Wifi Shenanigans (Part Two)

This part is a continuation from part one. This guide will tell you how to setup the clients so that they can get the internet that the host should now be distributing.

Setting up the Clients

Like in part one, get to the connection list by going to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Manage Network Connections.

Control Panel

Network and Internet

Network and Sharing Center

Connections

Double click your wireless connection and you should have a list of all available networks come up.

Wireless Networks in Range

Select the ad hoc network you previously setup on the other computer and click "Connect". It will say it is attempting to connect to the network, and if you setup any kind of security it will ask you here. Put in the correct passphrase and click "Connect".

Connecting to Wireless Network

It should tell you that it connected successfully, and if you think you will ever connect to this network again you can save it, but you probably won't since in most cases it will be a temporary network.

Successfully Connected to Network

At this point you should be ready to go. Open a browser and see if you are connected. Even though there's no DHCP server it should be smart enough to figure out a proper IP address. You can check this by double clicking the connection and clicking "Details...". It should have an IP address in the proper range (but NOT the same as the host's IP) with the same subnet as the host and with the default gateway as the host's IP address. If it doesn't, you can enter these in manually by following the same guide for setting the IP as in part one.

This should work out for you, if it doesn't, check around for solutions online. I did have trouble getting this to work in the Windows 7 Release Candidate, but I've had all kinds of networking problems with it. It does seem as though these were fixed in the final release.

The next article in this series is on DD-WRT and can be found here.