So, I tried to get someone's Windows (XP SP2) machine onto my local network tonight via WiFi with much frustration.

It appears to me that Windows simply doesn't support wireless security of any kind. That is to say, it does have "WEP" and some "WPA" but you can't provide an arbitrary length password. Every time I input the password to my network it said it would only accept a password of X characters. I think maybe it was 13.

When you can't set your own password the way you want to set it, I don't count that as security. My WPA2 password is longer than 13 characters, something every brand of router I've tried supports and my Mac has never ever balked at.

Even after disabling the security on my network it took a while for the Windows machine to connect - every Mac I've ever tried takes no more than 2 seconds.

The next problem came trying to connect to my Mac notebook. It didn't seem it was possible unless I completely reconfigured their system, which I didn't have the time nor inclination to do. They of course had Windows configured still with pretty much all default settings (new XP-style start menu, at the bottom, no expandable menus on things like control panels, etc.) All in all, epic fail.

Another friend called the other day because they just set up a new access point - they were able to connect their Mac to it within a minute, but they weren't able to get their Windows notebook working with it. I think I'm going to have to tell them I'm not going to be able to help them. It's definitely because I'm not willing to, but I have to think up some other excuse.

I'd love to see a continuation of those laptop hunter commercials when those people get home and realize they just effectively tossed their money in the garbage.