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Saturday 23 December 2006

Installing a wireless adapter under Vista RC2

I bought a Netgear WG111T USB2.0 adapter to connect to my Netgear DG834PN router. I thought I would have problems with Vista RC2 but I was surprised how easy it was. I followed the install intructions: installed the drivers first then plugged-in the USB adapter. The drivers installed without any problem. To make things easier, I disabled security on the router and enabled broadcasting of the SSID. I tried starting up the 'NETGEAR WG111T Smart Wizard' but that didn't work: the wizard always closes immediately after launch, so I used the software built into Vista instead. Went into Network and Sharing Center > Manage wireless networks, clicked Add. Then I selected Add a network that is in range of this computer. The wizard displayed my wireless connection with a little icon indicating that it was insecure. I selected the connection then gave a try to Internet Explorer: no problem, Internet worked like a charm. Then I enabled WEP security and disabled the SSID broadcast. Went back to Manage wireless entworks, clicked Add. This time, my wireless connection was displayed as secured this time. I selected it and Vista prompted me for a key. Out of the 4 WEP keys it asked only the first one, which I entered, then it connected successfully. Checked that IE still works OK, no problem.

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