Step 7: Test Connectivity

The new wireless access point should now be on the air. To test this out, go to another wireless client and browse the network for new access points.

On a Microsoft Windows XP Home workstation, you can do that by using these steps:

1.
Click StartMy Network Places.
2.
Select View Network Connections from the left panel.
3.
Find your wireless network card in the device list, and then right-click the icon. Select View Available Wireless Networks from the menu. A list of the wireless networks your client sees appears, as shown in Figure 19-5.
Figure 19-5. Wireless networks list for a Microsoft Windows XP Home workstation.
The new wireless access point (called Pointy in this example) should appear on your list of available networks.
4.
Select the new wireless access point by double-clicking the entry.

The wireless network card should connect to the access point. If your network uses DHCP to assign network addresses, the client receives an address and should be good to go. If your network uses static IP address, you need to assign an appropriate address to the wireless network card on your client.

Congratulations: You now have a working wireless access point for your network. The next step is to go back to the wireless network card configuration ...

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