802.11g Wireless LAN PC Card User Manual Version: 1.
COPYRIGHT Copyright 2005/2006 by this company. All rights reserved.
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, 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 1.2 1.3 Features ......................................................................................................................... 1 Specifications ................................................................................................................ 1 Package Contents ..........................................................................................................
1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the 802.11g Wireless LAN PC Card. 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-bit WEP data encryption that protects your wireless network from eavesdropping. It also supports WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) feature technology.
• • • • Power Consumption: TX: 400mA, RX: 330mA Dimension: 5(H) x 116(W) x 54(D) mmTemperature: 32~131°F (0 ~55°C) Humidity: Max. 95% (NonCondensing) Certification: FCC, CE 1.3 Package Contents Before you begin the installation, please check the items of your package. The package should include the following items: • • • One PC Card One CD (Driver/Utility/User’s Manual.) One Quick Guide If any of the above items is missing, contact your supplier as soon as possible.
2 Installation Procedure Before you proceed with the installation, please notice following descriptions. Note1: The following installation was operated under Windows XP. Windows 98SE/Me/2000.) (Procedures are similar for Note2: If you have installed the Wireless PC Card driver & utility before, please uninstall the old version first. I. Install the Driver A. Insert the Installation CD to your CD-ROM Drive. B.
D. Please select the “Driver\Winxp” folder (select the folder based on your computer’s OS system) and the system will start install the driver. E. The “Hardware Installation” screen is popped up. Click “Continue Anyway” to continue. F. The system is installed the driver automatically.
G. Click “Finish’ to complete the driver installation. II. Install the Utility A. Execute “Utility\Setup.exe” from the installation CD. B. The “InstallShield Wizard” is displayed. Click “Next”.
C. Click “Yes” to process the installation if you accept the license agreement. D. The system starts to install the utility. After the installation, you will see a “Realtek Wireless LAN Utility” icon in your desktop and an icon in the system tray. III. Use the Configuration Utility To start configuring the card, double click the icon in the system tray. For Windows XP, there is a “Windows Zero Configuration Tool” for you to setup wireless clients.
First Way A. Double click the icon in the system tray. B. The utility of the card is displayed and it alerts you that you are in the Windows Zero Configuration mode. Click “Ok”. C. Uncheck “Windows Zero Config” to enable the utility of the card. Second Way A. Right-click the icon and select “View Available Wireless Networks”. B. Click “Advanced”.
C. Uncheck “Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings” to enable the utility for the card.
3 Configuration Utility The Configuration Utility is a powerful application that helps you configure the Wireless LAN Cardbus Card and monitor the link status and the statistics during the communication process. The Configuration Utility appears as an icon on the system tray and desktop of Windows. You can open it by double-click on the icon. In the Desktop In the System Tray Right click the icon in the system tray there are some items for you to operate the configuration utility.
Parameter A Description Refresh – Refresh card list in the “B“ block. Mode – There are two modes: Station and Access Point. If “Station“ is selected, the card works as a wireless card. If “Access Point“ is selected, the card will works as a wireless AP. View – Enable “Status Bar“ and the “D“ block in the utility will display the current status of the utility. Help – To check the version of the utility, select this item. B This is a list for you to configure several cards in your PC from the utility.
Parameter Description Available Network(s) This list shows all information of the available wireless networks within the range of your card. The information includes SSID, Channel, Encryption, Network Authentication, Signal and etc. If you want to connect to any network on the list, double-click the selected network. Refresh Click “Refresh“ to update the available networks list. It is recommended that refresh the list while you have changed the connection network.
3.3 General To check the connection status of the card, select “General“. This screen shows the information of Link Speed, Network Type, Encryption Method, SSID, Signal Strength and Network Address of the card. Parameter Description Status It will show the connection status of the card. Speed It shows the current speed Type Infrastructure – This operation mode requires the presence of an 802.11 Access Point. All communication is done via the Access Point or Router.
3.4 Profile The “Profiles List” is for you to manage the networks you connect to frequently. You are able to Add/Remove/Edit/Duplicate/Set Default to manage a profile. Parameter Description Available Profile(s) This list shows the preferred networks for the wireless connection. You can add, remove, edit, duplicate the preferred networks or set one of the networks as the default connection. Add/ Remove/ Edit Button Click these buttons to add/ delete/ edit the selected profiles.
3.4.1 Configure the Profile Parameter Description Profile Name Define a recognizable profile name for you to identify the different networks. Network Name (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. You may specify a SSID for the card and then only the device with the same SSID can interconnect to the card.
Parameter Description Channel This setting is only available for Ad Hoc mode. Select the number of the radio channel used for the networking. The channel setting should be the same with the network you are connecting to. Network 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.
Parameter Description Key Length There are two kinds of key lengths: 64-bit and 128-bit. Larger key length will provide higher level of security, but the throughput will be lower. Network Key The keys are used to encrypt data transmitted in the wireless network. Fill the text box by following the rules below. 64-bit – Input 10-digit Hex values as the encryption keys. For example: “0123456aef“. 128-bit – Input 26-digit Hex values as the encryption keys. For example: “01234567890123456789abcdef“.
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.
3.5 Advanced The “Advanced” option enables you to configure more advanced settings, for example: Power Save, wireless mode and etc. Parameter Description Power Save None – The card will always set in active mode. Min – Enable the card in the power saving mode when it is idle, but some components of the card are still alive. In this mode, the power consumption is larger than “Max“ mode. Max – Enable the card in the power saving mode when it is idle. Wireless Mode 802.
Parameter Description 802.11b Preamble Mode The preamble defines the length of the CRC block for communication among the wireless stations. There are three mode including Long, Short and Auto. High network traffic areas should use the shorter preamble type. If “Auto“ mode is selected, the card will auto switch the preamble mode depending on the wireless stations that the card is connecting to. Note that the parameter is only active in the Ad Hoc operation mode.
3.6 Status This screen shows the information of manufacturer, driver version, settings of the wireless network the card is connecting to, linking time and link status. If you don’t ensure the status of the card and the network you are connecting, please go to the screen for more details. 3.7 Statistics You can get the real time information about the packet transmission and receiving status during wireless communication from the screen. If you want to recount the statistics value, please click “Reset“.
3.8 Software AP This card can run as a wireless AP. The relative configurations of the AP including channel, SSID, WEP encryption and so on are described as follows. Parameter Description 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. The default SSID of the AP is “ANY“. Wireless cards connect to the AP should set up the same SSID as the AP. BSSID Display the MAC address of the card.
3.8.1 AP Properties Setting Please refer to Section 3.4.1 for the setting of the parameters for AP. Note that Ad Hoc mode is not enabled for AP. Notes: The operating frequency channel will be restricted to the country user located by firmware before importing. 3.8.
Parameter Description Beacon Interval Beacon Interval that specifies the duration between beacon packets (milliseconds). The range for the beacon period is between 20-1000 milliseconds with a typical value of 100. DTIM Period Determines the interval the Access Point will send its broadcast traffic. Default value is 3 beacons. Preamble Mode The preamble defines the length of the CRC block for communication among the wireless stations. There are three mode including Long, Short and Auto.
3.8.3 AP Statistics You can get the real time information about the packet transmission and receiving status during wireless communication from the screen. If you want to recount the statistics value, please click “Reset“.
4 Troubleshooting This chapter provides solutions to problems usually encountered during the installation and operation of the card. 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.
