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Wireless systems allow you to use internet freely anywhere in you home. This tutorial will tell you how to configure a wireless network in windows vista.

  1. Go to start, then control panel. Select network and internet. Click on network and sharing. Here you will click on the connect to a network link
  2. View ‘available wireless networks’ after you open connect to a network. In the show area select ‘all’ and all the nearby wireless network will be shown to you.
  3. To create your own network, go to ‘set up a connection or network’, select ‘manually connect to a wireless network’ and click next.
  4. On the screen that appears, enter your important settings information. Under ‘network name’ enter the brand name for your wireless internet connection.
  5. Secure your network by selecting WAP2-personal in the security type area. In ‘encryption type’ , select TKIP. In the security key location enter a secure password, make sure its hard to guess so people cant get access to your network.
  6. Check the box that says ‘start this connection automatically’, this will allow you to avoid having to enter the information every time. Click next. Now your network should have appeared in the list of wireless networks available.
  7. You can go to the connect to a network link to use your wireless internet connection. Test a few web sites to see if your connection is up and running.
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by barney789

Dani AI

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Brief follow-up to ’ setup notes and to the XP-versus-Vista problem raised by (and ’s MAC/SSID tip): when one machine (XP) connects but the Vista PC won’t, the cause is usually local to the Vista box rather than the router. The most common culprits are driver/service differences, power-management or TCP/IP misconfiguration, and encryption/compatibility mismatches — check those first before chasing router settings.

Start with the Vista machine: update or reinstall the wireless adapter driver from the laptop or adapter vendor (not just Windows Update), check Device Manager for errors, and disable the adapter power-saving option in Properties so Windows won’t turn it off. Confirm the WLAN AutoConfig service is running and set to automatic. Temporarily disable any third‑party firewall/antivirus to rule out software blocking.

Collect these network checks (run from a Vista command prompt):

ipconfig /all
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
ping <router_IP>
ping 8.8.8.8
nslookup www.google.com

Look for a valid IP/gateway, a DHCP-assigned address (or a conflicting static IP), and whether DNS resolution works. If the gateway pings but websites don’t, it’s usually DNS or firewall-related.

On the router/auth side, avoid TKIP if possible — prefer WPA2 (AES/CCMP) or a WPA/WPA2 mixed mode with AES; older TKIP settings or strict 802.11n-only modes can leave Vista adapters unable to associate even though XP connects. Also check DHCP lease table and router logs for denied associations (this supplements ’s MAC/SSID checks). Finally, review Vista’s Event Viewer for WLAN or driver errors and note the wireless adapter model, driver version and router firmware when digging deeper; those details are the most useful next-step diagnostics.

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Member Avatar for dadrian

What is there to do, when it's still not working, and the only difference between 2 computers is one has XP, the other Vista? Same router, the Xp one works perfectly.

Member Avatar for barney789

What is there to do, when it's still not working, and the only difference between 2 computers is one has XP, the other Vista? Same router, the Xp one works perfectly.

make sure the router has the correct mac address for the vista machine and add it to the mac list. Make sure the vista computer connects to the router when the router is not broadcasting the ssid. there should be a check box for this.

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