NETGEAR MA521NA User Manual

User's Guide

802.11b Wireless PC Card

2.4 GHz MA521

Introduction

Congratulations on your purchase of NETGEAR MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card. With
this PC Card you will get ultimate mobility at home, in your office, or while you are traveling,
and it frees you from traditional Ethernet wiring.

This user’s guide shows you how to connect the PC Card and configure it with your access
point. Setup is easy – follow the instruction in this guide and your system will be up and
running quickly.

Package Contents

The product package should contain:

• MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card

• MA521 Resource CD

• User’s guide

• Warranty card

• Support information card

System Requirements

Before installing the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card, please make sure that your computer
system has the following:

• A computer with a 32-bit CardBus slot.

• Please note that not all laptop or portable computer PC Card slots are CardBus, please
check your computer’s reference guide for more details.

Resource CD, User's Guide,
Warranty card and Support information card

MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card

Wireless PC Card

32-bit CardBus MA521

32-bit CardBus MA521

802.11b • 2.4GHz

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• Windows 98/Me/2000/XP (be sure to have the Windows Installation CD-ROM ready for
use during installation).

• At least 5 Mbytes disk space for installing the driver and utility programs.

LED Indicators

There are two LEDs on the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card: Pwr and Lnk. The green Pwr
LED indicates the power of the card. The green Lnk LED indicates the wireless link condition
of the station with another wireless node or the associated Access Point.

Installing the MA521 Wireless PC Card

IMPORTANT NOTE: You must first install the software before you plug the card into
your computer!

Follow these steps to install the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card.

Install the MA521 Driver and Utility Software

1. Turn on your computer.

2. Insert the MA521 Resource CD into the CD-ROM drive.

LED Activity

Meaning of LED Activity

Pwr

The Pwr indicator lights green when the MA521 802.11b
Wireless PC Card is receiving power, otherwise, it is off.

Lnk

The Lnk indicator steady green when the MA521 802.11b
Wireless PC Card is connected to a network successfully.
Otherwise the Lnk indicator is off.

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3. The Autostart Wizard screen will appear, as shown here:

4. Click the

Install Driver & Utility option.

5. If the Autorun wizard does not automatically start, go to your Windows Start menu and choose
Run, and type D:/Setup.exe (“D” represents your CD-ROM drive letter), and click OK.

6. The InstallShield Wizard screen will appear. Click Next to continue.

7. The Choose Destination Location screen will display the default Destination Folder. If you
want to change the default folder, click Browse and choose a different destination folder. Then,
click Next to continue to the next screen.

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8. Modify the Program Folders field, if desired. Click Next to continue. Install Shield will start
copying files onto your system.

9. Click

Finish to complete installing the Configuration Utility.

Install the MA521 Wireless PC Card

1. Insert the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card into an available CardBus slot on your computer
as shown here.

2. Windows will automatically detect the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card and the Found New
Hardware Wizard dialog box will appear.

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MA521 Wireless PC Card
in a Notebook Computer

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3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver for the MA521 802.11b Wireless
PC Card.

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For Windows 98/Me users, once the [Please insert the disk labeled “Windows 98/Me
CD-ROM,” and then click OK] window appears, enter the path corresponding to the
appropriate drives and click OK. Usually these files can be found at C:\Windows or

C:\Windows\System.

• For Windows 2000 users, a Digital Signature Not Found message may appear. Click

Yes to proceed.

• For Windows XP users, a Windows Logo Testing Not Found dialog box may appear.

Click Continue Anyway to proceed.

4. Click Finish to complete the installation.

Verify the Driver Installation

It is a good idea to confirm that the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card has been properly
installed. Follow the instructions that apply to your computer system:

1. From the Windows desktop, right-click My Computer.

2. Click Properties.

3. Open Device Manager:

• Windows 98/Me users – Select the Device Manager folder tab.

• Windows 2000/XP users – Select the Hardware folder tab, and click on the Device

Manager button.

4. Double-click Network Adapters. There should be no yellow exclamation mark or red cross
icon on the NETGEAR MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card selection, as shown here.

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5. Double-click NETGEAR MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card. On the General folder
tab, the Device Status window should indicate that the device is working properly, as
shown here:

The installation of the MA521 Wireless PC Card driver is complete.

Configuring the MA521 Wireless PC Card

NETGEAR’s wireless Configuration Utility program will help you learn more about your
wireless network, so that you can customize it to better suit your networking needs. The
Configuration Utility program will provide information about signal quality and link
conditions and let you modify various configurable wireless parameters.

Now that the MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card has been installed, you can use the
NETGEAR MA521 Wireless Configuration Utility to view and customize configuration
settings and features.

To display the NETGEAR MA521 Wireless Configuration Utility:

• Open the NETGEAR MA521 Adapter programs group or double-click the MA521 icon
that appears in the Windows System Tray, as shown here:

MA521 Wireless Adapter SysTray icon

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About the MA521 SysTray Application

The SysTray (System Tray) resides on one end of the taskbar in the Microsoft Windows
Desktop. It displays interface icons for memory-resident applications that execute continuously
in the background, such as the clock, speaker volume, and virus detection.

Once you have completed the utility installation, the Windows SysTray will show the icon in
different colors, as described here:

Double-click the Wireless Adapter SysTray icon to activate the wireless Configuration Utility
for the MA521 Wireless PC Card. You can click any of the folder tabs in the NETGEAR
MA521 Wireless Configuration Utility dialog box to view the current status or modify
operational parameters.

For detailed information on wireless networking, refer to Wireless Network Fundamentals, on
page 16.

The MA521 Configuration Utility contains six sections:

• Status

• Configuration

• Profile

• Site Survey

• Statistics

• About

Note: The above sections are always available by clicking on the tab at the top of the
Configuration Utility window.

Color

Ad-Hoc Mode

Infrastructure Mode

Red

Red The Wireless Adapter has
not initiated communication
with any other wireless node.

Either the Wireless Adapter is not able to link to any
Access Point, or the link between the Wireless
Adapter and the Access Point is lost.

Green

The Wireless Adapter has
communicated successfully
with another wireless node.

The Wireless Adapter has established good
communication with an Access Point and the signal
is strong.

Yellow N/A

The link condition between the Wireless Adapter
and the associated Access Point is weak.

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