- SmartDeploy: Rethinking software deployment to remote workers in times of a pandemic - Thu, Jul 30 2020
- Outlook attachments now blocked in Office 365 - Tue, Nov 19 2019
- PolicyPak MDM Edition: Group Policy and more for BYOD - Tue, Oct 29 2019
Wireless tab
With new wireless tab in Windows 8 Microsoft continued their Modern user interface integration. Simply left clicking on the wireless tab opens a new connection manager side pane.
Windows 8 wireless tab
This side pane allows for connections to Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Within the same pane, you can turn off all wireless adapters.
Network precedence
One issue many administrators had with Windows 7 and below is the way network precedence was selected between mobile, wireless, and wired networks. With Windows 8, wireless networks (by default) will always be used before cellular network. Windows 8 will even automatically turn off other mobile hardware if you are connected to a wireless network.
Finally, wired networks can be configured to always have a higher precedence than any other network. This ensures that data always uses the fastest, most reliable, and cheapest interface.
Connection time
Microsoft touted the speed at which a Windows 7 device would reconnect to a network, the average taking about 8 seconds. This was certainly a huge deal seeing as some Windows XP clients seemed to take 30 or 40 seconds! Windows 8 took that 8 seconds delay of Windows 7 down to just over a single second.
Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 connection time
Microsoft was able to achieve this great reduction by prestaging connection information with the Wi-Fi adapter. Though this benefit is only available when you are around known networks, it is still a great improvement.
The new network connection manager actively ranks network selections based on your previous actions. For example, if you manually disconnect from a network, Windows 8 will remove that network from your automatic connection list. If you are currently connected to a network and manually switch to a new network, Windows 8 will place the new network above the previous network for automatic connections.
Network device drivers
An issue with Windows 7 was the lack native drivers for cellular devices. This can be a real problem if you have no internet connection and need to download a network device driver. In Windows 8, all broadband devices use the same built-in driver. This allows you to simply plug in a network device without the need to install the vendor's driver.
Data usage
The last nice feature is the data usage app. By selecting “Show estimated data usage” on a connected/previously connected network, you can quickly see data usage metrics.
Windows 8 data usage
In my next post, I will be exploring the enterprise administration improvements of Windows 8 wireless network management.
For a demonstration of the new wireless networking features, you can watch the video below. It also mentions a few more improvements I didn't cover in this article.
Read the latest IT news and community updates!
Join our IT community and read articles without ads!
Do you want to write for 4sysops? We are looking for new authors.