Saving a customers wifi settings

[Bigj]

Hello everyone!

To get straight to the point I am looking for a solution to backup a customers wifi settings "SSID, password" from a computer that does not boot.

There a plenty of programs out there that will backup the settings if you can get into windows but Im talking about the machine with horribly bad hard drives or just completely trashed OS's.

I get a return phone call from Im gonna say 40% of any re-install of windows that I do because they have no idea what their password of even their previous wifi name is!!! ugg haha

I did run across a program this morning called "wirelesskeyview" and it works perfect but it only supports WEP/WPA and most machine come in set with WPA/WPA2. I would think that there is just a registry key somewhere with this information. Im not interested in "what" their password is just a way to export/import it.

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

You could export the keys ahead of time, if the computer is not running then you could copy the HKLM hive to a usb or something and open it on a running machine.

The Wireless profiles are in (Vista )HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles

I have no idea if the password is stored there or how it's stored but that's where the profiles are in Vista anyhow. There could be lots of profiles it might be tough to figure out which is the one from thier home.

 

[rsarceno]

Back it up to a USB

Windows 7
1) Insert USB drive
2) Bring up wireless network connection status
3) Click Wireless Properties
4) Click "Copy this network profile to a usb flash drive"

Vista
1) Open the "Network and Sharing Center"
2) Select "Manage Wireless Networks"
3) Chose SSID
4) Select the "Connection"
5) Click "Copy this network profile to a USB flash drive."

Use one step to re-connect.

Another method is VBscript. You can google the script.


I backup all my client WIFI and load it on my CommitCRM online. Worst case scenario I download it using my laptop, copy to USB and restore.

 

[citizensmith]

@Bigj "get into windows" - nirsoft wireless key view http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html ca nload from an external windows drive

quote:
Windows XP: The wireless keys are stored in the Registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WZCSVC\Parameters\Interfaces\[Interface Guid].
Windows Vista: The wireless keys are stored in the file system, under c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces\[Interface Guid]. The encrypted keys are stored in .xml file.


EDIT: Just been told that in w7 you can use "netsh wlan export profile key=clear" to backup profiles with key unencrypted so they can be loaded onto another pc / rebuild. Something to do with machine guid / id used as crypto seed ?? Don't know. could be wrong

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

Citizen is right there are wifi profiles saved in the c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces\{GUID} folders. Only saved wifi profiles are placed there, which a home user would have saved and checked start automatically as well (or least I assume). The tool citizen posted might do what you need.

 

[Bigj]

So any idea why WPA2 isnt supported by most applications? Maybe I just over stated how much wpa2 is used and if that is the case then this program will work wonders.

 

[citizensmith]

Nirsofts' feature for external drive may be limited to just XP and in any case doesnt work with 3rd party wifi client manager software. My bad. Dont have any spare w7 machines out here to play with. Apoolgies to all