Boca Systems Wireless LAN PC Card 11Mbps manual

1 1Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card User ’ s Guide V ersion 1.45[...]

1 INFORMA TION T O USER Federal Communication s Commission State ment This equi pment ha s been tested a nd f ound to comply with the li mits for a Cla ss B digital device, pursua nt to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These li mits are designed to provide rea son able prote ction against harmful interference in a residenti al installation. This equi pmen[...]

T able of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................................3 The 1 1Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card...................................................................3 Features........................................................................................................[...]

Chapter 1: Introduction The 1 1Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card The 1 1Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card now has a new , higher-powered antenna that provides a greater range than ever . The increased sensitivity helps filter out interference and notice to keep your signal clear . Improved error correction in the chipset keeps you operating at higher transmission [...]

Package Contents  One 1 1Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card.  One setup Utility CD-ROM (User Guide on CD).  Quick Installation Guide. System Requirements  One PCMCIA T ype II or T ype III slot.  PCMCIA revision 2.10 compliant card and socket services.  Operating System: Windows 98, ME, NT , 2000, or XP .  2M bytes free disk space for ut[...]

Chapter 2: Network Configuration and Planning Network T opology Wireless LAN Basic 5 An Ad-Hoc wireless LAN is a group of computers, each equipped with one WLAN adapter , connected as an independent wireless LAN. Computers in a specific Ad-Hoc wireless LAN must be configured to share the same radio channel.(Fig 2-1) Fig 2-1 Ad-Hoc Wireless LAN Note[...]

6 The adapter provides access to a wired LAN for wireless workstations. An integrated wireless and wired LAN is called an infrastructure configuration. A group of WLAN PC users and an Access Point compose a Basic Service Set (BSS). Each WLAN PC in a BSS can talk to any computer in the wired LAN infrastructure via the Access Point.(Fig 2-2) An infra[...]

Roaming Infrastructure mode also supports roaming capabilities for mobile users. More than one BSS can be configured as an Extended Service Set (ESS). The continuous network allows users to roam freely within an ESS. All WLAN PCs and Access Point within one ESS must be configured with the same ESS ID. Before enabling an ESS with roaming capability [...]

Chapter 3: Installing the Drivers and Con- figuration Utility for Windows 9X, ME, 2000 Running the Auto Driver & Utility Installation 1. Click “ Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP Driver & Utility - PCMCIA ” to install driver/utility for your PCMCIA WLAN Card. Y ou will see Welcome to the InstallShield W izard for 802.1 1 W ireless LAN . Click ?[...]

9 3. The installation provides you to install package Custom or T ypical . (Fig 3-4) 4. If “Custom” be chosen, you can select package individually . If you choose “T ypical” , The 3 packages will be installed in your system. (Fig 3-5) The 3 packages mean Application, PCMCIA card driver , and USB adapter driver . (Fig 3-6). Fig 3-2 Install W[...]

Fig 3-7 Select Program Folder 10 5. Y ou can specify a folder name of this program. (Fig 3-7) 6. After copying files, you will finish the installation. (Fig 3-8) Inserting the adapter After properly inserting the Network Adapter into your notebook, continue with the WLAN driver and configuration utility installation.(Fig 3-9) NOTE: The PCMCIA slot [...]

After installing PCMCIA WLAN Card driver and utility . Please insert the WLAN Card. Y ou will see Found New Hardware. Please select “Install the software automatically” then click “Next>” (Fig 3-10). The screen in Windows XP (Fig 3-1 1) will appear click “Continue Anyway” . The Win- dows has finished installing software for the devic[...]

Chapter 4: Configuration Utility Using the Configuration Utility The Configuration Utility is provided to allow you further customization of the WLAN PC Card and your wireless network. After the Configuration Utility has been installed, an icon will placed in the system tray (next to click button of your screen) when the WLAN PC Card is inserted, a[...]

Fig 4-2 The Signal Strength field will display a bar indicating the percentage, between 0 and 100 percent, of the strength of the signal. The higher the percentage, the stronger the signal. The Link Quality field will display a bar indicating the percentage, between 0 and 100 percent, of the quality of the link. The higher the percentage, the bette[...]

An acronym for Service Set Identifier , SSID is the unique name shared among all points in a wireless network. The SSID must be identical for all points in the network. It is case sensitive and must not exceed 32 characters. The Tx Rate field shows the current transfer rate for the Network PC Card. T o optimize perfor- mance and range, the Tx Rate [...]

Encryption On the Encryption screen, show in Fig 4-5, you can set the level of security with which you will be using the WLAN PC Card. Under the drop-down box, you can choose to have WEP encryption Disabled , 64-Bit , or 128- Bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an encryption scheme use to protect wireless data communi- cation. If you decide to us[...]

Advanced The Advanced screen (Fig 4-6) allows you to set Fragmentation Threshold , the RTS/CTS Threshold , and the Preamble T ype . The Fragmentation Threshold V alue indicates how much of the network resources is devoted to recovering packet errors. The value should remain at its default setting of 2,346. If you experience high packet error rates,[...]

The About screen (Fig 4-8) shown the release information for the Driver V ersion, Firmware V ersion, Application V ersion, and MAC Address. Use the “Exit” button in order to exit the application. About 17 The RTS Threshold V alue should remain at its default setting of 2,347. A preamble is a signal used to synchronize the transmission timing be[...]

Fig 4-8 18 How to Uninstall the Configuration & Monitor Utility In order to uninstall the Configuration & Monitor Utility from Windows 9X/ME/2000/XP , you can RUN Setup utility again then you will see Fig 4-9 then step by step remove all installed components. It is recommended to stop the WLAN adapter and “Exit” the application prior to[...]

Chapter 5: Installation Procedure Under Windows NT 4.0 About Windows NT 4.0 Use the procedures described in this section to install and configure the WLAN adapter under MS Windows NT 4.0. Although Windows NT 4.0 are similar in appearance wit Windows 95/98/ME, and Windows 2000, they have different philosophy when installing a new hardware. Throughou[...]

20 3. In the “Network” settings window you will be prompted to install Windows NT Networking in case no network has been installed yet. Click “Y es” and follow the instruction on the screen. If networking had been already installed, you will see a dialog with several tabs. In the “Adapters” tab click the “Add” button. Windows NT Net[...]

NOTE: If the card is not working properly , after a restart procedure, you should make sure that your system has free resources ever it may shows them as being available. 3 3 3 3 3 21 7. Finally , when the installation has been completed, (Fig 5-6). you will need to restart your computer . 6. During the installation, a dialog box appears asking for[...]

Configuration / Uninstall In order to configure the card, please use the Configuration and Monitor Utility described in a different section of this document. This application lies on the system tray of your machine, as long as the card is inserted into your system, and permits you to change the parameters of the card “on the fly”. T o uninstall[...]

23 Chapter 6: Installation Procedure Under Windows XP About Windows XP Use the procedures described in this section to install and configure the WLAN adapter under MS Windows XP Throughout this section it is assumed that you have a basic working knowledge of WinXP . However , in this paragraph, some specific feature of WinXP are briefly explained. [...]

24 Uninstall Procedure Under WinXP In order to uninstall the WLAN adapter from WinXP , you must right click on the “Properties” option under “My computer” icon. Then, under the “Hardware” tab, select the “Device Manager” and expand the “Network Adapters”. After you right click on the “WLAN 1 1 Mbps PCMCIA ADAPTER-E” option, [...]

25 Appendix A: T roubleshooting Adapter Installation Problems If your computer can not find the WLAN PC card or the network driver doesn’t install correctly , check the following:  Make sure the adapter is securely seated in the PCMCIA slot. When you insert the wire- less adapter into the notebook’s slot, a beep should be heard if the adapte[...]

26 Appendix B: Glossary Access Point- An internetworking device that seamlessly connects wired and wireless networks together . Ad-Hoc- An Ad-Hoc wireless LAN is a group of computers each with wireless adapters, connected as an independent wireless LAN. Ba ckbone- The part of a network that connects most of the syste ms a nd networks together a nd [...]

27 Fragmentation- Breaking a packet into smaller units when transmitting over a network medium that cannot support the original size of the packet. Infrastructure- An integrated wireless and wired LAN is called an infrastructure configuration. IRQ- Interrupt ReQuest, A hardware interrupt on a PC. There are 16 IRQ lines used to signal the CPU that p[...]

Appendix C: Specifications Radio: Complies with IEEE 802.1 1b Frequency Ba nd: 2400 ~ 2483.5MHz ( for US, Ca na da, a nd ETSI) 2400 ~ 2497MHz (f or Ja pa n) Modulation TYPE: CCK,BPSK,QPSK Operating Cha nnels: IEEE 802.1 1b complia nt 1 1 cha nnels (US, Ca nada) 13 cha nnels (ETSI) 14 cha nnels (Ja pa n) Radio T echnology: Direct Sequence Sprea d Sp[...]

PCMCIA-03-05-010[...]