Windows 7 Wireless Adapter Configuration

Windows 7 Wireless Adapter Configuration

ou can take a look on this Windows 7 wireless adapter configurationarticle after you have set up your wireless router, so that you can connect Windows 7 computer to wireless network and access Internet websites. It’s pretty similar to how you configure wireless adapter in Windows Vista and the process is not difficult.

Without wasting more time, let us start!

Wireless Adapter Driver Status and TCP/IP Setting

First you need to install the Windows 7 wireless adapter driver correctly and so it will operate well, if not you will face problem to connect to wireless network later. You can always check and download the latest driver from manufacturer website and install it if you have lost the installation CD, but sometimes it will be installed automatically by Windows 7. Take a look on how to check wireless adapter driver status article and ensure it works well.

Checking Network or Wireless Adapter Driver Status in Windows 7

Hello! You are advised to check network or wireless adapter driver status in Windows 7 after installing the driver in order to make sure it works well before trying to connect to wired or wireless network. I used to see users facing network connectivity problem due to incorrect or problematic driver problem, so don’t neglect this simple checking.

This is the way to check network or wireless adapter driver status:

1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.

2) Control Panel window will appear, click Hardware and Sound.

Note: If you view Control Panel by Large Icons or Small Icons, you can just double click the Device Manager.

3) Click on Device Manager in Hardware and Sound window.

4) The Device Manager will appear, then locate and expand Network adapters and right click the network or wireless adapter you want to check, finally click on Properties.

5) The network or wireless adapter properties window will appear, your driver works well if it shows This device is working properly under General tab. You can also manually configure network adapter’s driver parameters under Advanced tab.

Note: If your device does not work well, click on Driver tab to check driver details, update driver, rollback driver, disable driver or uninstall driver.

After that, you need to configure the TCP/IP setting on the wireless adapter with IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS manually or obtain those network settings from DHCP server. Take a look onconfiguring IP address and other network information here if you are not too sure how to do it.

Quick Way to Configure IP Address and Other Network Information in Windows 7

et me show you how to configure IP address and other network information in Windows 7 here. As you know IP address must be configured on computer in order to communicate with other computers, because this IP address is the standard address understood by computers and other networking devices in networking world.

You can configure IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS servers manually on computer, but you can also configure computer to obtain IP address and other network information from DHCP server (most of the time is configured on router).

Without wasting any more time, let me show you quick way to do it:

1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.

2) Proceed to click View network status and tasks in Control Panel window.

3) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, then click change adapter settings.

4) Network Connections window will appears. Here you can right click on the network adapter (can be wireless adapter or wired Ethernet adapter) that you wish to configure and click Properties.

5) In the Network Connection Properties window, tick on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.

Note: If your computer sits in IPv6 network, you can select Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) to configure IPv6 address, but it’s not covered here.

Manual IP Assigning

If you wanna do manual configuration, you can now key in the IP address, Subnet mask, Default gateway and DNS servers.

Note: IP address of your computer must be unique. None of the 2 computers in the same network can share same IP address, because it will cause IP address conflict.

Note: Default gateway is a router that can route the traffic to the other network or Internet. DNS server is an application server that can translate URL to IP address. Check with your ISP on what DNS servers you should use. If not, you can try this free Opendns or Google DNS servers.

IP Assigned by DHCP server

If you have DHCP server setup on your router or you have dedicated DHCP server, your computer can be assigned IP address and other network information automatically by selecting Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.

Note: If you have a notebook, and you use static IP at home and the IP assigned by DHCP server at the office, you can make use of alternate configuration to set IP and network information for these 2 different networks.

Set Obtain an IP address and DNS automatically on General tab as according to what I specified above, so that the notebook will be assigned IP addresses automatically at the office. After that, click Alternate Configuration tab, select User configured option and key in your home network’s static IP and other network information. By setting this, when there is no IP information assigned due to no DHCP server at home, this alternate configuration will be applied automatically, so that you don’t have to spend time on configuring IP manually every time at home.

Note: If you have enabled DHCP setting on the wireless router, then you should select Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically on your wireless adapter’s TCP/IP setting.

Note: If you are using laptop with built-in wireless adapter, make sure you have activated the wireless adapter by turning on the wireless button, press Alt+F2 or other keys on the laptop. Read the laptop manual to know more.

WLAN AutoConfig Service in Windows 7

Now you need to decide which wireless utility to use to detect wireless network and manage wireless network profile. You can use the wireless utility which is provided by wireless adapter manufacturer or the WLAN AutoConfig service in Windows 7. I prefer to use WLAN AutoConfig service in Windows 7 as it’s pretty simple to use.

If you prefer this WLAN AutoConfig service too, you need to set this service to start automatically whenever you boot up the computer. You can learn this easy way to start WLAN AutoConfig service here!

Starting WLAN AutoConfig Service in Windows 7

WLAN AutoConfig service is built-in tool in Windows 7 that can be used to detect and connect to wireless network, of course you need to have wireless adapter installed on computer. This built-in wireless network connection tool is the same as what you use in Windows Vista, and is similar to wireless zero configuration tool in Windows XP.

If you do not activate this service, you need to use the other wireless utility which is provided by wireless adapter manufacturer in order to connect to wireless network. Personally I prefer to use this built-in wireless network connection tool as I don’t have to learn about different wireless utilities for different wireless adapters.

Ok, so let’s start to activate this WLAN autoConfig service in Windows 7:

1) Go to Start and right click Computer. Select and click Manage.

2. Computer Management window will appear. Under Services and Applications, click on Services.

Note: This is the other way to get to this Services window: Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services

3. Scroll down and select WLAN AutoConfig. Check whether it is started…

4. Double-click the service and its properties window will appear. If the startup type is not set to automatic, click on the dropdown arrow and change it toAutomatic and click Start to start the service if it’s not started. Click OK at last.

Note: If you don’t start this service, there is no Manage wireless networks option available for you to detect or manage wireless network in Network and Sharing Center window unless you use other wireless utility.

Computer with this built-in wireless network connection service started:

Computer without this built-in wireless network connection service started:

Connecting to Wireless Network Easily and Automatically

Ok! We are now ready to start Windows 7 wireless networking by connecting to wireless network, you can use network icon in Windows 7 to detect available wireless network, connect to it and then save the wireless network profile.

Check this article on how to connect to wireless network, and then access Internet website. You can also set it to connect automatically next time.

How to Connect to Wireless Network in Windows 7

Let me show you how to connect to wireless network in Windows 7 in this article, it’s pretty straight forward but slightly different from the way you do in Windows Vista.

Before we start, ensure that WLAN AutoConfig Service is started, so that we can use the Windows 7 build-in wireless network connection tool to connect to wireless network. If you are not sure, check out this starting the WLAN autoconfig service article. If you don’t like this method, you can always use wireless utility provided by wireless adapter’s manufacturer to connect to wireless network but it's not covered here.

1) Ok, let's start, just notice the icon that looks like ladder on you right hand corner taskbar, it’s network icon. If it’s attached with a sun, usually means it detects wireless networks.

2) Just click on that network icon, it will show all detected wireless networks with signal strength, the more green bars the stronger wireless signal. The details of detected wireless network (SSID, signal strength, security type, radio type) will be shown if you move over mouse cursor for 1 second on the selected network.

Note: If the detected wireless network is hidden network (SSID broadcast is disabled), it will be shown as Other Network.

Note: If there is orange bubble and exclamation mark on wireless network symbol, that is open or unsecured wireless network without any wireless encryption.

Note: Feel free to press refresh button to re-detect wireless network.

Note: Please note that the detected network list will be appeared too if you click on Connect to a network in Network and sharing Center.

3) Click on the wireless network you wish to connect to, it will be expanded as shown below. Check Connect automatically option if you want this network to be connected automatically next time. Proceed to clickConnect.

4) If the wireless network is secured network with wireless encryption, the following window will appear, you need to key in wireless encryption key, after that click OK.

Note: If the wireless network is unsecured network, your computer will be connected to wireless network immediately.

Note: If the wireless network you try to connect is Other network (hidden network - SSID broadcast is disabled), you are requested to key in SSID info too before connecting to wireless network.

5) Finally, you will see the following white wireless network icon once it’s connected to wireless network. Wow! You can now proceed to access Internet or other computers!

Note:If you right click the connected wireless network and click Properties, you will be able to see the connection setting of this network and you can make further configuration. Have fun! :o)

Please note that you will be prompted to select network location type when you first connects your computer to network, this will automatically set the appropriate firewall and security settings on computer. Check out this network location type article to understand which location type you should choose and also how to change it later if needed.

Creating the Wireless Network Profile Manually

If not, you can also create the wireless network profile manually and then connect to wireless network later. This is useful especially the network that you plan to connect is not available now, but you know the connection settings.

This is the way to create Windows 7 wireless network profile:

1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.

2) Proceed to click View network status and tasks in Control Panel window.

3) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, proceed to click Set up a new connection or network.

4) Set up a connection or network window will appear, select Manually connect to a wireless network and click Next.

5) Here you need to enter the wireless network information (network name/SSID, security type, encryption type, security key) that you wish to connect (it should match the wireless settings on wireless router/access point that you plan to connect to). The supported security types are No authentication (Open), WEP, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Personal, WPA2-Enterprise, WPA-Enterprise and 802.1x. The supported encryption types are TKIP and AES. Here I key in the wireless network settings of my friend's wireless network, and click Next at last.

Note: Tick on Start this connection automatically option if you want it to connect automatically next time when it’s in connecting range.

Note: Don’t tick on Connect even if the network is not broadcastingoption if possible for better security. The non-broadcasting wireless network will be show as Other Network on detected network list.

6) This final window tells you that your Windows 7 wireless network profile is created and you can change the connection settings by clicking onChange connection settings. Click Close at last. You computer will then connect to this new wireless network when it’s available.