Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for enabling a subscriber station to start a settings provisioning process in a WiMAX system. The method includes receiving a request from a subscriber station, the request requesting information for enabling the subscriber station to begin a settings provisioning process. A bootstrap document is then fetched, and a response is transmitted to the subscriber station. The response includes the bootstrap document and the bootstrap document includes the information for enabling the subscriber station to begin the settings provisioning process.