Askey Computer WLL4030 User Manual

802.11a/b/g WLAN Card

User’s Manual

 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of the seller.

Disclaimer

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The material contained herein is supplied without representation or warranty of any kind. The seller therefore assumes no responsibility and shall have no liability of any kind arising from the supply or use of this document or the material contained herein.

Trademarks

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. GUI and Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xeros Corporation. Atheros and the Atheros logo are registered trademarks of Atheros Communications, Inc. Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Date: April 2003 Part No. A230XPRev01

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 1

Wireless LAN Basics................................................................................................................................................... 2

Local Area Network (LAN)....................................................................................................................................... 2

Wireless Network Topologies.................................................................................................................................. 3

802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g ............................................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 2 Installing the Driver and Utility Software ................................................................................................ 5

System Requirements................................................................................................................................................. 6

Installing the driver and software ................................................................................................................................6

Chapter 3 Utility Configuration ................................................................................................................................11

Accessing the Atheros Configuration Utility .............................................................................................................. 11

Note to Windows XP Users ................................................................................................................................... 11

Network Basic Configuration..................................................................................................................................... 12

General Tab........................................................................................................................................................... 12

Security Tab .......................................................................................................................................................... 13

Advanced Tab ....................................................................................................................................................... 15

Connecting to an Existing Network ........................................................................................................................... 17

Modifying a Configuration Profile .............................................................................................................................. 19

Removing a Configuration Profile ............................................................................................................................. 19

Chapter 4 Checking Status or Statistics................................................................................................................. 21

Status Monitor Tray Icon ........................................................................................................................................... 21

Current Status Tab.................................................................................................................................................... 22

Advanced Status ................................................................................................................................................... 24

Diagnostics Tab ........................................................................................................................................................ 24

Advanced Statistics ............................................................................................................................................... 25

Driver Information .................................................................................................................................................. 26

Chapter 5 ACU Toolbar............................................................................................................................................. 29

Action Menu .............................................................................................................................................................. 29

Options Menu............................................................................................................................................................ 29

Help Menu................................................................................................................................................................. 30

802.11a/b/g Combo Mini PCI WLAN Card User’s Manual

Chapter 6 Uninstalling the Wireless LAN Card ...................................................................................................... 31

Chapter 7 Troubleshooting ...................................................................................................................................... 33

Appendix A Setting Up TCP/IP ................................................................................................................................37

For Windows 2000/XP .............................................................................................................................................. 37

List of Figures

Figure 1-1 Ad Hoc Network.....................................................................................................................................3

Figure 1-2 Infrastructure Network ...........................................................................................................................3

Figure 1-3 Roaming Across Multiple Access Points ...............................................................................................4

Figure 3-1 General tab under the Profile Management ........................................................................................13

Figure 3-2 Define Pre-Shared Keys screen..........................................................................................................14

Figure 3-3 Define User Information screen...........................................................................................................14

Figure 3-4 Security tab under the Profile Management........................................................................................15

Figure 3-5 Advanced tab under the Profile Management.....................................................................................16

Figure 3-6 Available Networks ..............................................................................................................................17

Figure 3-7 Selecting Networks..............................................................................................................................17

Figure 4-1 Current Status Tab ..............................................................................................................................23

Figure 4-2 Advanced Status .................................................................................................................................24

Figure 4-3 Diagnostics Tab...................................................................................................................................25

Figure 4-4 Advanced Statistics .............................................................................................................................26

Figure 4-5 Driver Information ................................................................................................................................27

Contents

III

About This User’s Manual

This manual was written for Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card. For brevity, throughout this manual Wireless LAN Card is used to indicate 802.11a/b/g Combo WLAN Card Mini PCI. Also, the following terms/abbreviations are used interchangeably:

• Access Point-AP

• Wireless LAN-WLAN

• Ethernet network-LAN-network

This User’s Manual contains information on how to install and configure your Wireless LAN Card. From now on, we will guide you through the correct configuration steps to get your device up and run.

Chapter 1 Introduction

This Wireless LAN Card is an IEEE 802.11a/b/g combo radio solution. Users have the flexibility to connect to 802.11a, 802.11b or 802.11g networks effortlessly.

The Wireless LAN Card design is based on Atheros WLAN chipset. It supports 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g standards to provide maximum data rates of 54 Mbps (802.11a/g) and 11 Mbps (802.11b).

802.11a/b/g Combo Mini PCI WLAN Card User’s Manual

Wireless LAN Basics

This section contains some Wireless LAN basics to help you better understand how the products work together to create a wireless network.

Local Area Network (LAN)

Simply put, a LAN is a network that exists in a relatively limited area. A network is two or more computers connected together sharing files and peripheral devices such as printers.

The Wireless LAN Card allows you to interact with other computers without having to run cables normally associated with networks. This lets you move your computer around while staying connected to your network.

There are two ways to use the Wireless LAN Card. One way is to connect directly to one or more Wireless LAN Card equipped computers, forming an Ad Hoc wireless network. The second way is to connect to an Access Point that gives you access to an existing wired LAN, forming an Infrastructure wireless network.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Wireless Network Topologies

The 802.11 standard defines two wireless modes: Infrastructure mode and Ad Hoc mode.

Ad Hoc Network

An Ad Hoc network offers peer to peer connections between wireless stations that are in range of each other. The stations communicate directly with each other without using an Access Point or any connection to a wired network. This mode is useful for quickly and easily setting up a wireless network anywhere that a wireless infrastructure does not exist or is not required for services. In an Ad Hoc network, all wireless stations must have the same SSID, channel and WEP keys (if enabled) to communicate with each other.

Figure 1-1 Ad Hoc Network

Infrastructure Network

An Infrastructure wireless network consists of at least one Access Point connected to the wired network infrastructure and a set of wireless end stations. The AP acts as a gateway, linking the wireless network to a wired LAN. As a result, wireless stations have access to all of the features of your wired LAN including e-mail, Internet, network printers and files server access.

Figure 1-2 Infrastructure Network

802.11a/b/g Combo Mini PCI WLAN Card User’s Manual

Roaming Between Multiple Access Points

For large environments, multiple Access Points can be implemented to extend the wireless service coverage area for seamless wireless access. It allows wireless clients to roam from one AP to another while maintaining the wireless connectivity at all times. A wireless client wandering across multiple APs will automatically change the operating radio frequency as required.

In a roaming network, all APs and wireless clients must have the same Service Set Identity (SSID) and security setting (if enabled). Alternatively the mobile station may use an SSID of “any” to associate with any available AP, regardless of the AP’s SSID. Roaming among different Access Points is controlled automatically to maintain the wireless connectivity at all times.

Figure 1-3 Roaming Across Multiple Access Points

802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g

As this Wireless LAN Card is an IEEE 802.11a/b/g combo radio solution, you can connect to either an 802.11a, 802.11b or 802.11g network. Getting familiar of some distinguish differences between these two standards will help you better understand your device.

•

Operating Frequency Band

802.11b and 802.11g operate in the 2.4GHz band while 802.11a operates in the 5GHz band. Therefore, throughout this manual the 2.4 GHzrelated terms are referred to 802.11b/g networks while 5 GHz is referred to 802.11a.

•

Data Rates

802.11b supports data rates of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps.

802.11g supports data rates of 1, 2, 5.5, 6, 9,11, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48 and 54Mbps.

802.11a supports mandatory data rates of 6, 12, and 24 Mbps and optional data rates of 9, 18, 36, and 54 Mbps.

•

Modulation

802.11a employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) scheme. 802.11b uses Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technologies. 802.11g uses Complementary Code Keying (CCK) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM).

Chapter 2 Installing the Driver and Utility Software

This chapter describes the first-time installation of the driver and software for the Wireless LAN Card. Proper driver installation is to allow the device to operate on your host computer while the utility software, a Windows program, is to help you configure and monitor your Wireless LAN Card.

Note: As Mini PCI model is an integrated Wireless LAN Card solution, your laptop computer is probably shipped with its driver and software properly installed. If this is the case, ignore this chapter and proceed with the configuration steps in the next chapter.

In case you need to re-install the driver and software for any reason, we recommend that you remove any previously installed driver and software from your system first. Refer to the section “Chapter 6 Uninstalling the Wireless LAN Card” for the instructions on how to remove previous driver releases.

802.11a/b/g Combo Mini PCI WLAN Card User’s Manual

System Requirements

To use the Wireless LAN Card, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

 Windows 98



/Me/2000/XP

 32 MB of RAM or greater  300 MHz processor or higher  UL listed I.T.E. computers

Installing the driver and software

If your operation system has not been installed with the Wireless LAN Card driver, the Windows Plug-and-Play capability will automatically detect the new device (e.g., Ethernet Controller) and display the wizard requesting for drivers. Click Cancel to bypass the wizard screen and then take out the steps below.

1. Close all Windows programs that are running.

2. Insert the provided Software Utility CD into your CD-ROM drive. Run Setup.exe from the Software Utility CD to launch the setup program.

3. When the Atheros Install Program screen appears, click Next.



4. Click Yes to accept the license agreement.

5. For first-time installation, select the first option as shown below then click Next.

Chapter 2 Installing the Driver and Utility Software

6. Let Enable icon in system tray check box selected. Click Next.

7. Read the following instructions about the utility (ACU or ZERO) you want to use to control your Wireless LAN Card. Click Next to continue.

+ 33 hidden pages