Disabling ad hoc wireless networks

All Windows XP users with a wireless-capable machine should follow the below process to disable and remove ad hoc networks from their PC or Laptop.

  1. Open the control panel.
  2. Open network connections.
  3. Right-Click on Wireless Network Connection and select Properties.
  4. Select the Wireless Networks tab.
  5. Under Wireless Networks you will see a list of infrastructure (represented with an antenna icon) and ad hoc (represented by a different icon) networks you have previously connected to.
  6. The red cross indicates the ad hoc network is not currently connected or being advertised. You may also see a green tick here.

To remove ad hoc networks:

  1. Select each ad hoc network and click remove. Do this for every network that does not have an antenna icon. This includes Ad Hoc networks named ANU-Access or ANU Access.

To disable future ad hoc network connections:

  1. Click Advanced.
  2. Select Access-point (Infrastructure) networks only.
  3. Make sure Automatically connect to non-preferred networks is not ticked. Click Close.
  4. Click Ok to save the changes.