802.11g Wireless LAN PC Card User Manual Version: 1.
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Federal Communication Commission Interference Statement This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) RF Exposure Requirements SAR compliance has been established in the laptop computer(s) configurations with PCMCIA slot on the side near the center, as tested in the application for Certification, and can be used in laptop computer(s) with substantially similar physical dimensions, construction, and electrical and RF characteristics. Use in other devices such a PDAs or lappads is not authorized.
CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 1 1.1 Features ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Specifications................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Package Contents ..........................................................................................................
1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the 802.11g Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter. This card complies with IEEE 802.11g standard, which supports up to 54Mbps high-speed wireless network connections. It can also work with IEEE 802.11b devices. When the card connects to 11b devices, the link speed will be up to 11Mbps. For WLAN security issues, this card supports 64/128/152-bit WEP data encryption that protects your wireless network from eavesdropping.
• • • • • • • • Data Rate: 54/48/36/24/18/12/11/9/6/5.5/2/1Mbps auto fallback Security: 64/128/152-bit WEP Data Encryption, WPA, AES and IEEE 802.
2 Installation Procedure Before you proceed with the installation, please notice following descriptions. Note1: Please do not install the card into your laptop computer before installing the software program from the CD. Note2: The following installation was operated under Windows XP. Windows 98SE/Me/2000.) (Procedures are similar for Note3: If you have installed the Wireless PC Card driver & utility before, please uninstall the old version first. 1.
4. When the installation is done, install the PC Card into the Cardbus slot of your laptop computer. 5. The system will automatically detect the card as a new device and display “Found New Hardware Wizard” dialog box. Follow the installation wizard to complete the device setup step by step. 6. After completing the installation, a new icon will be displayed in the system tray at the bottom of the screen. Click the icon and start using the WLAN PC Card.
3 Configuration Utility The Configuration Utility is a powerful application that helps you configure the PC card and monitor the link status and the statistics during the communication process. The Wireless LAN Configuration Utility appears as an icon on the system tray of Windows while the card is running. You can open it by clicking on the icon. The icon is appeared as bar diagram with different color and level for representing different connection status.
3.1 Status From the “Status” screen, you can view all the information of the network you are connecting to. To change the configuration parameters of the network, press the “Configuration” button. Parameter Description Profile Display the network the card is connecting to. SSID The SSID (up to 32 printable ASCII characters) is the unique name identified in a WLAN. The ID prevents the unintentional merging of two co-located WLANs. Only the wireless devices with the same SSID can interconnect.
Parameter Description Signal Strength This bar shows the signal strength level. The higher percentage shown in the bar, the more radio signal been received by the card. This indicator helps to find the proper position of the wireless device for quality network operation. Link Quality This bar indicates the quality of the link. The higher the percentage, the better the quality.
3.2 Site Survey By choosing the “Site Survey” option, you can scan all the channels to find all the access points/stations within the accessible range of your card. You can also create your own profiles list to connect to the network you designated quickly. Parameter Description Available Networks This list shows all available wireless networks within range of your computer.
3.1.1 Configure the Profile When you press Add or Edit button, the “Profile Editing” screen will be popped up. In the screen, there are three pages including General, Encryption, and Advanced. General Parameter Description Profile Name Select a recognizable profile name for you to identify the different networks. Network Type Infrastructure – This operation mode requires the presence of an 802.11 Access Point. All communication is done via the Access Point.
Parameter Description Desired Rate There are several options including Automatic/1/2/5.5/11/6/9/12/18/24/36/48/54Mbps for you to select. When the “Automatic” is selected, the device will choose the most suitable transmission rate automatically. The higher data rate you designated in the network, the shorter distance is allowed between the card and the wireless stations. When the network type is in Ad Hoc mode, the maximum data rate is 11Mbps (11b) so that there are only “Automatic/1/2/5.
Parameter Description Authentication This setting has to be consistent with the wireless networks that the card intends to connect. Open System – No authentication is needed among the wireless network. Shared Key – Only wireless stations using a shared key (WEP Key identified) are allowed to connecting each other. Auto Switch – Auto switch the authentication algorithm depending on the wireless networks that the card is connecting to.
Advanced Parameter Description Power Saving Disable – The card will always set in active mode. Enable (Fast) – Enable the card in the power saving mode when it is idle, but some components of the card is still alive. In this mode, the power consumption is larger than “Max“ mode. Enable (Max) – Enable the card in the power saving mode when it is idle. Preamble Type The preamble defines the length of the CRC block for communication among the wireless networks.
1. 2. 3. From here, right click the icon to select “View Available Wireless Networks”. Press “Advanced” button from “Wireless Network Connection”. Press “Configure” button to configure the WPA function for the current network.
Parameter Description Network Authentication Open –No authentication is needed among the wireless network. Shared – Only wireless stations using a shared key (WEP Key identified) are allowed to connecting each other. WPA – This mode is for enterprise with an authentication server (Radius Server), WPA-enabled access point, and a WPA-enabled client. Once WPA is enabled, all clients and access points on the network must be WPA-enabled in order to access the network.
3.3 Statistics This option enables you to view the available statistic information with its Tx counts (Tx success, Tx error), Tx Throughput, and its Rx counts (Rx success, Rx error), Rx Throughput. You may reset the counters by pressing its RESET button.
3.4 About By choosing this option, you can view basic information about the Utility such as the Driver and Utility Version. And you can click the hyperlink to connect the website for the information of the wireless chipset vendor.
4 Troubleshooting This chapter provides solutions to problems usually encountered during the installation and operation of the adapter. 1. What is the IEEE 802.11g standard? 802.11g is the new IEEE standard for high-speed wireless LAN communications that provides for up to 54 Mbps data rate in the 2.4 GHz band. 802.11g is quickly becoming the next mainstream wireless LAN technology for the home, office and public networks. 802.11g defines the use of the same OFDM modulation technique specified in IEEE 802.
6. What is BSS ID？ A specific Ad hoc LAN is called a Basic Service Set (BSS). Computers in a BSS must be configured with the same BSS ID. 7. What is WEP？ WEP is Wired Equivalent Privacy, a data privacy mechanism based on a 40 bit shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802 .11 standard. 8. What is TKIP? TKIP is a quick-fix method to quickly overcome the inherent weaknesses in WEP security, especially the reuse of encryption keys. TKIP is involved in the IEEE 802.
13. What is Spread Spectrum？ Spread Spectrum technology is a wideband radio frequency technique developed by the military for use in reliable, secure, mission-critical communication systems. It is designed to trade off bandwidth efficiency for reliability, integrity, and security.
