Adventures in Apple wireless networks

(or: how to set up Windows XP as a client to an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station running WPA2 in a few easy steps - and no, it's not obvious, at least not to me)

I got an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station today.

My pre-historic Linksys WAP11, which I bought in the mid-90s (for like $250 - unbelievable, I know, but this was before PC laptops came with built-in WiFi adapters), finally gave up the ghost. Hence the need for a new AP. I considered a few different models, including the WAP54G, which is now only $60, but it's not feature-rich, and it doesn't do 802.11a or 802.11n. Linksys' 802.11n WAP costs like $150. I know I should have probably supported Linksys, a division of Cisco, for whom I work, but I've been drinking the Apple Kool-Aid, and it seems I'm quite addicted. Apple makes such beautiful, functional hardware.

Setting the AP up was trivial from my Mac, even over the air. I set it up as a bridge with WPA2 security, and it just worked. I quickly added my iPhone, and it worked too. Things had more signal bars and data flowed more quickly than I ever remembered with the WAP11. It's interesting to note that my 6 Mbps-down-DSL line was actually being hindered by my 11 Mbps half-duplex WiFi.

So after the Apple hardware was quickly configured, I sat down in front of the three Windows laptops that live here: my old Dell, my brother's Dell, and my ThinkPad from work. I first tried to add the wireless network the way I've always done it - manually. But Windows wouldn't connect. So I tried the Airport Utility, but that didn't work either. So I Googled around, and tried a few different things, but nothing worked.

So I tried the automatic way, which I don't think I've ever used before. I opened up the "show wireless networks" dialog and double-clicked on my new SSID. It prompted for the WPA2 key; I pasted it in (dang, it's long!), and up it came. Worked like a charm on the Dells. The ThinkPad was easier, since Cisco uses better WiFi management software - manual config was a breeze there.

So there you have it. I couldn't believe the fairly simple process of connecting Windows XP to a WPA2 Personal network wasn't easily findable, so I figured I'd post it. I hope it helps someone.

PS: the WPA2 keys are almost untypably long - much more so than WEP or WEP2 keys - so I recommend putting it in a text file on a thumb drive, and copy/pasting it. Worked for me.