802.11b/g/n Draft 2.0 Wireless LAN USB Adapter User Manual Version: 1.
COPYRIGHT Copyright ©2005/2006 by this company. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without the prior written permission of this company.
CATALOG Chapter I: Product Information.............................................................................................. 3 1-1 Introduction and safety information ......................................................................... 3 1-2 Safety Information ................................................................................................... 4 1-3 System Requirements .............................................................................................
Chapter I: Product Information 1-1 Introduction and safety information Thank you for purchasing this nMAX wireless network card! Excepting common wireless standards 802.11b/g, this wireless network card is also 802.11 Draft-N compatible - data transfer rate is 300Mbps, and that’s six times faster than 802.11g wireless network! 802.11 Draft-N also provides wider wireless coverage, so you don’t have to worry if your computer is far from your wireless access point.
1-2 Safety Information In order to keep the safety of users and your properties, please follow the following safety instructions: 1. This USB wireless network card is designed for indoor use only. DO NOT expose this network card to direct sun light, rain, or snow. 2. DO NOT put this network card at or near hot or humid places, like kitchen or bathroom. Also, do not left this wireless network card in the car in summer. 3.
1-3 System Requirements An empty USB 2.0 port (May not work on USB 1.
1-5 Familiar with your new wireless network card 1. USB Connector 2. Connector Cap (To protect USB connector when not in use) 3.
CHAPTER II: DRIVER INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION 2-1 Network Card Installation Please follow the following instructions to install your new wireless network card: 1. Insert the USB wireless network card into an empty USB 2.0 port of your computer when computer is switched on. Never use force to insert the card, if you feel it’s stuck, flip the card over and try again. 2.
3. The following message will appear on your computer, click ‘Cancel’. 4. Insert device driver CDROM into the CD/DVD ROM drive of your computer, and execute ‘Setup.exe’ program in ‘Driver’ folder. Please read the end user license agreement and click ‘Yes’ to accept license agreement.
4. You can choose the configuration tool used to configure the wireless network card here. It’s recommended to select ‘Edimax Configuration Tool’, which provides fully access to all function of this wireless network card. If you prefer to use the wireless configuration tool provided by Windows XP or Vista, please select ‘Microsoft Zero Configuration Tool’, then click ‘Next’. 5.
When you select one mode, please click ‘Next>’ to continue. If you see ‘Found New Hardware’ message again, please ignore it and wait. 6. Please click ‘install’ to run the driver installation process. If you see ‘Found New Hardware’ message again, please ignore it and wait.
7. Please wait while the install procedure is running. When you see this message, please click ‘Finish’ to complete the driver installation process.
8. A new icon will appear at lower-right corner of your computer desktop, you can put the mouse cursor on the icon, and the status of wireless card will be displayed as a popup balloon. HERE! 9. When you want to configure your wireless connection, please right click on this icon, and a popup menu will appear. You can click ‘Launch Config Utilities’ to start configuration program. If you want to close configuration utility, please click ‘Exit’.
2-2 Connect to Wireless Access Point There are two ways you can configure your wireless network card to connect to wireless access point: using the Ralink configuration utility which comes with wireless card driver, and using built-in windows zero configuration utility. 2-2-1 Using Edimax Utility Please follow the following instructions to use Ralink configuration utility to connect to wireless access point. 1.
Here are descriptions of every setup item: SSID: The Service Set IDentifier of wireless access point or other network device. You can think it as the name of access point of wireless device. BSSID: The MAC address of wireless access point or other network device. Unlike SSID, BSSID of every access point or network device is unique, and will not be the same with others. So you can identify a single access point or wireless device from others by BSSID, if they all have the same SSID.
Authentication: Shows the authentication mode that access point or wireless device uses. If the wireless access point does not require authentication, you’ll see ‘Unknown’ displayed here. Network Type: Shows the type of wireless connection. If it’s a wireless access point, ‘Infrastructure’ will be displayed here; if it’s a computer or network device, ‘AdHoc’ will be displayed here.
If the access point you selected does not enable encryption (The content of ‘Encryption’ field of the access point you selected is ‘None’, you’ll be connected to this wireless access point within one minute. Please jump to step 6. If the access point you selected enables encryption, please proceed to next step. 4. If the wireless access point does not have SSID, you’ll be prompted to input it here. Please ask the owner of wireless access point and input the exact SSID here, then click ‘OK’ when ready.
- 17 -
6. You’ll see ‘Connected <-> SSID’ (‘SSID’ is the SSID of the wireless access point or wireless device you connected to) message displayed at lower-left corner of configuration utility, congratulations, you’re successfully connected to the access point or wireless device you selected! 7. You can put the mouse cursor over the Edimax configuration utility icon, and the brief information about link status and signal strength of current wireless connection will be shown as a popup balloon.
2-2-2 Using Windows Zero Configuration Windows XP and Vista has a built-in wireless network configuration utility, called as ‘Windows Zero Configuration’ (WZC). You can also use WZC to configure your wireless network parameter: 1. Right-click Edimax configuration utility icon and select ‘Use Zero Configuration as Configuration utility. 2. Click ‘Start’ button (should be located at the bottom-left corner of windows desktop), click ‘Control Panel’, then click ‘Network Connections’ in Control Panel.
3. Right-click ‘Wireless Network Connection’ (it may have a number as suffix if you have more than one wireless network card, please make sure you right-click the ‘Ediamx 802.11n Wireless LAN Card), then select ‘View Available Wireless Networks’. 4. All wireless access points in proximity will be displayed here. If the access point you want to use is not displayed here, please try to move your computer closer to the access point, or you can click ‘Refresh network list’ to rescan access points.
5. If the access point is protected by encryption, you have to input its security key or passphrase here. It must match the encryption setting on the access point. If the access point you selected does not use encryption, you’ll not be prompted for security key or passphrase. 6. If you can see ‘Connected’ message, the connection between your computer and wireless access point is successfully established.
2-3 Connection Profile Management If you need to connect to different wireless access points at different time, like of access point of your home, office, cyber cafe, or public wireless service, you can store the connection parameters (encryption, passphrase, security etc, etc.) as a profile for every access point, so you don’t have to input these parameters every time you want to connect to a specific wireless access point. 2-3-1 Make a profile for an access point or wireless device 1.
Or, you can add a connected wireless access point or wireless device to a profile by clicking ‘Site Survey’ tab, then click ‘Add to Profile’ button: - 23 -
And you can set the parameter for this connection here: - 24 -
Here are descriptions of every setup items: Profile Name Please give this profile a name, up to 32 alphanumerical characters and symbols are allowed, but space is not allowed. SSID The SSID of the wireless access point or wireless device you selected will be displayed here. But if the SSID of access point or wireless device is not available, you have to input it here manually.
TX Power You can select the radio output power of wireless network card. You may not need full radio power if you’re not far from wireless access point, and only use a high setting here if you found that radio reception is bad. If you don’t know which one to use, select ‘Auto’. Preamble This option is only available when the network type is ‘Ad hoc’. You can select ‘Auto’ or ‘Long Preamble’. Please select ‘Auto’ if you don’t know what it is.
Here are descriptions of every setup items: Authentication Select the authentication type of the wireless access Type point or wireless device you wish to connect. If you’re adding a profile from an existing access point or wireless device, the value will be selected automatically, and please do not modify it. If you select ‘LEAP’, the following message will be displayed. Please input LEAP identity, password, domain name, and select encryption type.
grayed out. WEP Key You can select key type (Hex or ASCII) and input WEP key here. If encryption is not enabled, or you select ‘WPA’ as encryption type, this field will be disabled and grayed out. Show Password Check this box and all passphrases or security keys you inputted will be displayed as you type, but not replace your input with asterisk. Use 802.1x Enable 802.1x wireless authentication. Please click ‘802.1x Setting’ button to set 802.1x parameters. (See next section).
Select the profile you wish to use, and click ‘Activate’ to use the profile you selected. You can only activate a profile a time, and the profile that is activated currently will have a green check ( wireless access point is not reachable, a red check ( ) before its name. If the ) will be displayed before its name.
2-3-2 Using 802.1x – Certification After you click ‘802.1x Setting’, a new window will appear: Here are descriptions of every setup items: Authentication Please select an 802.1x authentication type here. Type The type you select here must be identical to the type of the 802.1x authentication type you’re using. Session You can enable or disable session resumption here. Resumption If you don’t know if you should enable session resumption or not, please ask your 802.1x authentication administrator.
Use Client If the authentication type you use is ‘PEAP’ or ‘TTLS’, you can use the certificate stored on your computer. If the authentication type you use is ‘TLS/Smart Card’, this box is always checked. More.. After you clicked this button, you’ll be prompted to select a certificate on your computer. Allow This box is always checked and can not be modified.
2-3-3 Using 802.1x - CA Server If you want to use CA server, please click ‘CA Server’ tab. And the following message will be displayed: Here are descriptions of every setup items: Use certificate Check this box to enable the use of certificate chain. chain Certificate Please select the issuer of certificate from this dropdown menu. Issuer Allow Check this box if you wish to allow intermediate certificates. intermediate certificates Server name Input the server name of CA server here.
exactly you set here is exactly matched with the CA server connected to. If they don’t match, connection will be dropped. Domain name Check this box and the wireless configuration utility will check the end of domain must end name. If there’s anything wrong, connection will be dropped. in specified name After you finish all settings, click ‘OK’ to save settings and exit.
2-4 View Network Statistics and Link Status The configuration utility provides information about network statistics and link status. If you want to know how your wireless network card works, you can use these functions to get detailed information about the wireless connection you’re using. 2-4-1 Network Statistics Please follow the following instructions to check network statistics: 1.
All connection-related statistics is displayed here. You can click ‘Reset Counter’ to reset the statistics of all items back to 0. Click ‘OK’ to close the window. 2-4-2 Link Status Please follow the following instructions to check network statistics: 1. Right-click the Edimax configuration utility icon located at lower-right corner of computer desktop, then click ‘Launch Config Utilities’. 2.
These information displayed here are updated every second, and here are descriptions of every item: Status Displays the SSID and BSSID of connected wireless access point or wireless device (displayed as SSID <-> BSSID as shown in above picture. If there’s no active connection currently, ‘Disconnected’ will be displayed here. Extra Info Displays the link status (‘Link is up’ or Link is down’, and the radio transmitting power of your network card. Channel Displays the radio channel being used now.
2-5 Advanced Settings This wireless network card provides several advanced settings for experienced wireless users. You can change these settings to increase data transfer performance, or change operation mode. Please follow the following instructions to set advanced wireless settings: 1. Right-click the Edimax configuration utility icon located at lower-right corner of computer desktop, then click ‘Launch Config Utilities’. 2.
Here are descriptions of every setup items: Wireless mode Select wireless operation mode, available options are 802.11 B/G mix, 802.11 B only, and 802.11 B/G/N mix. You can select 802.11 B/G/N mix to maximize wireless compatibility with wireless access points and other wireless devices. Anyway, you can set this setting to ‘802.11 B only’ when you’re going to communicate with old 802.11b wireless devices and you got problem using other two modes.
Show When your computer is being authenticated by Authentication wireless authentication server, a dialog window Status Dialog with the process of authentication will appear. This function is helpful to find out the problem when you can not be authenticated, and you can provide this information to authentication server’s administrator for debugging purpose. Enable CCX Enable Cisco Compatible eXtensions.
2-6 QoS Setting This wireless network card provides QoS (Quality of Service) function, which can improve the performance of certain network applications, like audio / video streaming, network telephony (VoIP), and others. When you enable WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia) function of this network card, you can define the priority of different kinds of data, to give higher priority to applications which require instant responding. Therefore you can improve the performance of such network applications.
Here are descriptions of every setup items: WMM Enable Check this box to enable WMM function. Please click ‘Apply’ button on the right of this check box after you check or uncheck this box, so corresponding settings in this window will be activated or deactivated respectively. WMM - Power Enable WMM power saving mode to save energy Save Enable and lets your battery live longer. Setting... Click this button to select the WMM data type which will suppress the function of power saving.
2-7 WPS Configuration Note: This function supports Windows XP/XP64 Operation System only. Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is the latest wireless network technology, which makes wireless network setup become very simple. If you have WPS-enabled wireless access point, and you want to establish a secure connection to it, you don’t have to configure the wireless access point and setup data encryption.
2-7-1 WPS Setup - PBC (Push-Button Configuration) 1. Right-click the Edimax configuration utility icon located at lower-right corner of computer desktop, then click ‘Launch Config Utilities’. 2.
3. Push the ‘WPS’ button on your wireless access point (the button used to activate WPS standby mode may have another name), or use other way to start WPS standby mode as the instruction given by your wireless access point’s user manual. 4. Before you start to establish the wireless connection by using WPS, you can click ‘Rescan’ button to search for WPS-enabled access points near you, to make sure the WPS function of your access point is activated. All access points found will be displayed.
5. Click ‘PBC’ button now to start to establish wireless connection by WPS, and please be patient (This may require several seconds to one minute to complete). When you see ‘WPS status is connected successfully’ message, means the connection between your wireless network card and access point is successfully connected by WPS, and the information about access point you connected to will be displayed.
2-7-2 WPS Setup - PIN If the wireless access point you wish to connect supports PIN, please follow the following instructions to establish connection to it: 1. Right-click the Edimax configuration utility icon located at lower-right corner of computer desktop, then click ‘Launch Config Utilities’. 2.
The PIN number of your wireless network card is an eight-digit number located at the upper-right position of configuration utility. Remember it, and input the number to your wireless access point as the WPS PIN code (Please refer to the user manual of your wireless access point for instructions about how to do this). NOTE: The PIN code of every wireless network card is DIFFERENT. Please don’t use the sample code shown here. 3. Click ‘PIN’ button now, and wait for few seconds to one minute.
2-8 About The ‘About’ tab provides you the information about version numbers of configuration utility, firmware, and other important information about your wireless network card. Please follow the following instructions to see these information: 1. Right-click the Edimax configuration utility icon located at lower-right corner of computer desktop, then click ‘Launch Config Utilities’. 2.
If you need assistance about network problem, you’ll need these values. You can also click ‘WWW.EDIMAX.COM’ button to go to the web site of network card driver manufacturer and get more information about your wireless network card. Please click ‘OK’ to close configuration utility.
CHAPTER III: APPENDIX 3-1 Hardware Specification Standards: IEEE 802.11b/g/Draft-N Interface: USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 Compatible) Frequency Band: 2.4000 ~ 2.4835GHz (Industrial Scientific Medical Band) Data Rate: 11b: 1/2/5.5/11Mbps 11g: 6/9/12/24/36/48/54Mbps 11n (20MHz): MCS0-15, 32 with Half Guard Interval Support (up to 144Mbps) 11n (40MHz): MCS0-15, 32 with Half Guard Interval Support (up to 300Mbps) Securities: WEP 64/128, WPA, WPA2 Cisco CCX V1.0, V2.0 & V3.
3-2 Troubleshooting If you encounter any problem when you’re using this wireless network card, don’t panic! Before you call your dealer of purchase for help, please check this troubleshooting table, the solution of your problem could be very simple, and you can solve the problem by yourself! Scenario I can’t find any wireless access point / wireless device in ‘Site Survey’ function. Solution 1. Click ‘Rescan’ for few more times and see if you can find any wireless access point or wireless device. 2.
add the MAC address of your network card to his / her access point’s list. The network is slow / having 1. Move closer to the place where access point is located. problem when transferring large 2. Enable ‘Wireless Protection’ in ‘Advanced’ tab. files 3. Try a lower TX Rate in ‘Advanced’ tab. 4. Disable ‘Tx Burst’ in ‘Advanced’ tab. 5. Enable ‘WMM’ in ‘QoS’ tab if you need to use multimedia / telephony related applications. 6. Disable ‘WMM – Power Save Enable’ in ‘QoS’ tab. 7.
3-3 Glossary 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 802.11a for the 5 GHz frequency band and applies it in the same 2.4 GHz frequency band as IEEE 802.11b. The 802.
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 802.11i WLAN security standard, and the specification might be officially released by early 2003. 9.
14. What is WMM? Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), a group of features for wireless networks that improve the user experience for audio, video and voice applications. WMM is based on a subset of the IEEE 802.11e WLAN QoS draft standard. WMM adds prioritized capabilities to Wi-Fi networks and optimizes their performance when multiple concurring applications, each with different latency and throughput requirements, compete for network resources.
3-4 FCC and Other Compliance Statements 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.
Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Radiation Exposure Statement This equipment complies with FCC radiation exposure set forth for an uncontrolled environment. In order to avoid the possibility of exceeding the FCC radio frequency exposure limits, human proximity to the antenna shall not be less than 20cm (8 inches) during normal operation. The antenna(s) used for this transmitter must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter.
