LevelOne MIMO Wireless PCMCIA Adapter manual

Level One W W P P C C - - 0 0 5 5 0 0 0 0 M M I I M M O O W W i i r r e e l l e e s s s s P P C C M M C C I I A A A A d d a a p p t t e e r r User Manual V1.0.1-0601[...]

CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCT ION ............................................................................. 1 1.1 Features ................................................................................................................... ...... 2 1.2 Specifications ........................................................................................[...]

1 Introduction Thank you for purchasing the LevelOne MIMO Wireless LAN PC Card. With the MIMO technology, this card enables you to connect to wireless networks at farther distances than before. The card has two internal antennas for signal reception and one internal antenna for high power si gnal transmission. Not only the connection distance is en[...]

1.1 Features • Works with both IEEE 802. 11b and IEEE 802.11g products. • High-speed transfer data rate. • Farther coverage, less dead spaces and highe r throughput with MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology. • Supports Turbo Mode to enhance the data transfe r speed within the specific wirel ess network. • Supports WMM (IEEE 80[...]

1.3 Package Contents Before you begin the inst allation, please check the items of your p ackage. The p ackage should include the following items: • MIMO Wireless PCMCIA Adapter • CD (Driver/Utility/User Manual.) • Quick Guide If any of the above items is missing, contact your supplier as soon as pos sible. 3[...]

2 Installation Procedure Before you proceed with the inst allation, please notice following descriptions. Note1: Please do not install the card into your laptop computer before ins talling the software program from the CD. Note2: The following installation was operated under Windo ws XP. (Procedures are similar for Windows 98SE/ME/2000.) Note3: If [...]

B. Click “Y es” to process the inst allati on if you accept the license agreement. C. In Windows XP , there is a “Windows Zero Configur ation T ool” for you to setup wireless cards. Y ou can choose to configure the card through the “Zero Configuration T ool” or the “LevelOne Configuration T ool” for the card. It is recommended to ch[...]

D. If you need the card to operate with better performance, plea se choose the “Optimize for performance” to enable the Tx Burst mode. Or you ca n choose “Optimize for Wi-Fi mode” to let the card run in st andard wireless network. E. The system start s to install the sof tware of the card. Follow the instruction of the program to plug in th[...]

F. Please click “Finish” to complete the installation. 7[...]

3 Configuration Utility LevelOne Configuration Utility is a powe rful applicat ion that helps you configure the PC card and monitor the link status and the statis tics during the communi cation process. When the card is installed, Level One configuration utility will be displayed automatically. This card will auto connect to wireless device whi ch [...]

In Windows XP , there is a “Windows Zero Configuration T ool” for you to setup wireless client s. If you want to switch the configuration utilities, please follow one of the ways as bel ow . First Way Right click the icon in the system tray and select “Use LevelOne Config as Configuration Utility”. Second Way A. Right-click the icon and sel[...]

C. Uncheck “Use Windows to config ure my wireless network settings” to enable the utilit y for the card. Note: If “Wireless Zero Configuration” is enabled, y ou can only configure the advance setting or check the link status and statistics from t he configuration utility of the card. Highlight the profile in the preferred net work list an d[...]

3.1 Site Survey When you open the LevelOne Configuration Utility, the syste m will sca n all the channels to find all the access points/stations within the acce ssible range of your card and automatically connect to the wireless device with the highest sign al strength. Fr om the “Site Survey”, a ll the networks nearby will be listed. You can c[...]

3.2 Profile The “Profiles List” is for you to manage the netwo rks you con nect to frequently. You are able to Add/Delete/Edit/Activate a profile. Parameter Description Profiles List The profiles list display all the profiles and the relative setting s of the profiles including Profile Name, SSID, Cha nnel, etc. This sign indicates the activate[...]

3.2.1 Configure the Profile 3.2.1.1 Configuration Parameter Description Profile Name Define a recognizable profile name for you to identify the dif ferent networks. SSID The SSID (up to 32 printabl e ASCII characters) is the unique name identified in a WLAN. The ID prevents the unintentional merging of two co-located WLANs. Y ou may specify a SSID [...]

Point or Router . Ad-Hoc – Select this mode if you want to conne ct to another wireless st ations in the Wireless LAN network without through an Access Point or Router . TX Power If you want to lower the tran smit power of the card for saving the power of the system, you can se lect the lower percent ages from the list. The lower po wer will caus[...]

Fragment Th reshold The value defines the maxi mum size of p ackets; any packet size larger than the value will be fragmented. If you have decrea sed this value and experience high p acket error rates, you can increase it again, but it will likely decrease overall network performance. Select a setting within a range of 256 to 2346 bytes. Minor chan[...]

server products is not a co ncern. When you have set up LEAP authentication, you have to enter the user name and password of your computer . WP A – WP A provides a scheme of mutual authentication using either IEEE 802.1x/Extensible Au thentication Protocol (EAP) authentication or pre-shared key (PSK) technology . It provides a high level of assur[...]

802.1x Setting When you have set the Authentication T ype to Open, Shared, WP A or WP A2, you can also en able IEEE 802.1x setting to use the authentication server or certif ication server to authenticate client users. Parameter Description Encryption Mode None – Disable the encryption mode. WEP – Enable the WEP Data Encryption. When the item i[...]

The IEEE 802.1X specification describe s a protocol that can be used fo r authenticating both clients and servers on a network. The authentication algorithm s and methods are those provided by the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), a method of authentic ation that has been in use for a number of years on networks that provide Point-to-Poi nt[...]

3.2.1.3 802.1x Setting-Certification Parameter Description Authentication T ype The EAP authentication pr otocol s this card has supported are included as follows. This setting has to be consistent with the wireless APs or Routers that the card intends to connect. PEAP &TTLS – PEAP and TTLS are similar and easier than TLS in that they specify[...]

Identity This is the protected us er EAP Identity used for authentication. The identity specified may cont ai n up to 63 ASCII characters, is case sensitive and ta kes the form of a Network Access Identifier , consisting of <name of the user>@<use r ’ s home realm>. The user ’s home realm is optional and indicates the routing domai [...]

certificate store of the host comp uter. Intermediate or sub ordinate certification authorities are tr usted only if they have a valid certification path from a trust ed root certification authority. Server Name Enter the authentication server name. Server name must match exactly When selected, the server name must match exactly the server name fou[...]

Parameter Description S tatus Display the SSID and MAC ID of the network the card is connecting to. Extra Info Display the link status. Channel Display the number of the radio channel and the frequency used for the networking. Link S peed (Mbps) Display the transmission and reception rate of the network. The maximum transmissi on rate is 54Mbps. Th[...]

3.5 Advance This option enables you to configure mo re advanced settings, for example: wireless mode, protection mode and etc. Parameter Description Wireless Mode 802.1 1 B/G mix – If you have a mix of 802.1 1b and 802.1 1g wireless st ations in your network, it is recommended to setting the 23[...]

card to this mode. This m ode is also the default setting. 802.1 1 B only – This card can be comp atible with both 802.1 1g and 802.1 1b wireless stations. If there are only 802.1 1b wireless stations in the netwo rk, you can set the card to this mode. 802.1 1 G only – This card can be comp atible with both 802.1 1g and 802.1 1b wireless statio[...]

the receiver that it has gotten some of it. When the Router or AP the card is connecting to have set up th e TCP Win dow , you can enable the paramete r to meet the data size for the Router or AP connection. The larger TCP Window the better performance. Fast Roaming at -70dBm When you want to fa st roaming to the network nearby without intercepting[...]

3.7 Turbo Mode This card supports specific ways to increase the data transfer rate a t a time; compress the data and decrease the waiting time to send the next data to the Routers or APs, this feature (known as Turb o Mode) enables higher throughput than IE EE 802.11g standard (Up to 54Mbps). When the card is connectin g to AP or Router with the pr[...]

Quality of Service (QoS) (The Wi-Fi Alliance defined WMM as a profile of the IEEE 802.11e) extensions for 802.11 networks will help to define th e priorities of the data traffics by the data categories to provide enhanced multimedia support. When the card is co nnected to the AP or Router with WMM functio n, you can enable the function of the card [...]

D. Select “Advanced” p age, enable the “WMM Capable”. 28[...]

4 Troubleshooting This chapter provides solutions to pro blems us ually encountered during the installation and operation of the adapter . 1. What is the IEEE 802.1 1g standar d? 802.1 1g is the new IEEE standard fo r high-speed wireless LAN comm unications that provides for up to 54 Mbps dat a rate in the 2.4 GHz band. 80 2.1 1g is quickly becomin[...]

6. What is BSS ID ？ A specific Ad hoc LAN is called a Basic Service Set (BSS). Computers in a BSS must be configured with the same BSS ID. 7. What is WEP ？ WEP is Wi red Equivalent Privacy , a data pr ivacy mecha nism based on a 40 bit shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802 .1 1 standard. 8. What is TKIP? TKIP is a quick-fix method [...]

13. What is Spread S pectrum ？ S pread S pectrum technology is a wideband ra dio frequency technique developed by the milit ary for use in reliable, secure, missi on-critical communication systems. It is designe d to trade off bandwidt h efficiency for reliability , integrity , and security . In other words, more bandwid th is consumed than in th[...]