Am I missing something (xp wireless via GPO)??

[james14100]

Hi,

we have 32 new samsung netbooks and a brand new wireless network. they are all set up on our domain however i cannot for the life of me find where to enter all the settings via group policy.

We are running server 2008 and all the samsungs are on xp pro fully updated.

i can set the gpo to see the network but cannot give it the wireless wpa2 key and cannot find anywhere on the net to do it?

What am i missing????

Regards,

James

[powdarrmonkey]

RADIUS-based or a static WPA2 key?

[james14100]

static WPA2

[powdarrmonkey]

You can't distribute a static key with group policy - the Wireless Network Setup Wizard is your friend here, create yourself a USB disk, label and keep handy.

[james14100]

bloody thing! Why not?!?! is it not one of the most simple tasks to ask?? got them all on manually now but still shouldn't have to IMO!

[tonyd]

Why not? The answer is simple really, GPOs are for deploying enterpise settings. Using static WPA keys is not an enterprise solution to wifi security. However GPOs allow you to deploy 802.1x settings and this is the correct solution to wifi security. I do know that Aruba have command line tools you can use to deploy static keys, but I do not expect they are licensed for use on non-Aruba systems.

[powdarrmonkey]

bloody thing! Why not?!?! is it not one of the most simple tasks to ask?? got them all on manually now but still shouldn't have to IMO!

*shrug* I didn't write it...

[AngryTechnician]

Why not? The answer is simple really, GPOs are for deploying enterpise settings

This. If you're using Group Policy then you already have everything you need to use WPA with RADIUS.

[maniac]

I throughly recommend spending a bit of time to get RADIUS authentication working on your wireless system, then you can distribute the settings via GPO, and the network will be more secure as a result, not to mention easier to manage.

Once you have it setup it just works.

Mike.