Open1X XSupplicant finally comes to Vista/Windows 7

It's gone unsupported far too long, but XSupplicant finally works with wireless* on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I managed to authenticate with WPA-PSK and 802.1X enabled networks, key, and get a DHCP address. Not too shabby.

The trouble with Vista and 7 is that the NDIS stack was rewritten, which meant protocol driver work to be able to properly receive wireless events and ethernet frames. Additionally, Microsoft has done some things that make it extremely difficult to get at the underpinnings required to make keying and other important driver calls.

In short, a lot of stuff changed between XP and Vista/7 that have caused a lot of heartburn for the project.

One more thing of note... those of us that used to work on the project full time for our day jobs no longer do so. The time we put into the project these days is far less than we used to be able to (and far less than we'd like).

Finally, I can't take credit for any of the Vista/7 work (unless you count my heckling Chris while he chased down annoying bugs).

Nightly builds are located here:

http://www.open1x.org/build/nightly/windows

The specific build that I am testing with as of this post is:

http://www.open1x.org/build/nightly/windows/xsupplicant-setup-v2.2.nightly.183.exe

* Known Issues (based on testing with 2.2 nightly build revision 183):

Update your wireless drivers.

• Vista's stock IPW 3945 driver did not work for me. Intel's version 12.4.4.5 works for me.
  

• Windows 7's stock IPW 3945 driver worked for me. YMMV.
  

There are currently interface enumeration issues, so if you have more than one wireless card you may see some strange behavior.

You will need to reboot your system if you do update your wireless drivers. XSupplicant isn't currently catching wireless events properly, so your card might show up but it probably won't work.

Don't be surprised if the service and/or UI crash... a lot. This stuff is extremely beta.

I couldn't get the IPW 3945 working at all on Vista Home Basic on my HP. I'm not sure why, but I'll need to try Home Premium on it and see if it works, since IPW 3945 + Dell D620 works with Home Premium.

My Setup:

Dell Latitude D620

• Windows Vista Home Premium w/SP2
• Windows 7 Home Premium
  
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG

HP/Compaq nc6320

• Windows Vista Home Basic w/SP2
  
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG