NETGEAR MA311 manual

i NETGEAR IE EE 802.11b Wireless PCI Adapter 1 1 M b p s Model MA 311 User’s Guide ®[...]

ii © 2002 by NETGEAR, I nc. All rights reserved. Tradem arks ©2002 NETGEA R, Inc. NETGEAR® , the Net gear Logo, the Gear Guy, and Ever ybody's connec ting ar e trademar ks or regis tered t rademar ks of Net gear, Inc. i n the United Stat es and/ or ot her count ries. Micros oft, W indows, and t he Wi ndows logo are tr ademark s, or r egist [...]

iii CONTENTS CHAPT ER 1: INT RODUCT ION ......................................................................................... 1 FEATURE S AND B ENEFIT S .......................................................................................................... .1 APPLICAT IONS .....................................................................[...]

1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTI ON W ith NETGEAR's M A 3 11 8 02.11b W ireless PCI Adapter , you can ef fortles sly net work any desk top PC and a void the hassles of traditio nal Ether net wir ing. T his adapter helps you create a wireless network for sharing your broadb and cabl e or DSL I ntern et access am ong m ultiple PCs in and aroun d your h o[...]

2 4. Databas e acces s Doctors, nur ses, r etailers need ing m obile dat abase acc ess wh ile in t he hosp ital, r etail stor e or off ice cam pus 5. SOHO (Sma ll Office and Home Of fice) users SOHO user s needi ng eas y and quic k ins tallatio n of a s m all com puter networ k Package Contents The produc t pack age shoul d contain:  MA311 802. [...]

3 CHAPTER 2: Installing the Dri vers and Utilit y for Window s 98, Me, 2000, and XP Impor tant: Please install t he M A311 drivers and ut ility BEFO RE inst alling t he M A 31 1 hardware. M ake sure the M A311 Adapter is NOT plugged into the PCI slot w hile you are performi ng the following proce dures. NT us ers: Please s ee “Ch apter 5 : Instal[...]

4 3. The Choos e Destin ation L ocation sc reen displa ys the default Destinat ion F older. I f you wan t to chang e the d efault folder, you can c lick Browse and c hoose a d iff erent destinati on fol der. Clic k Next to go to the next sc reen.[...]

5 4. The Sel ect Pro gram Folder s creen app ears. Acc ept or change the def ault f older nam e and click Next to co ntinu e.[...]

6 5. Click Finish to complete t he ut ilit y instal lation. The n ext chapter, Ch apte r 3: Ha rdware In stallat ion, exp lains ho w t o complet e the M A311 PCI Adapter insta llatio n.[...]

7 CHAPTER 3: Hardware Installatio n Installing the Wireless PCI A dapter Impor tant: Be sure t o inst all the M A311 driver s and utility BEFO RE inst alling the M A 3 11 hardw are 1. Turn the po wer OF F and u nplug the p ower cor d from your com puter. 2. Rem ove the PC co ver. 3. Choose an availab le PCI sl ot (PCI s lots are the shorter slots) [...]

8 CHAPTER 4: Verifying Driver Install ation After the utilit y and the hardw are instal lation are fin ished, W indows autom aticall y ins talls the necessar y driv ers (W indows 98, M e, 2000 or XP). Verify ing Driver Installation under Windo ws 98 1. From the W indows 98 desk top, double-c lick My Com puter. 2. Double-c lick Control P anel. Doubl[...]

9 4. Double-c lick Network Adapter. T here s hould be no yell ow exclam ation m ark or red cr oss- sign on th e MA311 PCI Ad apter se lection. 5. Double-c lick MA311 PCI Adapt er. T he Device s tatus windo w shoul d indica te that the MA311 PCI Adapter is work ing properl y. The ins tallation of the MA311 P CI Ada pter dr iver in W indows XP is com[...]

10 CHAPTER 5: Installing the D rivers and Utili ty for Window s NT Microsof t W indows NT 4.0 is not a Plug and Pla y operating s ystem and does not autom atic ally detect and prom pt you for i nstallat ion of the PCI adap ter driver. T he driver install ation has to be initiated m anua ll y. Installing Driv ers Software for Windo w s NT 1. Install[...]

11 7. In the Inser t Disk dialog b ox , enter D: or D:winnt in t he fiel d provided , assum ing that D: is the driv er letter f or the CD-ROM dri ve. Clic k OK . 8. The Sel ect OEM Option dialog box opens listi ng two o ptions from which to c hoos e. Select NETG EAR MA311 PCI Ad apter and c lick OK . 9. If other c ards in your s ystem use T CP/IP[...]

12 3. A list of devices inst alled i n the s ystem will be s hown. Scroll down th e list to locat e the NETGE AR M A311PCI Ada pter entr y. The PCI adap ter entr y should indicate that the MA3 11 PCI Adapter is started . Installat ion of the MA311 PCI Ad apter dr iver in W indows NT is com plete. Continue now to the section belo w, In stalling Util[...]

13 3. The Choos e Destin ation L ocation sc reen displa ys the default Destinat ion F older. I f you wan t to chang e the d efault folder, you can c lick Browse and c hoose a d iff erent destinati on. Click Next to go to t he next s creen.[...]

14 4. Click Finish to complete t he inst allat ion. The MA31 1 Conf iguratio n Util it y installatio n is n ow co mplete. Pr oceed to conf iguring the wir eless param eters.[...]

15 CHAPTER 6: Wireless LAN Confi guration WLAN Configuration Uti lit y A wireles s LAN c onfig uratio n util ity progr am is provid ed to g ive you infor m ation on your wire less network such as signal q ualit y and link conditions , and to l et you modif y the vari ous configur able wireless param eters. Important: By default, Windows XP uses its[...]

16 You m ay click on the Ad vance d bu tton to per form advanced c onf iguration.[...]

17 For m ore inf ormation on usi ng the XP W ireless Net work Configur ation ut ility pl ease r efer to W indows XP Help pag es. Syst em Tray Applications ( for all Windo w s users) Note: The SysTr ay (System Tra y) resides on one end o f the tas kbar in the Mic rosof t W indows desk top. It displa ys inter face ic ons for m emor y-resident app lic[...]

18 WLAN Utility Parameter Modification Double-c lick ing on the wireles s SysT ray icon activat es the wireles s LAN co nfigur ation uti lity for the MA311 PCI Adapter . You c an c lick on any of the fold er tabs in th e NET GEAR M A311 PCI Ad apter Utilit y dialog box to m odif y the operat ional param eters . . Status Connected t o Indicates the [...]

19 Link Q uality Indicates how well the wirel ess node is com m unicating with the associat ed access point or an other wireles s node. Profile The Prof ile fie ld allo ws you to set va lues f or all p aram eters b y selecting a pre vious ly define d profil e. To c reate a profil e, go to the Prof ile f ield, t ype in a Pro file Nam e and s et the [...]

20 the sam e BSSID. W hen in Infr astructur e m ode, this f ield def ines the Ext ended Servic e Set ID (E SSID). The ES SID ass igned to t he wir eless nod e is r equi red to m atch the ac cess point ESSID for the wireless no de to c omm unicate with the access point. Tr ansmit Rate Allows you to def ine the data trans fer r ate. The def ault va l[...]

21 Security (WEP) To prevent unauth orized wireless stations from acces sing data trans m itted over th e network , the W LAN Utilit y off ers highl y secur e data e ncr yption, k nown as W EP, m aking your d ata tra nsm ission over air m or e secur e. To ac tivate th e W EP Encrypt ion, chec k the W EP Enab led check box. An Enc ryption window, as[...]

22 After enter ing the W EP k ey s in t he k ey field, c lick the OK button an d then cl ick the Apply button on th e Configuration tab to m ake the sett ing ta ke eff ect. Important: The W EP k ey m ust be set up exac tly the sam e on the W ireles s LAN stations as the y are on the wirel ess Ac cess Points. Securit y Enable Encr yption (W EP Key) [...]

23 Site Surv ey SSID SSIDs of each acc ess po int that is acc essibl e by this wireles s node. Mac Addres s Mac Addres ses of each ac cess point. Channel W ireless channel used b y each ac cess point. Signa l Signa l strength of each acces s point to this node. W EP Indicates whether W EP enc ryption of each ac cess point is e nable or disable. Mod[...]

24 A bout About Indicates the rel ease inf orm ation of the wirel ess LAN configur ation uti lit y software, f irm ware, and the wireles s nodes hardwar e. Adapter Proper ties Configurati on Dev ice Properties Pa ge When running Windows 98 or Me W ireless param eters for the MA311 PCI Ad apter c an be m odif ied from the Network contr ol windo w. 1[...]

25 3. A windo w pops up disp la ying three fold er tabs. Clic k on the Ad vanc ed folder tab. T he propert y screen o pens dis pla ying a num ber of conf igurable param eters . Thes e param eters are shown in t he D evice Pr operties Param eter s table 6- 1 below. When running Window s 2000 Configuri ng the net work adapter pr operties for W indows[...]

26 W hen in Infrastr ucture m ode, th is field defin es the Ex tended Servic e Set ID (E SSID). T he E SSID ass igned to th e wire less node is r equire d to matc h the acces s point ESSID in order f or the wir eles s node to comm unicate with the acc es s point. T he default SSID is “W ir eless”. Fragm ent T hreshold Indicates the pack et le n[...]

27 CHAPTER 7: WIRELESS NETWORK FUND AMENTALS Wireless Network Configurati on A d-hoc Mode (Peer-to-Peer Workgroup) The Ins titute of Electric al and E lectro nics En gineers ( IEE E) stan dard for wireless LANs (W LANs) , 802.11, of fer s two m ethods for c onfiguring a wir eless n etwork — ad-hoc a nd infr astructur e. In an ad-hoc n etwork , co[...]

28 Service Set Identificat ion (SSID) The Serv ice Se t Identif icati on (SSID) is a th irty-t wo alphanum eric charac ter (m axim um) str ing identif ying the wireles s loca l area net work . Som e vendors refer to the SSI D as net work name. F or stations to com munic ate with eac h other , all st ations mus t be conf igured with th e sam e SSID.[...]

29 Wireless Channel Selection IEEE 802. 11 wire less nod es comm unicate with eac h other us ing ra dio fr equency signals in the ISM (Industria l, Sc ientif ic, and Medical) band betwee n 2.4 GHz and 2.5 GH z. Nei ghboring c hann els ar e 5 MHz a part. Ho wever, due to spr ead spec trum effec t of the sig nals, a n ode se nding s ignals using a pa[...]

30 APPENDIX A: HA RDW ARE SPECIFICATIONS General Specificat ion s M A311 802.11b W ireless PCI Adapter Radio Data R ate 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps ( Auto Ra te Sensin g) Frequenc y 2.4 GHz to 2.5 G Hz Direc t Seq uence Spr ead Sp ectrum (DSSS) Range Outdoor en viro nment In door env ironm ent 1 Mbps - 147 6 ft ( 450 m) 1 Mbps - 656 f t (200 m) 2 Mbps - 885[...]

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