Realtek RTL8187SE User Manual

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Realtek RTL8187SE

Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter

User Guide

Version 1.0

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COPYRIGHT

©2006 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. All rights reserved. No part of this
document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval
system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means without
the written permission of Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

DISCLAIMER

Realtek provides this document “as is”, without warranty of any kind, neither
expressed nor implied, including, but not limited to, the particular purpose.
Realtek may make improvements and/or changes in this document or in the
product described in this document at any time. This document could include
technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.

TRADEMARKS

Realtek is a trademark of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation. Other names
mentioned in this document are trademarks/registered trademarks of their
respective owners.

USING THIS DOCUMENT

This document provides detailed user guidelines to provide Realtek
RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter operation and setting-up.
Though every effort has been made to assure that this document is current
and accurate, more information may have become available subsequent to the
production of this guide. In that event, please contact your Realtek
representative for additional information that may help in the development
process.

RELEASE History

Version Author Date Note

1.0 Ying-Che Hsu 2006/9/21 First Release

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Content

Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................4

Chapter 2 Specifications...............................................................................5

Chapter 3 Installation/ Un-installation..........................................................6

3.1 Installation.........................................................................................6

3.2 Un-installation.................................................................................12

Chapter 4 RtWLAN: Wireless LAN Management GUI ...............................14

4.1 Introduction of Main Window.........................................................14

4.2 Station mode...................................................................................18

4.3 AP mode ..........................................................................................24

Appendix 1: How to use 802.1x ( Step by step )........................................29

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Thank you for purchasing Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD
Adapter. Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter is another
perfect combination of both performance and cost-effective product introduced
by Realtek. Realtek hopes you can enjoy the wireless world through this solid
profiled wireless card.

RTL8187SE provides a full solution of all the IEEE 802.11 b/g protocols. Both
of our solutions passed the WIFI tests and will be compatible with all the
wireless products with WIFI logos, including WPA2, WMM, WMM Power Save.
If you have a Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter on hand,
it means you can connect to the wireless world without any difficulty.

RTL8187SE provides all the data rates in the IEEE 802.11 b/g standards.
RTL8187SE supports both the short and long preambles to ensure the
compatibility of legacy wireless products and new ones, saving the panic
works for end users to find compatible products.

Since the security has became one of the most important issue in the wireless
society, Realtek provides you with the full security coverage from the naïve
64/128bits Wep encryptions, second generation WPA-PSK encryption, to the
most advanced WPA2-AES encryption. WPA2 is the latest security standard
currently approved by WIFI standard. Realtek cares about your security on the
wireless world and makes our efforts to protect our users from malicious
sniffers.

QoS, Power saving mode, Adhoc wireless Lan, Wake on Lan(WOL) and other
exciting features are also included in this Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN
MINI CARD Adapter. We will guild you through these exciting features in the
following chapters and we believe that you will have a great satisfactory with its
performance and ease of use.

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Chapter 2 Specifications

Host system connections

Interface Fully complies with MINI CARD
USB date transfer
rate

USB high speed (480Mbps), and full speed (12Mbps)

Wireless LAN (WLAN) environment connections

WLAN Interface Multimode features

Fully complies with IEEE 802.11 b/g specifications

WLAN transfer rate 802.11 b: DQPSK with data scrambling capability to provide

data rate of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11Mbps

802.11 g: A high-speed Fast Fourier
Transform(FFT)/Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT)

provide data rate of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48 and 54Mbps
WLAN Frequency
band

2.4 ~ 2.497 GHz ((Industrial Scientific Medical Band)

Operation Channel Channel 1 ~ 11
Coverage Area Indoors: 100m with straight path

Outdoors: 400m
Compatibility Fully compatible to IEEE 802.11 a/b/g devices
Security Hardware-based IEEE 802.11i encryption/decryption

engine, including 64-bit/128-bit WEP, TKIP, and AES
Antenna Detachable dipolar antenna
LED present
(Green/Red light)

On: link is on

Off: link is off

Quick blinking: data transition

Slow blinking with 5 times: scan wireless nodes
Wake on WLAN Wake up system by wireless LAN.
QoS WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia), WMM Power Save.

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Chapter 3 Installation/ Un-installation

3.1 Installation

Before you proceed with the installation, please notice following descriptions.

Note1: The following installation was operated under Windows XP.

(Procedures are similar for Windows 98SE/Me/2000.)

Note2: If you have installed the USB WLAN driver & utility before, please

uninstall the old version first.

If you install the Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter
into your laptop computer before installing the software program from
the CD.

A. Ignore the following dialog. Please click “Cancel”.

B. Insert the Installation CD to your CD-ROM Drive. Execute the “setup”

program.

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C. Click “Next” to process the installation

D. The system starts to install the software of the WLAN adapter.

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E. The system will automatically detect the card and display “Hardware

Installation” screen. Click “Continue Anyway” to continue.

F. Please click “Finish” to complete the installation.

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If you install Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter into
your laptop computer after installing the software program from the CD.
When you install Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter,
the following dialog will be shown.

A. Please choose “No, not this time” and click “Next”.

B. Please choose “Install from a list or specific location” and click “Next”.

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C. Please choose “Don’t search I will choose the driver to install” and click

“Next”.

D. Please click “Have Disk…”.

E. Please click “Browse..” and specify the path of Realtek RTL8187SE MINI

CARD Adapter Driver.

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F. Please choose “Realtek RTL8187SE MINI CARD Adapter” and click

“Next”.

G. The system will automatically detect the card and display “Hardware

Installation” screen. Click “Continue Anyway” to continue.

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H. Please click “Finish” to complete the installation.

3.2 Un-installation

A. Uninstall the RTL8187SE WLAN Driver from “Start”→ “All Programs”→

“Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless Network Driver and Utility” or “Control
Panel”“”→“Change or Remove Programs”.
Please click “Un-istall” (or “Change/Remove”) to remove RTL8187SE
WLAN driver.

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B. Please click “OK” if you want to remove RTL8187SE USB WLAN Driver.

`

C. Please click “Finish” to complete the un-installation.

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Chapter 4 RtWLAN: Wireless LAN

Management GUI

4.1 Introduction of Main Window

A. Main Menu

The main menu includes five submenus.

 Refresh
As clicking the refresh menu, we can update and re-enumerate the
contents of adapter list area.
 Mode
Wireless configuration was quickly switched to be either [Station] or
[Access Point].

A. Main Menu

B.

Adapter List Area

C.

Property

Area

D.

Global Control Bar

E.

Status Bar

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 View
Enable/disable the present of status bar. Without check mark in front will
make the status bar hidden.

 Help
Click the menu item “About RtWLan” to show the about dialog. The
application version and license information are shown in the about dialog.

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B. Adapter List Area

All connected adapters on this system for multiple adapter
installations are displayed in this area. It is easy for users to
change the selected adapter by one click. The contents of
properties area are dependant on wireless configuration that
the selected adapter was set up. If only single adapter was
installed on the system, only one adapter is always selected.

C. Properties Area

The contents of this area are dependent on current wireless configuration.
The current configuration is determined on previous explanation of submenu
“Mode”. The more detail contents are described in following wireless
configuration sections for both Station and AP mode.

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D. Global Control Bar

Each control items on this bar affects the adapter or management GUI
directly.
 Show Tray Icon
Making this item to be checked and pressing “Close” button, the management
GUI will be minimized and stay on the tray icon located at the right down
corner of Windows. On the contrary, management GUI will shut down while
pressing “Close” button with unchecked condition.

 Radio Off
Turn off the radio for saving power. While the radio being off, the links with
other wireless network nodes are disconnected. User should be care of it
while the wireless configuration is in AP mode. The radio off will cause the
sub network belong to the AP to disconnect with internet/intranet.
 Close
To Shutdown or hide the management GUI depend on the check box of
“Show Tray Icon” whether is checked or not.

E. Status Bar

The hints or status of the management GUI are presented in the status bar.

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4.2 Station mode

The following explanations focus on the properties area.

Infrastructure and Ad-Hoc

With both Infrastructure and Ad-Hoc types, the properties should looks like
the picture beside. Six property pages present different information of current
wireless network status.
Reading the following explanations before you reviewing these pages, it
could help you to well know the wireless environment around the system.
It is easy use to switch property pages just by left button clicking of mouse the
title of each page. The following six sections describe detail information of the
opposite page.

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A. General page

This page represents the general information of this adapter.

1. Status

The connection status with access point this station has.

2. Speed

Current transition speed in Mbps.(Mega-Bits-Per-Second)

3. Type

Current wireless LAN configuration type

4. Encryption

Current encryption mode used

5. SSID

Name of wireless network

6. Signal Strength

The average quality of signal pf packets received from wireless network.
We recommend connecting access point with over 70% signal strength.

7. Throughput diagram

Current throughput, including transmission (Tx) and total traffic (Total).

8. Network Address group

 Mac Address: six two-digital number of this adapter
 IP Address: assigned network address by DHCP server or

self-definition in four three-digital number format

 Subnet Mask: the only valid value is 2555.255.255.0
 Gateway: It comes from connected access point. Your system can not

connect internet with this field empty.

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B. Profile page

This page provides profiles management like add, remove, edit and duplicate
just by pressing the button.

Available Profile(s)

The list box shows all the created profiles.

1. Add

Add a new profile for access point or IBSS (Ad-Hoc mode).

2. Remove

Remove the selected profile

3. Edit

Edit contents of selected profile

4. Duplicate

Make copy of selected profile.

5. Set Default

Set the selected profile as default selection.

6. Available Network page

This page presents all BSS, including access points and IBSS, around this
system. And you could pick one of these network connections.

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1

3
4
5

6

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C. Available Network(s)

Present network connection around this system

1. Refresh

Rescan network connection around this system

2. Add to Profile

Create profile for selected network connection in profile list and add it in to
profile list.

D. Advanced page

1. Power Save

 None: without power save mode
 Min: wake up more frequently to receive packets
 Max: wake up less frequently to receive packets

2. Wireless Mode

 802.11b

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3

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 802.11g/b

3. 802.11b Preamble Mode

 Long: higher quality but with lower performance than preamble short

mode

 Short: Normal quality but with higher performance then preamble long

mode.

 Auto: use the preamble mode of current BSS.

4. Fragment Threshold

The threshold of fragment length. Higher threshold increase data
transition performance with good signal quality. However, in a poor signal
quality environment, data throughput might be worser on high fragment
threshold than low fragment threshold.

5. RTS Threshold

Threshold of Request To Send mechanism. The RTS frame will not send
out until the packet size over threshold.

6. WOL (Wake On LAN)

The wake-on-LAN is applied for remote control purpose. You could wake
up a system through network packets. For Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless
LAN MINI CARD Adapter, only the same adapter on another system could
wake it up.

 Input MAC Address: the six two-digit numbers of Realtek

RTL8187SE Wireless LAN MINI CARD Adapter on target system.

 Wake Up: press this button to wake it up

7. Set Defaults

Restore the default value to be current setting

8. Apply

Apply the current setting to GUI

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E. Status page

 Manufacturer: It always is RealTek.
 NDIS Driver Version:
 Short Radio Header
 Encryption: Current encryption mode.
 Authenticate: authentication state
 Channel Set: selected channel plan currently.
 MAC Address: MAC address of this adapter.
 Data Rate: wireless LAN transition speed
 Channel(Frequency): current channel number
 Status: wireless network status
 SSID: name of connecting access point
 Network Type: indicate current network configuration type
 Power Save Mode: current setting power save mode
 Associated AP MAC: MAC address of connecting access point
 Associated AP IP: IP address of connecting access point
 Up Time: total connection time

F. Statistics page

You could watch the Tx/Rx status of current wireless connection. This page
shows a statistic analysis of packet transition.

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4.3 AP mode

A. General Page

In this page, it provides general information of this access point including
name, MAC address and list of joined stations.

1. SSID

The name of this access point is.

2. BSSID

Six two-digital numbers configure the MAC address of this access point.

3. Association Table

It is the list of joined station on this access point.

4. AID (Association ID)

The AID field is a value assigned by an AP during association that represents
16-bit ID of a station. It is a unique value assigned by AP.

5. MAC address

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2

3

4 5

6

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It is the six two-digit numbers that assemble the MAC address of joined
station.

6. Life Time

It is timer and counts down from 10 minutes whenever the access point
connects the station successfully. If a STA associated to 8187SE SW AP does
not have any interaction with the AP in 10 minutes, it will be disassociated
from the Infra-structure BSS.

7. Config

A dialog of this access point is shown up for configuration modification.

7.1. Network Name (SSID)

Name of the access point searched by other wireless nodes. The length of
SSID should be shorter than 32 characters.

7.2. Channel

Select the wireless channel within current channel plan.

7.3. Network Authentication & Data Encryption

Three types authentication:

 Open System

It is combined with data encryption type to be WEP or disable.
Encryption ~ disabled: you decide to open this access point to every
one without network authentication.
Encryption ~ WEP: you decide to setup the basic data encryption
with a defined network key.

 Shared Key + WEP

You decide to apply both authentication and data encryption to

7.1

7.2

7.3

7.4

7.5

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prevent illegal login.

 WPA-PSK + TKIP

The most advance authentication and data encryption could provide
best security protection.

7.4. ASCII/ PASSPHRASE

The most advance authentication and data encryption could provide best
security protection.

 ASCII: You should provide either 5 or 13 ASCII characters on

Network key edit box.

 PASSPHRASE: You could input words on Network Key edit box.

 64 bits: The generated pass key is 64-bit to be company with data

packets.

 128 bits: The generated pass key is 128-bit to be company with data

packets.

 Hexadecimal: While both ASCII and PASSPHRASE are not checked,

you should input hexadecimal number in the network key box. For
example, 10 digits hex number for 64-bit WEP or 26 digits hex
number for 128-bit WEP.

7.5. Key index (1 ~4)

At most four key index to represent the opposite network key.

B. Advanced Page

Users could setup the advance characteristics of network packet on
transmission in this page.

1. Beacon Interval

This filed indicates the interval between each beacon that this AP sends out

1
2
3

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in unit of TU (1024 micro-seconds).

2. DTIM Period

The DTIM Period field is the number of Beacon intervals between
successive DTIMs.

3. Preamble Mode

 Long: higher quality but with lower performance than preamble short

mode

 Short: Normal quality but with higher performance then preamble long

mode.

 Auto: select the proper preamble mode by current signal frame

information.

C. Statistics Page

The Tx/Rx status of current wireless connection is shown. A statistic analysis
of packet transition is listed.

D. SoftAP Page

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1. ConnName

List all network connections on this system. You should pick up one from the
listed item(s) which network domain you would want to connect.

2. Select

Make the desired network connect to public network.

3. ICS

Internet Connection Sharing. It enables this access point to create the domain
to share this internet/intranet network connection

4. Firewall

Any of a number of security schemes that prevent unauthorized users from
gaining access to a computer network or that monitor transfers of
information to and from the network.

5. Apply

Execute the current setting.

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2

3

4

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Appendix 1: How to use 802.1x ( Step by step )

Step 1 : Set Authentication mode to WPA 802.1x ,or WPA2 802.1x

Step 2 : Set encryption to TKIP ,or AES

Step 3 : Set EAP Type to MD5 , GTC , TLS , LEAP , TTLS ,or PEAP

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Step 3.1.1 : When set TTLS
Set Tunnel Type to CHAP , MSCHAP , MSCHAP-V2 , PAP , or EAP-MD5

Step 3.1.2 : When set PEAP
Set Tunnel Type to MD5 , GTC , TLS , or MSCHAP-V2

Step 3.2 If you do not set PEAP to TLS ,you could use certificate.

Step 4 : After you finish above steps.
You should fill up the following fields( Username , Identity , Password ).
User name : Certificated user name .
Identity : User's identity in the RADIUS server
Password : User's pass word in the RADIUS server