WSNK, a joint venture between Microsoft and HP, was developed as a way to enable users to quickly and securely configure all of their wireless devices on their network. Armed with a USB flash drive and Windows XP Service Pack 2, users can use the WSNK Wizard to seamlessly create a new secure network or add a WSNK-enabled device – such as a printer, laptop or storage drive - to an existing network.

In our first example, a user already has a wireless network set up and would like to add a new Windows Smart Network Key device such as a printer. This will be the most likely scenario to begin with. Since WSNK-enabled routers and access points are few months off, peripherals such as printers may be the first devices to use the technology.