Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter User Manual Version: 4.
COPYRIGHT Copyright 2002/2003 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 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, a nd electrical and RF characteristics. Use in other devices such a PDAs or lappads is not authorized.
CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1 1.1 F EATURES ..............................................................................................1 1.2 S PECIFICATIONS......................................................................................1 1.3 PACKAGE C ONTENTS ...............................................................................2 2 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE............................................... 3 2.
1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter. This adapter features the latest innovation wireless technology . For WLAN security issues, this adapter supports 64/128-bit WEP data encryption that prot ects your wireless network from eavesdropping. It also supports WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) feature that combines IEEE 802.1x and TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) technologies.
• • • • • • • • • • • • 1.3 Data Rate: 11/5.5/2/1Mbps auto fallback Security: 64/128-bit WEP Data Encryption, WPA (IEEE 802.1x with TKIP) and AES Antenna: Internal Antenna with Diversity System Drivers: Windows 98SE/Me/NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 and Linux LEDs: TX/RX, Link Power Voltage: 3.
2 Installation Procedure Before you proceed with the installation, please notice following descriptions. Note1: The following installation was operated under Windows X P. (Procedures will be the same for Windows 98SE/Me/NT/2000/Server 2003.) Note2: If you have installed the Wireless PC Card driver & utility before, please uninstall the old version first. 2.1 Install the Driver 1. Insert the adapter into the Cardbus port of your computer, the system will automatically find the adapter.
3. The system starts installing the driver for the adapter. 4. Click “Finish“ when the installation is finished.
2.2 Install the Utility 1. Insert the CD into the CD-ROM device and execute the "Utility \setup.exe" program. The InstallShield Wizard box will appear, click " Next" to continue. 2. Click “Yes“ if you accept all the terms of prec eding License Agreement.
3. The system will install the utility completely. 4. When you complete the Utility installation, a shortcut named “Rtl8180“ will appear in the computer’s desktop and a new icon will display in the system tray at the bott om of the screen. Double click the shortcut or the icon and start using the cardbus adapter.
2.3 Using Utility in Windows XP Due to the Windows XP has built -in wireless network utility (also known as wireless zero configuration) you may decide to use the “Windows Zero Configuration” or the one provided by this adapter. If you don’t disable the “ Windows Zero Configuration“, you couldn’t connect to the selected network from the adapter’ s utility. It is strongly recommended to using the utility of this adapter. 2.3.
Second Way 1. Right click the icon marked in pink in the system tray and select “View Available Wireless Networks“. Then, click “Advanced“. 2. Clear the “Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings“ check box.
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3 Configuration Utility The Configuration Utility is a powerful application that helps you configure the Wireless LAN Cardbus Adapter 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 while the adapter is running. You can open it by double-click on the icon.
Parameter Description Refresh – Refresh adapter list in the “B“ block. A Mode – There are two modes: Station and Access Point. If “Station“ is selected, the adapter works as a wirelss adapter. If “Access Point“ is selected, the adapter will works as a wireless AP. View – Check “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.
Parameter Description Available Netowrk(s) This list shows all information of the available wireless networks within the range of your adapter. The information includes SSID, Channel, Encryption and Singal, 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.
3.4 Profile List This profile list shows all the profiles with its configurations currently stored in the program. You can click “Add“, “Remove“, “Edit“, “Duplicate“ and “Set Default“ to configure the profile list.
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 To configurate a new profile, click “Add“. Remove To remove a profile from the available profiles list, click “Remove“. Duplicate To duplicate a profile with another name, click “ Duplicate“.
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. Only the wireless devices with the same SSID can interconnect. This is a computer-t o- There are two kinds of network type described as follows. computer(ad hoc) network....
Parameter Passphrase Description It is a text string with a maximum of 32 alphanumeric characters , for example: “ Test“. The WEP Key are based upon the Passphrase determined by you. This passphrase may not work with other vendors’ products due to possible incompatibility with other vendors’ passphrase generators. You must use the sam e passphrase or WEP key settings for all wireless computers within the network . Key Length There are two kinds of key lengths: 64-bit and 128-bit.
1. Right click the icon. 2. Select “View Available Wireless Networks“ and click “Advanced“. 3. Click “Configure” button to configure the WPA function for the current network.
Parameter Description Association Network Aut hentication O p e n – 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. W P A – This mode is for enterprise with an authentication server (Radius Server), W P A -enabled access point, and a WPA-enabled client. Once WPA is enabled, all adapters and access points on the network must be WPA-enabled in order to access the network.
Parameter Description Data Encryption WEP – In WPA or WPA-PSK mode, WEP is also able to be the encryption method for the transmission data. 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 Power Save None – Adapter will always set in active mode. Min – Enable the adapter in the power saving mode when it is idle, but some compoents of the adapter is still al ive. In this mode, the power consumption is larger than “Max“ mode. Max – Enable the adapter in the power saving mode when it is idle. Wireless Mode This adapter is an IEEE 802.11b wireless adapter. Preamble Mode The preamble defines the length of the CRC block for c ommunication among the wireless stations.
Parameter Description Data Rate There are several options including Auto/1/2/5.5/11Mbps for you to select. When the “Auto” is selected, the adapter will choose the most suitable transmission rate automatically . The higher data rate you designated in the network, the shorter distance is allowed between the adapter and the AP s or Routers. Fragment Threshold The value defines the maximum size of packets; any packet size larger than the value will be fragmented.
3.7 Statistics Y ou 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 adapter 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 Des cription 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 “default“. Wireless adapters connect to the AP should set up the same SSID as the AP.
3.8.2 AP Advanced Setting Parameter Description Beacon Interval Beacon Interval which specifies the duration between beacon packets (milliseconds). The range for the beacon period is between 20-1000 milliseconds with a typical value of 100.
Parameter Description DTIM Period Determines the interval the A ccess P oint will send its broadcast traffic. Default value is 3 beacons. Preamble Mode The preamble defines the length of the CRC block for c ommunication 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 AP will auto switch the preamble mode depending on the wireless adapters.
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4 Troubleshooting This chapter provides solutions to problems usually encountered during the installation and operation of the adapter. 1. What is the IEEE 802.11b standard？ The IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN standard subcommittee which formulat es the standard for the industry. The objective is to enable wireless LAN hardware from different manufactures to communicate. 2. What does IEEE 802.11 feature support？ The product supports the following IEEE 802.
8. What is AES? AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), a chip-based securit y, has been developed to ensure the highest degree of security and authenticity for digital information, wherever and however communicated or stored, while making more efficient use of hardware and/or software than previous encryption standards. It is also included in IEEE 802.11i standard. Compare with AES, TKIP is a temporary protocol for replacing WEP security until manufacturers implement AES at the hardware level. 9.
12. What is DSSS ？ What is FHSS？ And what are their differences？ Frequency-hopping spread-spectrum (FHSS) uses a narrowband carrier that changes frequency in a pattern that is k nown to both transmitter and receiver. Properly synchronized, the net effect is to maintain a single logical channel. To an unintended receiver, FHSS appears to be short -duration impulse noise. Direct-sequence spreadspectrum (DSSS) generates a redundant bit pattern for each bit to be transmitted.
