Command prompt wireless network configuration

Q. I want to setup a wireless network from a command prompt, how can I do this?

A. The netsh command can be used to connect to a wireless network to a machine, for example:

netsh wlan connect name=newNetwork ssid=newNetwork

If you need to also configure a passkey you should import a profile. A profile can easily be created by exporting the profile first from a machine that is already connected, for example:

netsh wlan show profilesnetsh wlan export profile name= folder= key=clear

Note that in the example above the key would be exported in plain text. This is because without this the key is encrypted using a machine specific key that would not be available on other machines. The configuration could then be imported with:

netsh wlan add profile filename= user=