Working with the New Connection Wizard

To open the New Connection Wizard, click Create a New Connection in the Network Tasks pane of the Network Connections window. When you click this link, a screen welcoming you to the wizard, shown in Figure 3.3, will open.

Figure 3.3. The New Connection Wizard's opening screen shows that it is intended to help you with a variety of tasks related to network connectivity.

Click Next to get started with the wizard. The Network Connection Type pane, shown in Figure 3.4, will open.

Figure 3.4. The Network Connection Type pane of the New Connection Wizard lets you choose the kind of connectivity task you want help with.

As the subtitle of the Network Connection Type pane of the wizard says, this is the point in the Wizard in which you tell it what "you want to do." The choices are

• Connect directly to the Internet (see Chapter 8 for information about connecting directly to the Internet using wireless technology)

• Connect to the Internet at your workplace using a virtual private network (VPN) or dial-up mechanism (see Chapter 17, "Protecting Your Wireless Computer," for information about connecting to a VPN)

• Set up a home or small office network

• Set up an advanced connection. This choice enables you to connect to another computer directly for file sharing or it enables your computer to accept connectins from other computers on the Internet, in effect acting as a VPN server.

If you guessed "door number three," or "Set up a home or small office network," you are probably right. This is the branch of the wizard that is most likely to get you started at your home or small office with connecting your Centrino laptop to a wireless network.

So make sure that Set Up a Home or Small Office Network is selected (it is the third option from the top as shown in Figure 3.4), and click Next. The Completing The New Connection Wizard pane will open. Click Finish. The New Connection Wizard will close, and then the Network Setup Wizard will open.

TIP

If you don't have any wired computers and just want to connect a Centrino laptop to a wireless access point (the access point would itself probably be connected to the Internet via cable or DSL), see Chapter 11, "Networking Without Wires," for help and guidance. This chapter makes the basic assumption that you probably already have some sort of network going.