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        Importing/Exporting Wireless Profiles in Vista/Server 2008

Section(s): Networking, Network
Published on Apr 07, 2009.
Last Modified on Dec 03, 2008.
Last Modified by Eric Geier.
Rating: Not Rated

Windows Vista and Server 2008 include Netsh Commands specifically for WLANs, which let you import and export wireless network profiles.

In Windows Vista and Server 2008, you can use the Netsh WLAN Commands, from the Command Prompt, to import and export the profiles for wireless networks. This is useful if you want to backup the authentication and encryption settings for quicker restoration after system crashes or overhauls. Moreover, you can quickly import the profile(s) onto new systems you acquire, rather than manually creating the profiles on each machine.

To view the profile names:

netsh wlan show profiles

Syntax to export a profile:

netsh wlan export profile folder="PATH TO FOLDER" name=PROFILENAME

Syntax to import a profile:

netsh wlan add profile filename="PATH TO FOLDER\FILENAME.xml"

About Eric Geier

Eric Geier (Dayton, Ohio) is an entrepreneur and author specializing in computer networking. He’s the founder and CEO of NoWiresSecurity, which provides an outsourced RADIUS/802.1X service to help businesses secure their wireless networks with the Enterprise mode of WPA/WPA2 Encryption.