Who manages my wireless adapter if not WZC?

Is there a short and sure way of finding out what process owns wireless
adapter? We think that on XP it will either be WZC service or 3rd party
wireless profile application. Can I query wireless device/adapter and find
out?

If someone could please point me to the right direction with this * that
will be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C4E8454F.38585%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is there a short and sure way of finding out what process owns wireless
> adapter? We think that on XP it will either be WZC service or 3rd party
> wireless profile application.

1. Open the "show wireless netrworks" GUI. If it opens and shows the scan
list, it manages the adapter.
If it says "cannot manage this adapter" or WZC isn't running - it obviously
doesn't.

2. Open properties of the adapter, Wireless tab, see if the checkbox "Let
Windows manage this adapter" is checked.

> Can I query wireless device/adapter and find
> out?

You can use the WLAN API to find if WZC manages the adapter.
But it queries WZC, not the adapter.

--PA

Thank you Pavel for your response, but I meant to ask a programmatic way of
doing that, without having any user intervention to this.

I am able to find out whether WZC is managing my adapter, what I need to
find out who does if WZC isnt doing it - that is exactly which other 3rd
party manager, application, process etc is in charge of wireless
connectivity management.

On 06/09/2008 15:17, in article (E-Mail Removed),
"Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:C4E8454F.38585%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Is there a short and sure way of finding out what process owns wireless
>> adapter? We think that on XP it will either be WZC service or 3rd party
>> wireless profile application.
>
> 1. Open the "show wireless netrworks" GUI. If it opens and shows the scan
> list, it manages the adapter.
> If it says "cannot manage this adapter" or WZC isn't running - it obviously
> doesn't.
>
> 2. Open properties of the adapter, Wireless tab, see if the checkbox "Let
> Windows manage this adapter" is checked.
>
>> Can I query wireless device/adapter and find
>> out?
>
> You can use the WLAN API to find if WZC manages the adapter.
> But it queries WZC, not the adapter.
>
> --PA
>
>

Ok then WLAN API (the WinXP subset of it) is your friend.

Docum:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...63(VS.85).aspx

MSDN forums:
http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...=1701&SiteID=1
http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...=1700&SiteID=1

Good luck,
--PA


"Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C4E85203.387F7%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thank you Pavel for your response, but I meant to ask a programmatic way
> of
> doing that, without having any user intervention to this.
>
> I am able to find out whether WZC is managing my adapter, what I need to
> find out who does if WZC isnt doing it - that is exactly which other 3rd
> party manager, application, process etc is in charge of wireless
> connectivity management.
>
> On 06/09/2008 15:17, in article (E-Mail Removed),
> "Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:C4E8454F.38585%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Is there a short and sure way of finding out what process owns wireless
>>> adapter? We think that on XP it will either be WZC service or 3rd party
>>> wireless profile application.
>>
>> 1. Open the "show wireless netrworks" GUI. If it opens and shows the
>> scan
>> list, it manages the adapter.
>> If it says "cannot manage this adapter" or WZC isn't running - it
>> obviously
>> doesn't.
>>
>> 2. Open properties of the adapter, Wireless tab, see if the checkbox "Let
>> Windows manage this adapter" is checked.
>>
>>> Can I query wireless device/adapter and find
>>> out?
>>
>> You can use the WLAN API to find if WZC manages the adapter.
>> But it queries WZC, not the adapter.
>>
>> --PA
>>
>>
>
>

None of that works if WZC service is turned off or sub'ed by a 3rd party
managing provider though.

So those references to APIs are of no help here.

Do you have a code example that does what I need to do by any chance?

On 06/09/2008 15:44, in article (E-Mail Removed),
"Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Ok then WLAN API (the WinXP subset of it) is your friend.
>
> Docum:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...63(VS.85).aspx
>
> MSDN forums:
> http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...=1701&SiteID=1
> http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...=1700&SiteID=1
>
> Good luck,
> --PA
>
>
> "Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:C4E85203.387F7%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Thank you Pavel for your response, but I meant to ask a programmatic way
>> of
>> doing that, without having any user intervention to this.

Then it is even simpler. If WZC is turned off, you already know that it is
not managing the device

Or I'm aftraid I don't understand your goal.

--PA


"Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C4E85A5B.38805%(E-Mail Removed)...
> None of that works if WZC service is turned off or sub'ed by a 3rd party
> managing provider though.
>
> So those references to APIs are of no help here.
>
> Do you have a code example that does what I need to do by any chance?
>
> On 06/09/2008 15:44, in article (E-Mail Removed),
> "Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Ok then WLAN API (the WinXP subset of it) is your friend.
>>
>> Docum:
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...63(VS.85).aspx
>>
>> MSDN forums:
>> http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...=1701&SiteID=1
>> http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...=1700&SiteID=1
>>
>> Good luck,
>> --PA
>>
>>
>> "Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:C4E85203.387F7%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Thank you Pavel for your response, but I meant to ask a programmatic way
>>> of
>>> doing that, without having any user intervention to this.
>

I need to know who is managing wireless connection if not WZC. We can have
3rd party wireless networking (profiles) configuration/managing solutions,
almost any wireless card provider supplies one for their hardware.

What I need to do, is walk in and tell customer - hey, we need to you turn
off/uninstall "such and such" application so that WZC can then be restored
to manage your wireless connection. With that, we auto setup wireless
profiles via WZC APIs and off we go.

Let me know if you have any further questions with this?

On 06/09/2008 17:32, in article #(E-Mail Removed),
"Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Then it is even simpler. If WZC is turned off, you already know that it is
> not managing the device
>
> Or I'm aftraid I don't understand your goal.
>
> --PA
>
>
> "Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:C4E85A5B.38805%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> None of that works if WZC service is turned off or sub'ed by a 3rd party
>> managing provider though.
>>

Well, what can be done:
- ensure that WZC is not disabled and is properly set up.
- check that user has SP3 or needed wi-fi KB patches.
- check that WZC is enabled to manage all wireless adapters (use the API
for this).
- enable WZC logging to see how it works (described in some KB)
- get list of installed apps and list of running apps.

But I don't know easy way to check that a 3rd party app doesn't hijack
adapter from wzc,
or that 3rd party app doesn't call WZC API to drive the connection.

If you are an organisation, can you simply install wi-fi on user machines
and prohibit them
by policy to install their own stuff.

--PA


"Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C4E8749A.3881A%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I need to know who is managing wireless connection if not WZC. We can have
> 3rd party wireless networking (profiles) configuration/managing solutions,
> almost any wireless card provider supplies one for their hardware.
>
> What I need to do, is walk in and tell customer - hey, we need to you turn
> off/uninstall "such and such" application so that WZC can then be restored
> to manage your wireless connection. With that, we auto setup wireless
> profiles via WZC APIs and off we go.
>
> Let me know if you have any further questions with this?
>
> On 06/09/2008 17:32, in article #(E-Mail Removed),
> "Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Then it is even simpler. If WZC is turned off, you already know that it
>> is
>> not managing the device
>>
>> Or I'm aftraid I don't understand your goal.
>>
>> --PA
>>
>>
>> "Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:C4E85A5B.38805%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> None of that works if WZC service is turned off or sub'ed by a 3rd party
>>> managing provider though.
>>>
>
>
>

Hi
WZC runs a process and so are most 3rd party vendor utilities.
Maybe this can Help, http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=5166
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

"Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C4E8454F.38585%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is there a short and sure way of finding out what process owns wireless
> adapter? We think that on XP it will either be WZC service or 3rd party
> wireless profile application. Can I query wireless device/adapter and find
> out?
>
> If someone could please point me to the right direction with this * that
> will be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks!!
>

We are not having any control over customer based OS installations and
applications installed on their machine. We deploy a service on individual
basis.

Nor WZC or wifi lan apis going to work here, since we know that WZC service
is not going to be running, if we have a 3rd party solution managing
wireless connectivity.

A theory goes that when a 3rd party process holds access lock on the
wireless device, we should be able to/(could) know what that process is, and
be able to offer to the user an option to handle that exceptional case.

The only scenario we don't have covered is like this: user chooses to
install our solution, we come in and sniff that WZC is not running - then
who is it running the show? And tell that to the user.

It is often the case that users have no idea what that is either if they got
their computer stocked with preinstalled and preconfigured software.


On 06/09/2008 20:04, in article #(E-Mail Removed),
"Pavel A." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Well, what can be done:
> - ensure that WZC is not disabled and is properly set up.
> - check that user has SP3 or needed wi-fi KB patches.
> - check that WZC is enabled to manage all wireless adapters (use the API
> for this).
> - enable WZC logging to see how it works (described in some KB)
> - get list of installed apps and list of running apps.
>
> But I don't know easy way to check that a 3rd party app doesn't hijack
> adapter from wzc,
> or that 3rd party app doesn't call WZC API to drive the connection.
>
> If you are an organisation, can you simply install wi-fi on user machines
> and prohibit them
> by policy to install their own stuff.
>
> --PA

"Gennady Wexler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C4E8749A.3881A%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I need to know who is managing wireless connection if not WZC. We can have
> 3rd party wireless networking (profiles) configuration/managing solutions,
> almost any wireless card provider supplies one for their hardware.