Implementing WPA2-Personal wireless security on a Windows XP

Implementing WPA2-Personal wireless security on a Windows XP SP2-based computer

Install the WPA2 update for Windows XP SP2
Microsoft has released an update for Windows XP SP2 that provides operating system support for WPA2. You may have already installed this update. To see if it is installed, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs.

2. If the Show Updates check box is not selected, select it to turn on this setting.

3. Scroll to Windows XP Hot fix KB893357.

4. If this update doesn't appear in the list, download KB 893357 and install the update to turn on WPA2 functionality.


WPA2-Personal is backwards compatible with the original WPA. Routers and access points may have selectable settings for WPA2-Personal only or a mixed mode, which means that you can run both WPA2- and WPA-capable wireless devices on the same network. Most users need to select a mixed setting if they have computers or devices that are not WPA2-Personal compliant. Computers equipped with WPA2-Personal–capable wireless cards will use the stronger WPA2 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption, while WPA only–capable devices will fall back to WPA.



Note: If you're using an older version of Windows on other computers on your network and use wireless network cards, you need a new or updated third-party supplicant (that is, a special kind of driver application) to provide support for the new standard.