Sierra Wireless MC8781U User Manual

AirCard

800 Series

Wireless USB Modem

Installation Guide

Includes:

· 875U

· 880U

· 881U

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Rev 1.2.2

Preface

Important Notice Due to the nature of wireless communications, transmission

and reception of data can never be guaranteed. Data may be delayed, corrupted (i.e., have errors) or be totally lost. Although significant delays or losses of data are rare when wireless devices such as the Sierra Wireless modem are used in a normal manner with a well-constructed network, the Sierra Wireless modem should not be used in situations where failure to transmit or receive data could result in damage of any kind to the user or any other party, including but not limited to personal injury, death, or loss of property. Sierra Wireless accepts no responsibility for damages of any kind resulting from delays or errors in data transmitted or received using the Sierra Wireless modem, or for failure of the Sierra Wireless modem to transmit or receive such data.

Safety and Hazards Do not operate the Sierra Wireless modem in areas where

blasting is in progress, where explosive atmospheres may be present, near medical equipment, near life support equipment, or any equipment which may be susceptible to any form of radio interference. In such areas, the Sierra Wireless modem MUST BE POWERED OFF. The Sierra Wireless modem can transmit signals that could interfere with this equipment.

Limitation of Liability

Do not operate the Sierra Wireless modem in any aircraft, whether the aircraft is on the ground or in flight. In aircraft, the Sierra Wireless modem MUST BE POWERED OFF. When operating, the Sierra Wireless modem can transmit signals that could interfere with various onboard systems.

Note: Some airlines may permit the use of cellular phones while the aircraft is on the ground and the door is open. Sierra Wireless modems may be used at this time.

The driver or operator of any vehicle should not operate the Sierra Wireless modem while in control of a vehicle. Doing so will detract from the driver or operator's control and operation of that vehicle. In some states and provinces, operating such communications devices while in control of a vehicle is an offence.

The information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Sierra Wireless. SIERRA WIRELESS AND ITS AFFILIATES SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM LIABILITY FOR ANY AND ALL DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, GENERAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF PROFITS OR

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AirCard 800 Series USB Modem Installation Guide

QUALCOMM

REVENUE OR ANTICIPATED PROFITS OR REVENUE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY SIERRA WIRELESS PRODUCT, EVEN IF SIERRA WIRELESS AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR THEY ARE FORESEEABLE OR FOR CLAIMS BY ANY THIRD PARTY.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, in no event shall Sierra Wireless and/or its affiliates aggregate liability arising under or in connection with the Sierra Wireless product, regardless of the number of events, occurrences, or claims giving rise to liability, be in excess of the price paid by the purchaser for the Sierra Wireless product.

Patents Portions of this product may be covered by some or all of the

following US patents:

5,515,013 5,629,960 5,845,216 5,847,553 5,878,234 5,890,057 5,929,815 6,169,884 6,191,741 6,199,168 6,339,405 6,359,591 6,400,336 6,516,204 6,561,851 6,643,501 6,653,979 6,697,030 6,785,830 6,845,249 6,847,830 6,876,697 6,879,585 6,886,049 6,968,171 6,985,757 7,023,878 7,053,843 7,106,569 7,145,267 7,200,512 D442,170 D459,303

and other patents pending.

This product includes technology licensed from:

Licensed by QUALCOMM Incorporated under one or more of the following United States patents and/or their counterparts in other nations:

4,901,307 5,056,109 5,101,501 5,109,390 5,228,054 5,267,261 5,267,262 5,337,338 5,414,796 5,416,797 5,490,165 5,504,773 5,506,865 5,511,073 5,535,239 5,544,196 5,568,483 5,600,754 5,657,420 5,659,569 5,710,784 5,778,338

Manufactured or sold by Sierra Wireless or its licensees under one or more patents licensed from InterDigital Group.

Trademarks AirCard

trademarks of Sierra Wireless. Watcher Sierra Wireless, registered in the European Community. Sierra Wireless, the Sierra Wireless logo, the red wave design, and the red-tipped antenna are trademarks of Sierra Wireless.

Windows® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

and “Heart of the Wireless Machine®” are registered

is a trademark of

4 2130784

Preface

Contact Information

QUALCOMM® is a registered trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. Used under license.

Other trademarks are the property of the respective owners.

Sales Desk: Phone: 1-604-232-1488

Hours: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time

E-mail: sales@sierrawireless.com

Post: Sierra Wireless

13811 Wireless Way Richmond, BC Canada V6V 3A4

Fax: 1-604-231-1109

Web: www.sierrawireless.com

Consult our website for up-to-date product descriptions, documentation, application notes, firmware upgrades, troubleshooting tips, and press releases:

www.sierrawireless.com

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Table of Contents

Welcome to the AirCard 800 Series wireless USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

AirCard 800 Series wireless USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Supported operating systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The AirCard USB modem as a network card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA service support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Frequency band support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Your account and coverage area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

AirCard USB modem software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Package contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The SIM card and your account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Install the AirCard USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Insert the battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Insert the SIM card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Install Watcher software and the AirCard USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Set Internet Explorer to use the AirCard USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Remove the AirCard USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Remove the SIM card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Configure your account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Set up a profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Watcher basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Launch Watcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Watcher window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

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Icons and indicators on the main Watcher window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

View options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Status icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Turn the radio on and off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Frequency band and network selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Frequency band selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Network selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Care and maintenance of your USB modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

LED operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Radio frequency and electrical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Environmental specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Regulatory and safety

information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Important notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Safety and hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Important safety / compliance information for North American users. . . . . 38

EU regulatory conformity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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1: Welcome to the AirCard 800 Series wireless USB modem

• AirCard 800 Series

wireless USB modem

• Your account and

coverage area

• AirCard USB modem

software

• Package contents

AirCard 800 Series wireless USB modem

The AirCard 800 Series 3G wireless USB modem enables you

to connect to the Internet, send and receive e-mail, connect to a corporate network / VPN, or view streaming video, without the need of a network cable or phone line.

Caution: Do not insert your AirCard USB modem into the USB slot before installing the software.

The AirCard USB modem fits into the USB slot on your notebook or desktop PC.

Supported operating systems

The AirCard USBmodem works in notebook or desktop PCs running Windows

Vista™, XP, or 2000 or Mac OS® X.

The AirCard USB modem as a network card

The AirCard USB modem can be configured to provide the “always-on” data connection that an Ethernet card or other wired LAN card provides. That is, you can set options in Wat cher ® (a program that comes with the AirCard USB modem) that cause the AirCard USB modem to establish a network connection whenever you insert it, assuming GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, or HSDPA service is available. (See

“GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA service support” on page 10.) Otherwise, you can configure Watcher to connect

only when you click the

The AirCard USB modem connection provides access to the Internet. Once the connection is established, you can open your browser and connect to any web site available on the Internet, or access other Internet services (such as e-mail).

Connect button.

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AirCard 800 Series USB Modem Installation Guide

GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA service support

GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA are add-on data services to GSM mobile phone networks. The maximum theoretical data speeds when connected on these services are:

• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)—56 kbps (kilobits

per second)

• EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment)—236 kbps

• UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)—

384 kbps

• HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access)—up to

3.6 Mbps (Megabits per second)

GPRS and EDGE are 2G (second generation) data services. UMTS and HSDPA are 3G (third generation) data services.

When establishing a connection, your AirCard USB modem uses the fastest available service. If, for example, you are using an AirCard USB modem in an area that has GPRS and EDGE service but not UMTS or HSDPA service, the AirCard USB modem connects using EDGE service.

Once the connection is established, you have access to all Internet services.

Frequency band support

Every GSM network operates on one of these radio frequency bands when providing 2G (GPRS or EDGE) service:

• 850 MHz band—(also called the cellular band) used by

some North American service providers

• 900 MHz band—used by some European service

providers

• 1800 MHz band—used by some European and Asian

service providers

• 1900 MHz band—(also called the PCS band) used by

many North American service providers

Every network that offers 3G UMTS/HSDPA service does so on one of these bands:

• WCDMA 850—used by North American service providers

• WCDMA 1900—used by North American service

providers

• WCDMA 2100—used by European, Asian, and Australian

service providers

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Welcome to the AirCard 800 Series wireless USB modem

The AirCard USB modem supports quad-band 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS /EDGE, and tri-band 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz WCDMA / HSDPA frequency bands.

Your account and coverage area

Note: If you purchased the AirCard USB modem from a GSM service provider, you may already have an account. Otherwise, your retailer should be able to provide you with the names of companies that provide this service.

Companies that operate GSM networks and provide access to those networks are called service providers. You must have an account with a GSM service provider that offers HSDPA or UMTS service to use the AirCard USB modem’s 3G capability. (The AirCard USB modem is backward compatible to 2G service.)

When you obtain your account, you are given a SIM card, also called a “smart card” or “smart chip”. (Depending on how you purchased your AirCard USB modem, you may already have an account, and your SIM card may have been included in your package.) The SIM card contains account information and must be inserted in the AirCard USB modem anytime you use it.

Before you can use the AirCard USB modem, you must install the AirCard USB modem software and ensure that your AirCard USB modem is configured to use your account. Instructions on completing these steps are provided in the chapters that follow.

Once installed and configured, you can connect to the Internet with the AirCard USB modem in any area in which you can obtain GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, or HSDPA service.

Your ability to obtain service depends on these factors:

Note: The fee for service is usually higher when you are “roaming” (connected to a network other than the one belonging to your service provider).

• Proximity to a GSM network—You must be within the

coverage area of a GSM network in order to use the AirCard USB modem.

• Service provider—If you are within the coverage area of a

network that is not operated by your own service provider, you can obtain service only if there is a roaming agreement between your service provider and the network operator.

• Account provisions—Your account may restrict your

usage to certain networks or limit the amount of time you can use the network.

• Frequency band—You cannot connect to networks

operating in bands not supported by your AirCard USB modem, regardless of roaming agreements or account provisions.

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AirCard 800 Series USB Modem Installation Guide

Most service providers have coverage maps on their web sites.

AirCard USB modem software

The AirCard USB modem comes with the following software (made by Sierra Wireless):

• The Watcher program for Windows that you use to

manage the AirCard USB modem and monitor your connections .

• The driver software that forms the interface between the

network card and your Windows operating system.

Package contents

Your AirCard USB modem package contains the following:

• AirCard USB modem

• Rechargeable battery

• Docking cradle with attached cable (inclusion dependent

on service provider)

• Installation CD containing the AirCard USB modem

software for Windows and this installation guide

• Quick Start Guide

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2: The SIM card and your account

You require a GSM account and a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card to use the AirCard USB modem. The SIM card is a small chip (about the size of a postage stamp) that you insert into the AirCard USB modem. The SIM contains account information used by the network to validate your access.

Note: Without a valid SIM card and a valid account, your AirCard USB modem will not work.

Note: Keep a written record, in a secure place, of the account information that your service provider gives you. Instructions on creating a profile are in the section “Configure your

account” on page 23.

Depending on how you purchased your AirCard USB modem, you may already have an account. In this case, the SIM should be included in your package. Otherwise, your retailer should direct you to a local company that provides GSM service.

To activate an account, the service provider needs from you:

• Billing information (such as a credit card number) used to

collect payment for your network usage

• Possibly the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment

Identity), depending on your service provider. This number, printed on the AirCard USB modem box and on the AirCard USB modem label, identifies your device (AirCard USB modem model) on the GSM network.

Your AirCard USB modem must be configured to use your account. If purchased from a service provider, your AirCard USB modem may have been pre-configured. Otherwise, you must set up a profile in Watcher. Instructions on setting up a profile are described in Chapter 4 on page 23.

If you change GSM service providers (such as if you move to a new city), you will need a new SIM card from your new service provider. You will also need to set up a new profile.

For information on installing the SIM card, see “Insert the SIM

card” on page 16.

For information on removing the SIM card, see “Remove the

SIM card” on page 21.

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