Connect to a wireless network programmatically

Question

I'm trying to write an application that connects to my company's wireless network automatically on windows XP.

I've found the Wireless LAN API but it requires me to have some hotfix installed on the machine, and you need to have sp2 or higher(There are machines with SP1, and I'm required to support any XP machine).

I've tried to find some samples about Wireless Zero Configuration on MSDN but with no luck, only samples I've found are for WinCE, I think Microsoft stopped supporting it. In addition I couldn't find where to download the dll and header file for working with the WZC.

There must be a way to do it and work on any service pack because I've found Zwlancfg by ENGL

Answer 1

Couldn't you just setup the wireless password and tell XP to auto-join when it sees the network?

Maybe I'm missing something but it happens automatically, so I don't see why you need to code an app to do this.

Answer 2

I would encourage you to advocate for upgrading those XP machines at least to Service Pack 2 as it was a major upgrade in terms of functionality and security. It's also been at least 5 years since it was rolled out so I can't imagine you'd have compatibility issues with 3rd party software.

That being said.

Wireless for XP was seriously reworked with Service Pack 2 and the Wireless Network Policy was created that allows you to push out policy to all machines on your network via the Group Policy MMC.

Answer 3

Point out that any change you'll have to introduce to these old XP machines will be similar in magnitude to the SP2 update, except that (1) you don't have the insight into the network stack that Microsoft has, (2) you don't have the experience in Windows development that Microsoft collectively has and (3) you don't have the testing resources (including beta testers) that Microsoft has. So your change will be more risky and less stable than the SP2 update.

Answer 4

You should try native wifi api but it will work with XP SP2 There is one WLANCONNECT() methos try that one with that you will be able to connect to network with your program