After installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on my laptop today, I was hoping that it would be just as easy to establish the connection as on Windows 7. It is! Quite frankly, I don’t remember if my wireless router is using WPA, WPA2, TKIP, or AES. Doesn’t matter. This is the dialog box Windows Server 2008 R2 presented:
All you have to do is remember your security key and the rest is automagic, the same as it is in Windows 7. In the case of Windows Server 2008 R2, wireless is disabled by default. You’ll need to do these three steps before Windows Server 2008 R2 is ready for you to enter the network security key:
1. Add the Wireless LAN Service feature.
2. Go to Services and set Wired AutoConfig to start automatically. Since the previous step forces a reboot, the reboot will take care of starting the service.
3. Also under Services, set WLAN AutoConfig to start automatically. The reboot will take care of starting it.