Pre-Association Operation Guidelines

The IHV Extensions DLL must follow these guidelines when performing the pre-association operation.

• When the Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate function is called, the IHV Extensions DLL must do the following:

  • Verify the IHV extensions for the connectivity and security profile. If the profile parameters are invalid, the Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate function returns an appropriate error code as defined in Winerror.h.
  • Create and begin a new thread for the completion of the pre-association operation. Because the pre-association operation must be completed asynchronously from the call to Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate, the IHV Extensions DLL must call Dot11ExtPreAssociateCompletion from this thread after the operation completes.
  • Return ERROR_SUCCESS from the function call. At this point, the operating system is notified that the network profile is valid and the pre-association operation is in progress.

• The IHV Extensions DLL can call the Dot11ExtNicSpecificExtension function to configure the wireless LAN (WLAN) adapter. This function can be called either from within the call to Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate or from the thread that handles the pre-association operation after Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate returns.

• Calls to the Dot11ExtSetProfileCustomUserData, Dot11ExtGetProfileCustomUserData, and Dot11ExtSetCurrentProfile must not be made from within the call to Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate. These functions can only be called after Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate returns ERROR_SUCCESS.

• After the IHV Extensions DLL calls Dot11ExtPreAssociateCompletion to complete the pre-association operation, the handle for the connection session is no longer valid. The operating system passes this handle through the hConnectSession parameter of Dot11ExtIhvPerformPreAssociate. The DLL must not use this handle value when calling any IHV Extensibility functions that declare an hConnectSession parameter.

  For more information about the IHV Extensibility functions, see Native 802.11 IHV Extensibility Functions.

• If the Dot11ExtIhvAdapterReset function is called, the IHV Extensions DLL must cancel the pre-association operation by calling Dot11ExtPreAssociateCompletion. For more information about the reset operation, see 802.11 WLAN Adapter Reset.

• If the Dot11ExtIhvDeinitAdapter function is called, the IHV Extensions DLL must cancel the pre-association operation internally. However, it must not call any of the IHV Extensibility functions that can be called only after adapter initialization, including Dot11ExtPreAssociateCompletion.