Wireless USB Adaptor MODEL USB‐ADG‐2 LINUX USER GUIDE Version 1.
LIMITED WARRANTY AIR802 guarantees that each USB‐ADG‐2 will be free from physical defects in material and workmanship under normal use for two (2) years from the date of purchase. If the product proves defective during this two‐year warranty period, call AIR802 Technical Support in order to obtain a Return Authorization Number. BE SURE TO HAVE YOUR PROOF OF PURCHASE AND A BARCODE FROM THE PRODUCT’S PACKAGING PRIOR TO CALLING. RETURN REQUESTS CAN NOT BE PROCESSED WITHOUT PROOF OF PURCHASE.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction 1 USB Adaptor Introduction Features System Requirements Package Contents 1 1 1 2 Chapter 2: Network Planning & Architecture 2 Ad‐Hoc versus Infrastructure Mode USB Extension Cables Alternative Antennas Applications 2 3 4 5 Chapter 3: Installation 11 Preparation Requirements Packaging Extraction Build and Install Drivers Configure the Wireless Settings Setup Linux WPA Supplicant ZyDAS Turbo Mode 11 11 12 13 19 23 Appendix A: Glossary 24 Appendix B: Speci
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION USB ADAPTOR INTRODUCTION Thank you for your purchase of the AIR802 USB‐ADG‐2 adaptor. This USB adaptor offers great value whether you are an individual purchasing for use at home or for use in a business of any size. USB adaptors are a simple and easy way to add wireless to a computer. The majority of computers now ship with wireless cards built‐in, but users commonly find weak signals. This weak signal can occur due to several factors.
PACKAGE CONTENTS • USB Adaptor • Antenna (5dBi gain) • CD (Driver/Utility/User’s Manual) CHAPTER 2: NETWORK PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE AD‐HOC VERSUS INFRASTRUCTURE MODE Wireless local area networks (WLAN), as specificed in the IEEE 802.11b/g standards have two different configuration modes: • Ad‐Hoc • Infrastructure Ad‐Hoc is a group of computers equipped with either WLAN cards or wireless USB adapters. The group of computers is called a Basic Service Set (BSS).
USB EXTENSION CABLE There may be circumstances where you may prefer not to plug the USB adapter directly into a USB port. This might include scenarios such as a desktop computer sitting on the floor and the desire to get the adapter up higher ontop of a desk providing less signal obstructions and improved performance. An USB extension cable would facilitate this effort.
ALTERNATIVE ANTENNAS The USB‐ADG‐2 is sold with a 5dBi gain dipole type antena. This antenna radiates radio frequency (RF) in 360 degrees. Users may depending on their application and needs find alternative antennas to be useful. AIR802 manufactures a wide range of antennas which could be used with this adapter. Antennas alone do not determine the distance that you may reach.
APPLICATIONS Residential Network – Computer to Router Connectivity • Residential users commonly do not receive adequate signal coverage througout their home. It is often assumed that replacing the existing router antenna for a model with higher gain will resolve the issue. While in some circumstances this may help, often the problem is that the internal wireless card in the computer produces to weak of a signal to reach the router.
Computer to Public Wi‐Fi Access Point (Hot Spot Connectivity) • Whether in a local coffee shop, airport or hotel lobby, the computer user may frequently encounter a weak signal or connectivity. Your connection can depend upon how well the public hot spot was engineered and installed. However, the connectivity can be greatly improved upon through the use of the USB adapter and its external antenna. An external antenna is the key to successful wireless connectivity.
Municipal Network Connectivity • Municipal or city wide network are becoming commonly available. However, users often have weak or non‐existent signal levels. The connectivity can be greatly enhanced through the use of the USB‐ADG‐2 wireless adapter with external antenna. Whether lounging at the pool or sitting in a local park or in your home, the USB adapter with an external antenna is the key to improved experience.
Remote Building with Single Computer – Network Connectivity to Main Building or Home • Frequently a remote building, whether it be a detached garage from the home or a commercial building separate from the main building may have a single computer that needs connectivity between each other. The USB adapter can easily be the solution. For best results, an external antenna, generally a yagi antenna should be installed on the outside of each building pointed at each other.
Yacht Connectivity in a Marina • If you have a single computer in a yacht and desire to connect to the local marina wi‐fi access point, the USB adapter is an excellent solution. For the best results, users should remove the antenna that comes with the USB adapter and install an AIR802 antenna cable assembly from the USB adapter to an outdoor antenna. • The common solution for yacht owners worldwide has been to install an AIR802 USB adapter to a CA195 cable assembly.
RV User to Campground Access Point Connectivity • Many campgrounds offer inadequate wi‐fi coverage. Often they may be using common residential broadband routers, which are completely inadequate for the application. AIR802 has provided high power and high quality equipment through professional installers to many RV parks and campgrounds. However, a vast majority may have poor quality service offerings. Even under the best installations, users may have insufficient signal.
CHAPTER 3: INSTALLATION AIR802 recognizes that more and more users are installing the Linux operating system. Therefore we are pleased to support those users with our USB-ADG-2 802.11b/g adapter. 3.1 PREPARATION REQUIREMENTS 1. 2. 3. Kernel 2.4.20+ (The driver has been successfully and easily built in Redhat9, Fedora Core2.3 and Debian 3.
3.3 BUILD AND INSTALL THE DRIVER The package contains drivers for AIR802 and AIR802B. Unless you specify, both of them will be installed. Under the extracted directory, there is a Makefile in the directory. Because our driver can support for kernel 2.4 and kernel 2.6, there are two sets of rules in the Makefile. You must modify the Makefile according to the path of “kernel source tree” and the version of the kernel in your system. In the Makefile, you may see the following statements, # if the kernel is 2.
3.5 BUILD THE DEBUGGING TOOL There are two debugging tools in this package, “apdbg” and “menudbg”. Run “make debug” to compile them both. If you don’t have the ncurse library, you may get some error messages while compiling menudbg. You can ignore it and get apdbg only. 3.6 LOAD THE DRIVER Generally, the driver is automatically loaded when the AIR802 dongle is inserted. If not, you may use the modprobe –v AIR802(or AIR802) to load our driver.
mode: Managed (Infrastructure Station mode) Ah-hoc (Ad hoc mode) Master (Access Point mode) channel: Set the channel in the device. Example: iwconfig ethX channel The channel can vary from 1 to 14. One should note that the set channel command will NOT work under the Managed (infrastructure mode). Because in the in this mode, the channel should change to channel of the AP we want to associate. rts[_threshold]: Set the RTS Threshold.
power: Used to manipulate the power management scheme mode. Examples: iwconfig ethX power on # Turn on power saving mode iwconfig ethX power off #Turn off power saving mode 3.9 PRIVATE COMMANDS In addition to commands supporting wireless extension, we have also defined some commands to be able to set parameters to our driver. One can use the “iwpriv” for this purpose. 3.
3.13 SET MAC MODE The AIR802 USB-ADG-2 is an 802.11b/g solution. Therefore, we support the PURE_A, PURE B, PURE G and Mixed mode in our driver. One can use the following command to change the MAC mode in our driver. iwpriv ethX set_mac_mode 1: Mixed Mode 2: Pure G Mode 3: Pure B Mode 4: Pure A Mode 3.14 GET MAC MODE You may get the MAC mode of our driver by the following command: iwpriv ethX get_mac_mode 3.
3.16 DYNAMIC REGIONAL SETTING (For 802.11b/g only) From ver 1.5, you can dynamically change the region settings. With different regions, the allowed channels are different. The private command(s) to get/set region information includes: 1. get_Region : To get the current region setting iwpriv ethX connect | 2. |
3.18 SET UP IP ADDRESS If you use the RedHat distribution Linux, you can edit the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX or edit the /etc/network/interfaces under Debian to set up the IP address on booting process. Or one can use the netconfig command for IP address setting. We provide two types setting in the following examples. One is to assign a fix IP address, netmask, and default gateway. Another is to get IP configuration from a DHCP server. 3.
3.22 WORKING WITH LINUX WPA SUPPLICANT Note: The following procedure is done in Fedora Core2. For other distribution packages, you may need to install additional libraries (ex. openssl), required to build the wpa supplicant. 3.23 SETUP THE LINUX WPA SUPPLICANT - Copy wpa_supplicant.tar.gz file into a subdirectory on Linux system (e.g:/root). - Unzip it by using command: tar zxvf wpa_supplicant.tar.gz Then, a subdirectory of wpa_supplicant/ will be created under the current directory.
After make process is completed, an executable file, wpa_supplicant will have been created. - To create a WPA PSK connection, please modify the configuration file. For a detailed description, you can refer to the original sample configuration file: wpa_supplicant.conf) wpa_supplicant_psk.conf to meet wpa_psk test condition.
Note 3: For a detailed description, refer to CertConvReadme.txt. (Located in lnx_wpa_supplicant.tar.gz) For WPA PEAP: Network={ ssid=″example″ key_mgmt=WPA-EAP eap=PEAP identity=″jdoe″ password=″jdoe″ ca_cert=”/etc/cert/fluffy.pem” phase1=″peaplabel=0″ phase2=″auth=MSCHAPV2″ priority=10 } -After modifying, use the following command to setup WPA connection. If the AIR802 is not yet open, then please open it first by this command:.
Note of WPA supplicant operation issue: The WPA supplicant should be kept running during operation. If you press Ctrl-C to stop the WPA supplicant, it will also close the network interface card by “zd1205_close” call back routine. In this case, you will have to issue ifconfig ethx up again before using the network interface card. 3.24 CUSTOMIZATION OF VID/PID TABLE You may desire to drive any NIC via the AIR802 USB adapter with the Zydas chipset.
3.26 ZyDAS TURBO MODE This chapter describes how to enhance the performance by enabling the AIR802 turbo mode. Turbo mode is a composition of Burst Mode and Large Packet Mode. You may be aware that the so-called “Turbo Mode” always has compatibility problems. In order to achieve the highest performance, you need to use the AIR802 adapter with the ZyDAS chipset in both AP and Station mode. The Turbo mode is available on the AIR802 USB-ADG-2 adapter with the Linux driver only at this time.
APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY 802.11 – The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has created a number of wireless standards. This helps to insure that products built to comply with a specific standard are interoperable with one another even if manufactured by different companies. 802.11b – Specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 11 Mbps, an operating frequency of 2.4 GHz, and WEP encrypion for security. Commonly referred to as Wi‐Fi. 802.
Dynamic IP Adress – An IP address that is automatically assigned to a client station in a TCP/IP network, generally by a DHCP server. Network devices that serve multiple users, such as servers and printers, are usually assigned static IP addresses. ESS – Extended Service Set is a set of two or more BSSs (multiple access points) that form a single network. Firmware – Programming code that is written onto read‐only memory (ROM) or programmable read‐only memory (PROM).
WPA – Wi‐Fi Protected Access was created by the Wi‐Fi Alliance as a data encryption method for 802.11 wireless LANs. WPA is an industry‐supported, pre‐standard version of 802.11i utilizing TKIP. WLAN – Wireless Local Area Network is a group of computers and associated devices that communicate with each other wirelessly.
APPENDIX B: SPECIFICATIONS Standards IEEE 802.11b (DSSS) IEEE 802.11g (OFDM) Antenna Detachable 5dBi Dipole Antenna Connector RP-SMA Jack (Reverse Polarity SMA) Frequency 802.11b: 2.4 to 2.497GHz 802.11g: 2.4 to 2.4835 Modulation Method 802.11b: DBPSK/DQPSK/CCK 802.11g: BPSK/QPK/16QAM/64QAM Data Transfer Rate 802.11b: 11,5.5,2,1 Mbps 802.
APPENDIX C: WARRANTY INFORMATION BE SURE TO HAVE YOUR PROOF OF PURCHASE AND A BARCODE FROM THE PRODUCT’S PACKAGING PRIOR TO CALLING. RETURN REQUESTS CANNOT BE PROCESSED WITHOUT PROOF OF PURCHASE. IN NO EVENT SHALL AIR802’S LIABILITY EXCEED THE PRICE PAID FOR THE PRODUCT FROM DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THE PRODUCT, ITS ACCOMPANYING SOFTWARE, OR ITS DOCUMENTATION.
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