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How to secure a wireless network: Part 5 of 5 - Connecting using WPA for the first time on XP *broken link fixed*

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* NOTE: I've fixed the broken link to the demo*

This post follows on from How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router, How to secure a wireless network: Part 2 of 5 - How to change the SSID, How to secure a wireless network: Part 3 of 5 - Reconfiguring a Vista client to connect to your WPA secured access point and Connecting using WPA for the first time on XP

The first post includes a detailed description of some key security myths pertaining to wireless security. The first post also goes into detail about why these steps are only appropriate for small networks as found at home - you need to take a different approach with appropriate key management for larger networks.

The premise of this demonstration is that you have configured your wireless router to force clients to authenticate themselves using Wireless Protected Access (WPA) as explained and demonstrated the first part of this series.

Click here to view the demonstration of how to connect to your WPA protected access point for the first time from a Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) client

Here's a transcript of the demonstration:

Right click on the network icon in the systray, click on “View Available Wireless Networks”, select the name of your access point from the list
Note: If either you can’t see the name of your wireless network or the signal strength is poor then “try changing the channel of your access point”.
Note: You’ll see “Security-enabled wireless network (WPA)” listed below the name of your wireless network.
In both the ““Network key” and “Confirm Network Key” fields enter the Pre-Shared Key (PSK) you specified when “configuring Wireless Protected Access (WPA) for your access point”
Click on “Connect”

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