User's Manual

ACR-201-G Technical Manual
1
Chapter 1 Introduction
ACR-201-G is an 802.11g compliant radio with a 100-BaseT interface that acts
as a Wireless Adapter.
What separates the ACR-201-G from many other 802.11g-compliant radios is
that its 100-BaseT interface affords a true plug-and-play feature that is
unavailable from any other 802.11g Station radios that are based on either a
PCMCIA or a USB interface and require the installation of a driver on the host
device. This driver-free feature also means that the operation of the radio is OS
(operating system) independent.
The driver-free feature enables wireless connectivity for any computing
devices/systems with any OS (operating system), as long as the device has an
Ethernet communication port available. Ethernet-equipped workstations in a
corporate environment, for example, benefit greatly from this driver-less
feature—the IT workforce has one less driver to worry when upgrading an OS or
when salvaging an OS crash. Special computing/networking devices, such as
printer servers, POS (point of sales) machines may not even have an easy way
of installing a driver for a radio. In addition to supporting the connection of a
single computer or device to an 802.11g Access Point in a pure 802.11g Station
role, ACR-201-G also supports an IP-Bridging Mode, where multiple computers
can share the wireless access to an 802.11g AP through a single Station radio.
A built-in Web-based Utility program is provided for the users to pre-configure
ACR-201-G prior to putting the radio in operation. This Utility program can be
used to monitor the communication condition once the radio is in operation. Once
configured, the radio runs self-sufficiently without the aid of any driver program in
the device connected to the radio. This Web-based Utility program therefore is
intended to be, in most cases, just a tool for the network operators. An end user
simply plugs the pre-configured radio into any device equipped with a RJ-45
receptacle without ever being exposed to this Utility program. The details are
described in chapter 3.
ACR-201-G has a compact form-factor that blends easily into a home/office
environment. It also lends particularly well to portable applications. The
specifications are given on the next page.