer.
6. Unplug the computer and install the PCI card in an available slot.
7. Plug in the computer and restart it.
Windows recognizes that you have installed new hardware and automatically
searches the hard drive for the driver. When Windows finds the
driver, it enables the driver for the adapter, and you’re finished.
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