Ad hoc network profile not remembered
It appears that with Windows 7, the ad hoc wireless networks no longer support persistence. That is, it appears there's no way to create an ad hoc wireless profile that persists beyond that instance of the connection. This behavior is particularly problematic for those who want to explicitly create an ad hoc network with other devices when they're around. I can understand why a network engineer might have imagined that a person would not want to repeatedly connect to the same ad hoc network, but this is simply not the case. I use an application called WMWifiRouter on my cell phone, which creates an ad hoc connection through which my laptop can connect to the Internet. Beginning with Windows 7, however, I must not only manually reconnect each session, but I must also re-enter the wireless key. This is clumsy and undesirable. Is there a workaround whereby ad hoc connections can be remembered? Is there a way ad hoc connections can be established through the command line (at least that would allow connecting to the network with one click)? I've spent well over 7 minutes just entering wireless keys in Windows 7 due to this limitation. Please tell me you have a solution, and please don't tell me that this design is for my own good and I it is for the best that I recreate the ad hoc connection every time I want to connect.
February 24th, 2010 6:04am

Hi, Regarding this question, I would like to share the following with you: Set up a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network In the document above, we can see: “An ad hoc network is automatically deleted after all users disconnect from the network or when the person who set up the network disconnects and goes out of range of the other users of the network, unless you choose to make it a permanent network when you create it.” To make it a permanent network, when creating an ad-hoc network, please just check “Save this network” in the “Give your network a name and choose security options” window. For more information, please also refer to: Ad hoc networking Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT
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February 25th, 2010 2:58pm

Thanks very much for the answer. I had previously tried your suggestion unsuccessfully (the devices failed to connect), but at your suggestion, I tried it again, at it worked. I was able to disconnect and reconnect to the ad hoc network and it did not prompt for the password. I think there were two factors at play here. After setting up the network, the dialog indicates the connection would remain active until every user disconnects from it. This led me to believe that it would be deleted, even though I chose to save it. The other factor probably had to do with case sensitivity of the name or environmental factors that kept my initial attempt from succeeding. I'm glad this works, and it's a straightforward and clean way to save the network. Thanks very much!
March 1st, 2010 6:49pm

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