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Windows Vista’s Plan for Easier WiFi Setup
Friday, May 26th, 2006
The guy who gave the Wi-Fi presentation at WinHEC (Microsoft’s annual Windows Hardware 
Engineering Conference in Seattle) began by telling the vendors at the session that Windows Vista hoped to help them reduce return rates (at retail) of 30 percent for their products. Thirty percent is a catastrophically high figure for Wi-Fi vendors who are engaged in cutthroat competition to begin with–and it says a lot about just how confusing and frustrating network setup can be for us, the users.
In fact, the Wi-Fi setup feature in Vista (called Windows Connect Now-NET, which is actually a new version of the Windows Connect Now feature in Windows XP) is Microsoft’s implementation of the Wi-Fi Simple Config technology being developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance industry group to address the same issue. To work optimally, it requires awareness of the technology by clients and access point/routers. (You can read about it on Microsoft’s Web site.)
So here’s how setup will work in Windows Vista: The OS acts as a registrar that provides network settings to new devices (called enrollees) once they are authenticated–i.e. they must prove they are your devices and not some neighbor’s or intruder’s. (By the way, this general scheme applies to other network devices, not just wireless ones. In particular, officials from the HomePlug Powerline Alliance say upcoming HomePlug AV products will work with Windows Connect Now in Vista.) Today @ PC World - Windows Vista’s Plan for Easier Wi-Fi Setup
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