Configure Support for a Wireless Network

Updated: October 4, 2012

Applies To: Windows Server 2012 Essentials, Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials

You can configure the operating system to support a wireless network. The following requirements must be met to enable wireless support on the server:

• The server must have a wired network adapter installed.

• The correct driver for the wireless network adapter must be preinstalled if the network adapter is not supported by the operating system.

• The ability to enable and disable the wireless network adapter must be made available. Methods for doing this might include a physical button on the server or a custom user interface in the Dashboard. The product manual should provide the steps for enabling and disabling the wireless network adapter.

• The ability to select a wireless network and connect to it must be made available. This should be done by adding a custom user interface to the Dashboard. The product manual should provide the steps for selecting and connecting to a wireless network.

• If the ability to support a wireless ad-hoc network is needed, an extended user interface in the Dashboard must be provided. The user interface can be a button or a link that launches the Set up a Wireless Ad-hoc Network Wizard in the control panel in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Additional considerations

The following information should also be considered when configuring support for a wireless network:

• The server must be connected to the network with a wire to run setup.

• A network computer on which a bare-metal restore is performed must be connected to the network with a wire.

• The server must be connected to the network with a wire to perform a bare-metal restore of the server.

• If an ad-hoc network is created on the server, the wireless network adapter is dedicated for the ad-hoc network so the user must always plug the network cable into the server to obtain an Internet connection.

See Also

Creating and Customizing the Image
Additional Customizations
Preparing the Image for Deployment
Testing the Customer Experience