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Wireless Network Interface

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

The Wireless Network Interface connects a computer to the wireless network media over which transmissions are sent and received. A Wireless Network Interface is the combination of the physical components of a wireless network adapter and the logical component of the Wireless Network Connection associated with that adapter. It is the entity to which the wireless connectivity and security settings apply.

Aspects

The following is a list of all aspects that are part of this managed entity:

Name Description

802.11 Wireless Connectivity

802.11 Wireless Connectivity provides the status of the wireless network adapter, as detected by the Windows operating system. 802.11 Wireless Connectivity can detect problems involving the wireless network adapter drivers, and problems involving independent hardware vendor (IHV) service.

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Extensibility

Windows can detect and report if the WLAN Extensibility module fails to start or stops unexpectedly.

The WLAN Extensibility module provides independent hardware vendors (IHVs) with more flexibility to support advanced features of IEEE 802.11 networks, and extend the built-in wireless client for additional wireless services and custom capabilities. For example, IHVs and independent software vendors (ISVs) can use WLAN Extensibility to provide customized configuration dialog boxes and wizards to display custom ISV or IHV wireless features and capabilities that are not provided by default in Windows.

Wireless Network Security and Authentication

Wireless Network Security and Authentication consists of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1X authentication settings, and the security-specific settings for network adapters. The security settings are required to connect a computer to a specific security-enabled wireless network.

Networking