wifi setup to be easy
One of my bugbears with windows XP has been how hard it is to setup and a wireless network. In particular it is difficult for the average user to place ample security on their wireless network. Many people have complained about this and it looks like Microsoft has listened – as it is very pleasing to read that they intend to make it very simple and straightforward to configure your wireless setup.
‘A presentation by Intel’s Harsha Hegde and Microsoft’s Scott Manchester at the Developer Forum last week, promised better security in the future for wi-fi networks.
The problems, according to Wintel, are that many protocols define how data is secured but don’t tell you how to configure security properly.
And wireless network security setup is too complicated for plebs, with around 30 per cent of WAP users setting security up.
There’s also a high retail return rate of WAPs, and worse than this, hacks forced to work in a shared area at the Argent Hotel last week, noticed that one Intel WLAN had a shared drive with many folders although none of us peeked inside.
While Intel and MS believe there are many answers to this problem of network security including Windows Connect Now, Intel Smart Wireless Solutions and Broadcom Secure EZ Setup, they don’t interoperate.
Then there’s other wireless groups like Bluetooth, Wireless USB, WiMAX, and DNLA, all of which have different set ups.
So when Microsoft introduces Vista it will team with Intel, Philips, Sony, Atheros and others to provide WPA-Personal for home wireless LANs. To ease the angst of home users, a working group will study how to set up a secure WLAN which makes it easy to add and remove members from the network.’
Source NetStumbler