3com 3CRWE62092A-AP, 3CRWE62092A-E1, 3CRWE62092A-FR, 3CRWE62092A-IS, 3CRWE62092A-JP User Manual

11 Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card User Guide

Fully featured wireless local area networking made simple

Version 2.0.3

http://www.3com.com/ http://support.3com.com/warrantyregistration/register.pl

Published December 2001 Version 2.0.3.1

3Com Corporation 5400 Bayfront Plaza Santa Clara, California 95052-8145

Copyright © 2001, 3Com Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced in any form or by any means or used to make any derivative work (such as translation, transformation, or adaptation) without written permission from 3Com Corporation.

3Com Corporation reserves the right to revise this documentation and to make changes in content from time to time without obligation on the part of 3Com Corporation to provide notiﬁcation of such revision or change.

3Com Corporation provides this documentation without warranty, term, or condition of any kind, either implied or expressed, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties, terms or conditions of merchantability, satisfactory quality, and ﬁtness for a particular purpose. 3Com may make improvements or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this documentation at any time.

If there is any software on removable media described in this documentation, it is furnished under a license agreement included with the product as a separate document, in the hard copy documentation, or on the removable media in a directory ﬁle named LICENSE.TXT or !LICENSE.TXT. If you are unable to locate a copy, please contact 3Com and a copy will be provided to you.

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT LEGEND

If you are a United States government agency, then this documentation and the software described herein are provided to you subject to the following:

All technical data and computer software are commercial in nature and developed solely at private expense. Software is delivered as “Commercial Computer Software” as deﬁned in DFARS 252.227-7014 (June 1995) or as a “commercial item” as deﬁned in FAR 2.101(a) and as such is provided with only such rights as are provided in 3Com’s standard commercial license for the Software. Technical data is provided with limited rights only as provided in DFAR 252.227-7015 (Nov 1995) or FAR 52.227-14 (June 1987), whichever is applicable. You agree not to remove or deface any portion of any legend provided on any licensed program or documentation contained in, or delivered to you in conjunction with, this User Guide.

Unless otherwise indicated, 3Com registered trademarks are registered in the United States and may or may not be registered in other countries.

3Com, AirConnect, and XJACK are registered trademarks and the 3Com logo is a trademark of 3Com Corporation.

Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance.

All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

EXPORT RESTRICTIONS: This product or software contains encryption code which may not be exported or

transferred from the US or Canada without an approved US Department of Commerce export license.

ONTENTS

NTRODUCTION

How Does a Wireless LAN Work? 7

Network Association 7 Roaming 7 Security 7 Ad Hoc Networks 7

Setting Up a 3Com Wireless LAN 8

All Wireless Networks 8 Wired/Wireless Networks 9

Product Registration and Support 9

NSTALLING

Requirements 11 Inserting the PC Card 11 Using the XJACK Antenna 12 Installing the Software 13 Windows Wizard Installation 13

Install Files 13 Set Up the PC Card 14 Install Utilities 14

Windows NT Installation with Networking Installed 14

Installing Under Service Pack 4 15 Installing Under Service Pack 5 and Above 15

Conﬁrming the Installation 18 Custom Installation Options 18

WLAN Service Area 18 Security Settings 18

Installing the Documentation 19

THE

Install Files 15 Install CardWizard 16 Set Up the PC Card 17 Install Utilities 17

IRELESS

LIENT

About the 3Com Icon 22 Interpreting Status Icons 22 Using the 3Com WLAN Conﬁguration Utility 25 Using 3Com Administrator Utilities 26

SING

THE

IRELESS

LAN

ETTING

Changing Network and Security Settings 27

Network Settings 27 Security Settings 28

Setting up Auto Network Connect 31 Setting up an Ad Hoc Network 31

Starting an Ad Hoc Network Session 31 Joining an Ad Hoc Network Session 32

Ending an Ad Hoc Network Session 32 Changing Power, Trafﬁc, and Address Settings 33 Changing Your Password 34 Running Diagnostics 34 Viewing Conﬁguration Information 34

ROUBLESHOOTING

Diagnosing Problems 37 Using the Tools Window 39 Uninstalling the Card 39 Uninstalling Software Utilities 40 Updating PC Card Driver Software 40

Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 98 SE 40

Windows Millenium Edition (Windows Me) 41

Windows 2000 42

Windows NT 43 Upgrading PC Card Firmware 44

THE

40-bit Shared Key (Wi-Fi) Encryption Settings 29 128-bit Shared Key (WiFi) Encryption Settings 29 128-bit Dynamic Security Link Authentication 30 128-bit Dynamic Security Link Settings 30

IRELESS

LIENT

ONFIGURATION

INDOWS

Installation Under Service Pack 4 45 Installation Under Service Pack 5 and Above 45

Install Files and Networking 45

Install CardWizard 47

Set Up the PC Card 47

Install Utilities 48

INDOWS

Install with Networking 49

Softex 2.8.2 and Above 49

Older Softex Versions 50 Install Without Networking 52

Softex 2.8.2 and Above 52

Older Softex Versions 53

NT I

NSTALLATION

NT I

ITHOUT

ITH

OFTEX

ETWORKING

ARD

NSTALLED

XECUTIVE

ECHNICAL

Online Technical Services 55

World Wide Web Site 55 3Com Knowledgebase Web Services 55

3Com FTP Site 55 Support from Your Network Supplier 56 Support from 3Com 56 Returning Products for Repair 58

EGULATORY

UPPORT

OMPLIANCE

NFORMATION

NTRODUCTION

3Com wireless technology brings the beneﬁts of a local area network (LAN) to your ofﬁce without the restraints and expense of network wiring. If your ofﬁce already has an Ethernet LAN, the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN can extend the network without adding more wires.

How Does a Wireless LAN Work?

Network Association Computers that are equipped for wireless LAN communication are called wireless

Roaming If the ofﬁce space is large, you can set up multiple access points on the same

Security You can set up security to encrypt your wireless transmissions so that your data

Ad Hoc Networks Wireless clients can associate among themselves at close range without an access

In a traditional LAN, computers communicate through wires. Instead of wires, a wireless LAN uses radio signals to communicate.

LAN

clients . The wireless communication is called network association . Clients

associate through one or more act as wireless hubs.

An access point can be connected to a wired network device such as an Ethernet hub, switch, or router to give clients access to the wired network where they can share ﬁles and printers and gain access to the Internet.

network to increase coverage. When a wireless client begins to lose the signal as it moves away from an access point, it can reassociate seamlessly with another access point. This is called

cannot be deciphered if it is intercepted, and to prevent access to the network by unauthorized clients.

point by using network, for example, if a group is working away from the ofﬁce, or if a group in the ofﬁce needs to share ﬁles apart from the LAN.

ad hoc (temporary) networks. You may wish to set up an ad hoc

access points , which are wireless base stations that

roaming .

HAPTER

NTRODUCTION

1: I

Setting Up a 3Com Wireless LAN

The type of network you decide to set up depends on the size of your ofﬁce and whether or not you require connection to a wired LAN. You can also set up security for each of the different types of networks. Your set up will probably resemble one or more of the following examples.

All Wireless Networks The simplest 3Com wireless LAN consists of several clients associating in an ad hoc

network without an access point.

A simple conﬁguration consists of one access point and several clients. The clients can associate with the wireless network anywhere within the coverage area of the access point. The access point is not connected to any other network segments.

NET R

E H T

E S LES

E R E

WIR W

O P

For more complex requirements, you can conﬁgure several access points as separate networks at the same site. The access points use different network identiﬁers called

wireless LAN service areas ( WLAN service areas , also called

Extended Service Set Identities or ESSID ). Clients can roam within the coverage

areas of access points that have the same WLAN service areas. They cannot roam to the coverage areas of access points that are conﬁgured with different WLAN service areas.

Product Registration and Support 9

Wired/Wireless

Networks

An access point can be connected to a wired LAN with an Ethernet cable to create a mixed wired/wireless network. In this conﬁguration, the access point provides the link between the wired network and wireless clients. Clients can move freely throughout the service area of the access point and remain associated with the larger network for services such as printing and Internet access.

Multiple access points can be connected to an existing LAN to provide complete wireless network coverage. Wireless clients can roam seamlessly between different access points with the same WLAN service areas and remain associated with the larger network.

E N R E

H T

E S S

E R E

WIR W O P

T E N

R E

H T E

S S E L E

I R E

W W O

Product Registration and Support

To register your product with 3Com, go to the following Web page:

http://support.3com.com/warrantyregistration/frontpg.pl

For support information, see “Technical Support” and go to the following Web page:

http://support.3com.com

Requirements

NSTALLING

Installing a wireless client consists of inserting the 3Com Wireless LAN PC Card with XJACK utilities. If you have 3Com Administrator Utilities installed on a wireless client, you can manage access points or run a site survey.

Before you start the installation, make sure that you have the following items:

Operating System One of the following:

Web Browser Internet Explorer version 4 required.

PC Card 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card with XJACK Antenna Installation Media One of the following 3Com CDs:

Other Requirements

Antenna in your computer and installing the software driver and

THE

Windows 95

The 3Com wireless LAN PC Card runs under Windows 95 version B or higher. If you do not know which version of Windows 95 is installed on your computer, you can display it as follows:

In the Control Panel, double-click System to display the System Properties dialog box. Click the General Tab to display the Windows 95 version information. Version B (also known as OSR 2) is identified as 4.00.950b.

n Windows 98

n Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)

n Windows NT with Service Pack 4 or above

n Windows 2000

Internet Explorer version 5.5 recommended.

You can download Internet Explorer from www.microsoft.com

n 3Com End User Utilities CD, which comes with the PC Card and

contains utilities for users.

n 3Com Administrator Utilities CD, which comes with the 3Com

11 Mbps Wireless LAN Access Point and contains utilities for users and tools for administrators.

n The installation program may ask for the operating system installation

media (usually a CD supplied with your computer) or for a path to the operating system files. If you have other networking software installed on your computer, the installation program may ask for its installation media.

IRELESS

LIENT

Inserting the PC Card

Turn on the computer.

Insert the 3Com PC Card into the PC Card slot until it seats snugly.

12 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT

Arrows on the front of the card indicate the insertion point to the slot. Align the card properly before inserting it in the slot.

CAUTION: Forcing the card into the slot can damage the computer or the card.

Using the XJACK Antenna

The XJACK antenna, which is attached to the end of the PC Card, has two positions: extended and retracted. The antenna works like a ball-point pen--press it to extend it, press it again to retract it. The antenna must be extended to make a network association. To prevent it from damage, the antenna should be retracted when not in use, when you are inserting the card in your computer, or when you are transporting the computer.

CAUTION: Do not pull on the antenna to remove the card.

The ﬁgure at left below shows the PC Card installed with its antenna retracted. The ﬁgure at right shows the antenna extended.

To get the best reception:

n Clear the area around the antenna of items that could block radio transmission,

such as metal objects, electronic devices, and cordless telephones.

n Even a slight change in antenna orientation can affect the network association.

If necessary, move your computer a few inches to ﬁnd a better signal.

Installing the Software 13

Installing the Software

Windows Wizard Installation

Depending on how your computer is set up, the installation program may ask for the operating system installation media (usually a CD supplied with your computer) or for a path to the operating system ﬁles. If you have other networking software installed on your computer, the installation program may ask for the networking software installation media. Make sure that you have the appropriate installation CDs or that you know the appropriate paths before you begin installing the software.

If you need help during the installation, see “Troubleshooting”.

Follow the instructions for your operating system:

For this Windows version: See this procedure:

Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows 98, Windows 95

Windows NT “Windows NT Installation with Networking Installed” or

“Windows Wizard Installation”

“Windows NT Installation Without Networking Installed”.

Make sure that the computer is running and the PC Card is inserted. The driver installation process starts automatically when the PC Card is inserted.

Install Files

1 Put the 3Com CD in the CD-ROM drive. 2 In the Add New Hardware Wizard window, click Next. 3 Respond to the instructions in the next windows:

a When the driver location is conﬁrmed, click Next. b Verify the driver name (3Com 3CRWE62092A Wireless LAN PC Card) and

click Next.

The installation program copies ﬁles from the 3Com CD and Windows operating system.

This copying process may take a few moments, and the progress bar may seem to update slowly.

The installation may prompt for your operating system installation CD, for a path to the operating system, or for the installation CD of other installed networking software. If it does, remove the 3Com CD and insert the appropriate CD.

c When you are notiﬁed that the installation is complete, remove the CD and

click Finish.

4 At the prompt to restart the computer, click Yes.

14 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT

Set Up the PC Card After the computer restarts, the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Setup

window opens, in which you specify the PC Card conﬁguration.

1 In the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Setup window, select Typical and

click Next.

Typical conﬁgures the PC Card with the following default values:

WLAN Service Area—Attach to any WLAN Service Area automatically

Security Setting—No security (Open system)

If you want to customize the PC Card conﬁguration, for example, to add security, select Custom. See “Custom Installation Options” for details on custom settings. For the fastest installation, it is recommended that you use the typical settings. You can customize the conﬁguration later as described in “Setting the Wireless Client Conﬁguration”.

2 In the Summary window, review the PC Card setup. To install the software utilities,

make sure that the Start client software installation when ﬁnished box is checked.

If you are reinstalling the PC Card and already have the software utilities installed, this box is unchecked.

3 Click Finish to complete the PC Card setup and start the software utilities installation.

Install Utilities

The 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Setup program starts.

1 Read the Welcome page and click Next. 2 Read the Software License Agreement and click Yes. (If you click No, the

installation stops.)

3 Select a destination folder for the software ﬁles and click Next. 4 In the Setup Type window, select the type of installation for the software:

Typical—Installs the software and documentation.

Compact—Installs the software, but not documentation.

Custom—Allows you to choose the components to install.

5 Follow the directions in the Select Program Folder window and click Next. 6 In the Desktop Icon Option window, click Yes. 7 In the Setup Complete window, click Finish. 8 If you are prompted to restart your computer, do so.

This completes the basic installation. To conﬁrm the installation, see “Conﬁrming the Installation”.

Windows NT Installation with Networking Installed

The following procedure is for installing the card software when networking is already installed on your computer. If networking is not already installed, see “Windows NT Installation Without Networking Installed”.

Windows NT Installation with Networking Installed 15

Either CardWizard or Softex Card Executive (utilities that help Windows NT load and manage software) must be installed on your computer to use the PC Card. If the installation program does not detect one of the utilities, it asks whether you want to install CardWizard from the 3Com CD.

Internet Explorer version 4 is required to view help ﬁles. It is recommended that you install Internet Explorer version 5 or later.

Installing Under Service

Pack 4

Installing Under Service

Pack 5 and Above

It is recommended that you upgrade to the latest service pack. If you are using Service Pack 4, you must install CardWizard before inserting the PC Card into the computer. If you have Softex Card Executive installed, see “Windows NT Installation With Softex Card Executive” for more details. Otherwise, follow this procedure:

1 Put the 3Com CD in the CD-ROM drive. 2 If the 3Com 11 Mbps WLAN Menu appears, click Exit. 3 From the Windows Start menu, select Start/Run. 4 In the run dialog box, type the path to the CardWizard installer on the 3Com CD.

For example: d:\cw\disk1\setup.exe

5 Follow the prompts to install CardWizard.

At the prompt to restart, shut down the computer.

6 Insert the PC Card, restart the computer, and continue with the installation.

Refer to “Installing Under Service Pack 5 and Above” for detailed instructions.

The installation procedure consists of installing ﬁles, installing CardWizard, setting up the PC Card, and installing utilities.

Install Files

1 Make sure that the computer is running and the PC Card is inserted. 2 Put the 3Com CD in the CD-ROM drive.

If the 3Com 11 Mbps WLAN Menu appears, click Exit.

3 From the Windows Start menu, select Settings/Control Panel. 4 In the Control Panel, double-click Network. 5 Click the Adapters tab. 6 In the Adapters tab, click Add. 7 In the Select Network Adapter window, click Have Disk. 8 In the Insert Disk window, make sure that the correct path to your CD-ROM drive

appears in the entry box (for example, d:) and click OK.

9 In the Select OEM Option window, select 3Com 3CRWE62092A Wireless LAN PC

Card and click OK.

10 In the PC Card Setup window, accept the default settings and click OK.

The default settings work in most cases. However, you may need to specify values for your installation.

Wait while the ﬁles are copied.

16 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT

11 In the Adapters tab, click Close. 12 If the Microsoft TCP/IP Properties screen appears, enter the requested information

for your network environment.

Refer to the Windows NT documentation for assistance. If you choose the DHCP server option, click Yes to the DHCP prompt. When you are ﬁnished entering the appropriate TCP/IP information, click OK.

13 When prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.

Install CardWizard

If CardWizard was already installed before you began installing the PC Card, the installation skips this portion and proceeds directly to “Set Up the PC Card.”

1 At the prompt to install CardWizard, click Yes .

If you click No and you do not have CardWizard installed, the installation stops.

2 In the CardWizard window, click Next. 3 In the CardWizard welcome page, click Next. 4 Read the CardWizard Software License Agreement and click Yes. 5 When prompted to remove the PC Card, eject the card and click Yes. 6 In the Select Type of Platform window, select your computer type and click Next.

If your computer type is not listed, select Other Notebook and click Next.

7 Respond to the prompts to install CardWizard. 8 When the CardWizard installation ﬁnishes, click the radio button to restart the

computer and click Finish.

9 Insert the PC Card.

Windows NT Installation with Networking Installed 17

Set Up the PC Card

After the computer restarts, the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Setup window opens, in which you specify the PC Card conﬁguration.

1 In the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Setup window, select Typical and

click Next.

The Typical comﬁguration sets up the PC Card with the following default values:

WLAN Service Area—Attach to any WLAN Service Area automatically

Security Setting—No security (Open system)

If you want to customize the PC Card conﬁguration (to add security, for example), select Custom. See “Custom Installation Options” for details on custom settings. For the fastest installation, it is recommended that you use the Typical settings. You can customize the conﬁguration later as described in “Setting the Wireless Client Conﬁguration”.

2 In the Summary window, review the PC Card setup and click Finish. 3 When prompted to run the Setup program, click OK. 4 Run the Setup program:

a From the Windows Start menu, select Run. b In the Run dialog box, enter a path to the Setup program on the 3Com CD. For

example, d:\srsetup.exe.

The 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Setup program starts.

Install Utilities

1 Read the Welcome page and click Next. 2 Read the Software License Agreement and click Yes. (If you click No, the

installation stops.)

3 Select a destination folder for the software ﬁles and click Next. 4 In the Setup Type window, select the type of installation for the software:

Typical—Installs the software and documentation.

Compact—Installs the software but not documentation.

Custom—Allows you to choose the components to install.

5 Follow the directions in the Select Program Folder window and click Next. 6 In the Desktop Icon Option window, click Yes. 7 In the next window, if the option to restart the computer appears, select it and

click Finish.

If you had a service pack installed before setting up the PC Card, reinstall it and restart the computer.

This completes the basic installation. To conﬁrm the installation, see “Conﬁrming the Installation.”

18 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT

Conﬁrming the Installation

Custom Installation Options

When the PC Card and software are installed correctly, you will see the following items after you restart the computer:

n PC Card LED is blinking.

n 3Com WLAN Launcher is running. This utility shows the status of your network

association.

n 3Com icon is in the Windows system tray.

n Shortcut icon to the 3Com WLAN Launcher is on your desktop (unless you

speciﬁed no icon during the installation).

If you do not see the 3Com WLAN Launcher window, click the 3Com icon in the Windows system tray to display it.

If the 3Com WLAN Launcher is not already running, you can start it by double clicking the shortcut on your desktop, or, from the Windows Start menu, select Start/Programs/3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN/3Com WLAN Launcher.

For more information, see “Using the Wireless LAN”.

If you want to set up a custom conﬁguration during installation, when the installation program asks for the Setup Type, select Custom and click Next.

You can change the WLAN Service Area and Security settings.

WLAN Service Area Attach to any WLAN Service Area automatically—This option associates the client

automatically to the WLAN service area with the best signal strength.

Specify a WLAN Service Area—Select this option and enter the name of a WLAN service area. The name must match the name of the access point WLAN Service Area exactly.

For more information on these settings, see “Changing Network and Security Settings”.

Security Settings See “Changing Network and Security Settings”for information about Security.

Installing the Documentation 19

Installing the Documentation

Documentation in PDF and HTML formats are supplied on the 3Com CD and are installed automatically during a typical installation. If you chose not to install documentation when you installed the PC Card and utilities, you can use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel to install it.

1 From the Windows Start menu, select Start/Settings/Control Panel. 2 Double click Add/Remove Programs. 3 In the next window, select 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN and click Add/Remove. 4 In the Install Shield Wizard window, click the Modify radio button and click Next. 5 In the next window, check the boxes next to the documents that you want to

install and click Next.

A dialog box containing a document ﬁle name appears.

6 Insert the 3Com CD. 7 Browse to the path on the CD that contains the ﬁle name indicated in the dialog

box and click OK.

You need Acrobat Reader to read the documentation in PDF format and a Web browser to read the documentation in HTML format. The English versions of Acrobat Reader and the Internet Explorer Web browser are on the 3Com CD.

You can obtain versions of Acrobat Reader in languages other than English from the Adobe Web site at www.adobe.com.

You can obtain versions of Internet Explorer in languages other than English from the Microsoft Web site at www.microsoft.com.

+ 44 hidden pages