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Part III:
Securing Windows Vista
You can configure wireless networking by using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard. This
wizard retrieves the security capabilities of the wireless network adapter and recommends the
strongest security setting that is supported by the wireless network adapter as the default con-
figuration. For example, if a wireless network adapter supports both Wired Equivalent Privacy
(WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the Wireless Network Setup Wizard will configure
settings for WPA by default.
Learning New Ways to Connect to Wireless Networks
Wireless clients can connect to three different types of networks:
■
Secure
Secure wireless networks transmit passwords and data securely. Typically, they
use some form of encryption, and the stronger the encryption, the more protection
offered.
■
Unsecured
Unsecured wireless networks do not transmit passwords or data securely.
While they may require a password to establish a connection, they typically transmit all
data without encryption or protection.
■
Hidden
Hidden wireless networks do not advertise their network names and can be
either secured or unsecured. You can connect to a hidden network only if you know its
network name.
Windows Vista works with hidden and unsecured networks in different ways than earlier ver-
sions of Windows. Because of the many changes, keep the following information in mind:
■
Wireless access points used by hidden wireless networks can be configured to use non-
broadcast Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs). In this configuration, the wireless access
points either do not send Beacon frames, which announce their network names, or they
send Beacon frames with an SSID set to NULL. Although earlier versions of Windows
do not allow you to mark a preferred wireless network as hidden, Windows Vista allows
you to indicate that a preferred wireless network is hidden by configuring it as a non-
broadcast network.
■
Wireless access points used by unsecured networks are at high risk of being compro-
mised. To help improve awareness about unsecured networks, Windows Vista displays
a prompt when you connect to an unsecured wireless network and allows you to con-
firm or cancel the connection attempt.
When connecting to wireless networks, if preferred wireless networks are not found or if con-
nections to detected preferred wireless networks are not successful, the wireless client in ear-
lier versions of Windows prompts you to connect to any detected wireless network. Wireless
clients running earlier versions of Windows cannot be configured to prompt you to connect
only to specific wireless networks or to never prompt you to connect to specific wireless
networks.
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