Black Box 802.11G User Manual

1

Link PCs, access
points, and routers to
your wireless LAN or
WAN.

Connect wired devices
to a wireless LAN or
WANvia the Access
Point with Switch.

T ransfer data at
speeds up to 54 Mbps!

Conforms to the

802.11g standard,
and is backward
compatible with the

802.11b standard.
Compatible with

Windows

®

98 SE/Me/
XP, Windows 2000,
and Windows NT

®

.

S

end high-volume data traffic

over your wireless network via
the 802.11g Ethernet compliant
Pure Networking wireless
products. The powerful,
backward-compatible 802.11g
standard allows you to include
your older existing 802.11b
equipment in your wireless
network. And wireless network
technology can help cut your
installed cable costs.

Since they conform to the

802.11g Ethernet standard, the
Pure Networking wireless
products work with Microsoft
Windows

®

and Macintosh®OS.
And they provide high data
throughput, plus multimedia data
bandwidth.

Like the less-powerful 802.11b
standard, 802.11g also operates in
the 2.4-GHz band. But unlike the
previous standard, which only

12345

Connect wireless devices together to

form a LAN or WAN at speeds

of up to 54 Mbps!

Key Features

PURENETWORKING802.11GWIRELESS

allowed speeds of up to 11 Mbps,
the 802.11g standard provides link
speeds of up to 54 Mbps. That’s
180%faster!

But if you still have 802.11b

devices in your network, our

802.11g devices are backward­compatible so you won’t have to
replace 802.11b equipment that
you already own.

Connect the wireless way with
adapters

Need to link PCs together?No
problem. We’ve got a wireless
adapter that’ll work with your PC,
whether it has a PCMCIA or PCI
slot, or just a USBport (no slot
required for USB).

Choose from the Cardbus
(PCMCIA)Adapter (LW6000A), the
PCIAdapter (LW6001A), and the
High-Gain USBAdapter
(LW6002A).

The Cardbus (PCMCIA)
Adapter is used for laptop and
notebook computers. It fits into
the computer’s PCMCIA slot. The
adapter has two power-saving
features: Not only is the adapter’s
power consumption very low, but
you can also control how long the
adapter’s attached devices’
power stays on.

The PCIAdapter supports the
32-bit PCIstandard and installs in
the PCIslot of your desktop
computer. It includes a
detachable antenna with a 3-ft.
(0.9-m)cable.

Compatible with any computer
that has a USBport, the High-Gain
USBAdapter has a Type A USB
connector. It conforms to the USB

2.0 specification and is
backwards compatible with USB
versions 1.0 and 1.1.

© 2004. All rights reserved.

Black Box Corporation.

11309

2

Access Point with Switch

Want to connect a wireless
LAN to a wired LAN?Choose the
AccessPoint with Switch
(LW6004A). It lets any 802.11g or

802.11b compliant PCjoin the
wireless network. This integral
switch with five LANconnections
enables wired devices, segments,
or entire networks to communi­cate with your wireless WAN.

The access point supports
Web-based configuration. It has a
built-in DHCPserver to allow
multiple wireless and wired users
to get their IPaddress
automatically.

With the access point’s ESSID
authentication, 64-, 128-, and
152-bit WEP encryption and MAC
address filtering, you can prevent
unauthorised wireless stations
from accessing your wireless
network.

The APalso includes a

2.2-dBm dipole antenna.

Wireless Router

The Pure Networking 802.11g
Wireless Router (LW6005A)
allows you to share the Internet
among one WANconnection and
up to four LANconnections via
one ADSLor cable modem.

The router gives you high
Internet access throughput (up
to50 Mbps) and supports up to
253 users. It includes four
10-/100-Mbps LANports and one
10-/100-Mbps WANport.

Special applications, DMZ,
virtual servers, access control,
firewall, and bridge mode are also
supported. You can monitor the
router’s status via DHCPclient
log, security log, and device/
connection status. Or configure it
remotely via its Web-based
Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Client users are required to
get authorisation before
connecting to access points (APs)
or AP routers, and the data
transmitted in the network is
encrypted/decrypted by a
dynamically changed secret key.
Automatic fallback also increases
data security and reliability.

8-dBi Omnidirectional Antenna and
14-dBi Directional Panel Antenna

If you need to increase the
transmitting and receiving power
of your wireless access point or
router, order one of our 2.4-GHz
Antennas. There’s an 8-dBi
Omnidirectional model (LW6200A)
and a 14-dBi Directional Panel
model (LW6201A).

Choose the omnidirectional
model when you have several
access points that you want to
connect together with a clear
line-of-sight in multiple directions
from the main access point.

Select the directional panel
model when you need to connect
just two access points or routers
together with a clear line-of-sight.
You can also use the directional
panel at a remote site where the
access point is configured as a
bridge connecting a remote LAN
via wireless to the main office.
This not only increases the
distance from the remote site to
the main office, but also cuts
down on interference.

Choose the operating mode

When you’re using the Pure
Networking 802.11g Wireless
Adapters, access points, or
routers, two operating modes are
possible.

Ad-hoc mode allows you to
connect to another wireless
station in the wireless LAN
network without an access point
or router. Typically, you’d have a
group of PCs with wireless links to
each other in a small office or
home environment (SOHO). Each
PCwould contain a wireless
adapter (PCMCIA, PCI, or USB).

More complicated applica­tions require an access point or
router. Suppose, for example, that
you want to link a wireless
network to a wired network.
When you connect a wireless
LAN and a combination (wireless
and wired) LAN together, it’s
called an infrastructure
configuration. Infrastructure
mode requires an 802.11 access
point. This mode is used on an
enterprise scale for wireless

access to a central database, or
for a wireless application for
mobile workers.

Keep your network safe and secure

When you have a wireless
network, security is a big
concern. You don’t want the
wireless signals to be intercepted
and sent to someone else’s
wireless device. Our wireless
adapters, switches, and routers
encrypt data for superior security
using WEP, TKIP, and AES.
(Windows 98 SE, Me, and
Windows NTuse these three
types of security.)

WEP is Wired Equivalent
Privacy, a data privacy
mechanism based on a 40-bit
shared key algorithm, as
described in the IEEE802.11
standard.

TKIP is a quick-fix method to
quickly overcome the inherent
weaknesses in WEP security,
especially the reuse of encryption
keys. TKIPis involved in the IEEE

802.11i WLANsecurity standard.

AES (Advanced Encryption
Standard), a chip-based security,
has been developed to ensure the
highest degree of security and
authenticity for digital information
that‘s in transit across the
network or stored. This standard
makes more efficient use of
hardware and/or software than
previous encryption standards.
AES is also included in the IEEE

802.11i standard.

Compared with AES, TKIPis a
temporary protocol for replacing
WEPsecurity until manufacturers
implement AESat the hardware
level.

Another way to protect your
network from intruders is
authentication. Three
authentication modes are
possible:None, Shared, or WPA­PSK.

Windows XP and Windows
2000 use two types of
authentication for the wireless
device (adapter, switch, or router)
in a home (WPA-PSK, no server)
or enterprise (WPA,with server).

WPA-PSKis a special mode
designed for home and small­business users who do not have
access to network authentication
servers. In this mode, known as
Pre-Shared Key, you manually
enter the starting password in the
access point or gateway, as well
as in each wireless station in the
network. WPAtakes over
automatically from that point,
keeping unauthorised users that
don’t have a matching password
from joining the network while
encrypting the data traveling
between authorised devices. The
encryption methods include TKIP
and AES.

Configuration is easy

All of the wireless devices
include a configuration utility.
Thispowerful application helps
you configure the adapter, switch,
or router, and monitor the link
status and statistics during the
communication process.

Technically Speaking