National Datacomm 0640S01 User Manual

USB Adapter

11Mbps Wireless LAN

User’s Guide

National Datacomm Corporation

High Speed

P/N: 85-506300-00

Rev. X1

August 2001

4F, No. 24-2, Industry East 4th road
Scienc e Pa rk, Hsin-C hu
Taiwan, R.O .C .

Technical Support

E-mail: techsup [e-mail]

NDC World Wide We b

www.ndc.com.tw

TRADEMARKS

NDC and InstantWave are trademarks of NDC Communications, Inc. All other
names mentioned in this document are trademarks/registered trademarks of their
respective owners.

NDC provides this document “as is,” without warranty of any kind, neither
expressed nor implied, including, but not limited to, the particular purpose. NDC
may make improvements and/or changes in this manual or in the product(s) and/or
the program(s) described in this manual at any time. This document could include
technical inaccur acies or typograph ical errors.

FCC WARNING

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B
Digi tal device, p ursuant to part 15 of the FCC R ules. T hese 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, i f not installed and used in accord ance with th e in s tructions, may caus e
harmful interferen ce to radio comm unications. Howev er, there is no guarant ee that
interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause
harm fu l in terference to ra di o or televisi on recept ion, whi ch can be determined by
turn in g the equi pm ent off an d on, th e u s er is encouraged t o tr y to correct the
interferen ce by one or m or e of the following mea s ures:



Reori en t or rel ocate th e r eceivin g antenna



Incr ease the separati on betw een th e eq uipment an d receiver



Connect the eq ui pment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to whi ch

the receiver is connected



Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help

You are cautioned that changes or modifications not expressly approved by the
party respon sible for compliance could void your authority to op erat e th e
equipment.

This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the
following two conditions:

1. This devi ce may not cause harmful interfer ence, and

2. This device must accept any interference received, including interference that

may cause undesired operation

ii InstantWave H igh Sp eed USB Adapter

FCC RF Radiation Exposure Statement:

This equipment complies with FCC RF radiation exposure limits set forth
for an uncontrolled environment. This equipment should be installed and
opera ted with a min imum distance of 20 cent imeters between the radiator
and your body.

InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter iii

Packing List

The package contents vary depending on whether you have purchased the PnP
USB Ada pter:

The USB Adapter package should contain the following items:

• One USB Adapter

• One Disk ette for Windows driver

• Two Diskette s for Windows Utility Prog ra m

• This User’s Guide

iv InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter

T able Of Contents

Introduc tion

Congratulations on choosing an InstantWave High Speed wireless networking
family product. InstantWave High Speed was designed with a “Maximizing the
convenience of networking” philosophy in mind. You will find InstantWave High
Speed very easy to configure and use.

This User ’s G uide gives co mprehe nsive instructions on instal ling an d using the
Instan tWave High Speed USB Ada pter s, and also exp lain s how to in stall and use
the InstantWave High Speed Utility Program.

InstantWave High Sp eed Family

The In s tantWave High Speed USB Adapters are part of the InstantWave Hig h
Speed family of easy to use high performance wireless communication products.
The family products include:

• InstantWave High Speed PC Card (NWH610)

• InstantWave High Speed PCI Card (NWH630)

• InstantWave High Speed Access Point (NWH660, NWH650)

• InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter (NWH640)

System Requirements

Hardware Platform

A station must be an x86 compatible PC with a USB interface. The minimum
system configurati on i s the same as th at required to run MS Wind ows (Wi ndows
95OSR2, 98, NT 4.0, 2000).

Software Environment

The sta tions operate in conjuncti on with most of the MS Wind ows (Win dows
95OSR2, 98, NT 4.0, 2000).

InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter v

Glossary

Wireless Network

In the IEEE 802.11 definition, a wireless network is classified as an Ad-Hoc
network or an Infrastructure network.

Ad-Hoc Network

An Ad-Hoc network is formed by a number of wireless stations (without an Access
Point) commun icating vi a r ad io waves. For the user s, the shared resources on th e
wireless network appear exactly as they would on a regular wired network. The
wireless operation of the network is totally transparent. Figure 1 depicts a typical
Ad-Hoc n etwork scenari o.

Wireless Stations

Figure 1. An Ad-Hoc Network

Infrastructure Network

An Infrastructure network is formed by several stations and one Access Point (AP),
with the stations within range of the AP. Figure 2 depicts a typical Infrastructure
network topology.

Wired Compu ters

Access Point

Figure 2. An Infrast ruct ure Network

2 InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter

Server

Wireless Computers (USB Adapter)

Group ID/BSSID

A Group ID (the 802.11 standard uses the term BSSID) is the ID of a wireless cell.
A wireless cell is usually made up of stations in an area that the radio signal can
comfortably cover. In other words, any wireless station in the cell can
commun icate with any other within r each of the rad io signal (Figure 3).

Access Point

Wireless
Stations

Figure 3. A Wir eless Cell (Gr oup)

Domain Name/ESSID

A domain is usually defined by the network administrator as a segment/subnet of a
larg e n etwork an d ma y be m ade up of overl apping wireless cells. Wireless nodes
can roam freely within the same domain without disconnecting from the network.
Figure 4 depicts a common wireless network setup.

Server

Access Point

Figure 4. Roaming in the Same Domain

Roaming

The convenience of a mobile PC is the ability to move freely. The concept is
similar to that of a cellular phone moving from one base station to another.
InstantWave High Speed offers built-in high performance seamless roaming
capabilities.

Carrier Set

InstantWave products use the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) band
to communicate through radio waves. Different countries offer different radio
frequencies t o be used as the IS M ban d. There are four frequency ba nds defined
by 802.11: Japan (2.471GHz – 2.497 GHz), USA, Extended Japan, Canada, and
Europe (2.4 GHz – 2.4835 GH z), Spai n (2. 445 GH z – 2.475 GHz), France (2.4465
GHz – 2.4835 GHz). If a user wants to use InstantWave High Speed in a country
not listed above, he/she needs to check with their government’s regulatin g body to

InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter 3

find the correct frequency band to use. All InstantWave High Speed products are
supplied preset to the country of sale’s frequency band.

Access Point

An Access Point (AP) provides a transparent bridged connection between a wired
network and a wireless network and allows wireless stations to communicate with
devices attached to a wired network.

It manages the flow of data packets from the wired LAN to the Wireless LAN and
vice versa .

4 InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter

Getting Started

This section explains how to quickly setup a wireless station.

Hardware Installation

USB Adapter Installation

The USB Adapter fits into a USB slot. The antenna is encased in a

plastic case, in line with the main body of the USB Adapter, such that

it extends outside the USB slot when the card is inserted.

step2. Rep eat the above proced u re for each of the other comput ers to be

networked

LEDs

The USB each have two LED . In normal u se th e or ange LED wh en the adapt er is
activity. The green LED is used for DC power.

InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter 5

Driver In stallation/Uninstallation

For Windows 95 see the following section, for Windows 98 go to page 9, for
Windows NT 4.0 go to page 11.

Installation in Windows 95

You shoul d begin by ide ntifyin g your ve rsion. Th e original version of W indows 95
(old version) is not supported by the ad ap ter.
Right click My Computer and click Properties. The System Properties screen will
open ( Figure 5).

Check the
version number

Figure 5. System P ropertie s

On the General card you will find the Windows 95 version number:

• If the version number is 4.00.950 or 4.00.950a you are running the

original version of Windows 95. (not supported by the adapter)

• For version 4.00.950 B or later is Windows 95OSR2, go to procedure A

on page 6

Procedure A

step1. Turn on the power and start Windows 95
step2. Wi ndows 95 will d etect th e adapter and the Update Device Driver

6 InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter

(For W indows 95 4.00.950 B and 4.00.950 C)

Wizard dialog box will open (Figure 6)

Figure 6. Update Devic e Driver Wizard-1

step3. Insert the Instan tWave High Sp eed driver di sk an d cl ick Next
step4. The Update Device Driver Wizard will indicate that Windows 95 found

the dr iver in the root d irectory (Figure 7). Click Finish

.

Figure 7. Update Devic e Driver Wizard-2

step5. The installer will copy the driver files into the system. There is a

known problem with the Windows 95 OSR2 device installer. The
installer may default to the wr ong source lo cation. Typi cally, the
installer source path defaults to the Windows installation location. The
user should man ually redirect the installer to the cor rect source locat ion.
The following dialog boxes will be displayed

Figure 8. Insert Disk

InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter 7

Figure 9. Copying Files

step6. Click OK on each screen. After the driver files have been copied, setup

is co mp lete

step7. De pendin g on your c urrent in stallation of Windows 95, the setup

program may ask you to insert the Windows 95 disk

step8. If t he TCP/I P pr ot ocol s are required (necessary for Intern et access), ad d

them by clicking Start/Control Panel/Network/Configuration

That completes the hardware and driver installation.

Uninstalling the Adapter from Windows 95

You may need to uninstall your adapter for the following reasons:

1. The installation fails or is interrupted by unknown factors. If this happens the

InstantWave High Speed Adapter will be marked with an exclamation mark
“!” in Device Manager. Uninstall the adapter using methods described below
and then restart your computer. The Windows 95 plug and play function will
detect the adapter again

2. You want to remove the device
The uninstallation process is as follows:

To completely remove the adapter and driver from your system you will need to

physically remove the adapter (with the system powered off). The removal
procedu re is th e reverse of the Hardware Insta llation pr oced u re on page 5. Restart
the computer and then proceed as follows:

step1. In Control Panel click the Network icon
step2. Hig hlight the InstantWa ve High Speed ada pter dri ver en try
step3. Click the Remove button to remove the old InstantWave High Speed

adapter driver

step4. Click OK. The system will ask you to restart the PC. Click Yes

8 InstantWave High Speed USB Adapter