802.11g Wireless LAN PC Card User Manual Version: 2.
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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, 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.
• • • • • • LEDs: Link, Activity Transmit Power: 17dBm±2dBm Dimension: 5(H) x 116(W) x 54(D) mm Temperature: 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 and Utility A. Insert the Installation CD to your CD-ROM Drive. Execute the “Setup.exe” program. B.
D. E. The system starts to install the driver and utility. F. Click “Finish” to complete the driver and utility installation.
II. 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. By default, this “Windows Zero Configuration Tool” is enabled. If you want to use the Utility of the card, please follow one of the ways as below. First Way A. Double click the icon in the system tray. B.
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 B C 3.2 Description Refresh – Refresh card list in the “B“ block. RT-Set – Open the RT-Set wizard. 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. About – To check the version of the utility, select this item.
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, Link Quality 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.
Parameter Description Link Quality It indicates the wireless link quality. Network Address It shows the MAC, IP address and other information of the card. 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.
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 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. Shared Key – Only wireless stations using a shared key (WEP Key identified) are allowed to connecting each other. WPA 802.1X – WPA provides a scheme of mutual authentication using either IEEE 802.1x/Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication or pre-shared key (PSK) technology.
Parameter Description Data Encryption Disabled – Disable the WEP Data Encryption. WEP – Enable the WEP Data Encryption. When the item is selected, you have to continue setting the WEP Encryption keys. TKIP – TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) changes the temporal key every 10,000 packets (a packet is a kind of message transmitted over a network.) This insures much greater security than the standard WEP security.
Parameter Description EAP Type GTC – GTC is an authentication protocol which allows the exchange of clear text authentication credentials across the network. TLS – TLS is the most secure of the EAP protocols but not easy to use. It requires that digital certificates be exchanged in the authentication phase. The server presents a certificate to the client. After validating the server’s certificate, the client presents a client certificate to the server for validation.
3.5 Advanced The “Advanced” option enables you to configure more advanced settings, for example: Power Save, Turbo Mode, 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.
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 “fae_AP“. 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. 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.
3.8.4 SoftAP If you want to connect to the internet through this SoftAP, you will need to make a bridge between our SoftAP and your internet connect. Select the internet connection in your SoftAP host machine and press the “Apply” button.
4 RT-Set Wizard The RT-Set wizard can help users to connect to a wireless LAN or build an Ad-hoc wireless network. For example, if you want to connect to a wireless LAN in infrastructure mode: A. Open the RT-Set wizard and choose the Station (infrastructure) mode. B. The site survey results will show up. Please select the one you’d like to connect to and click the “Next” button.
C. In the Wireless network properties dialog, please fill in the security settings for this wireless network you’d like to connect to. D. Please specify the IP settings for this wireless network and click the “Finish” button.
E. Now you can connect to the wireless network successfully.
5 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.
