USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Rev 1.0 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Regulatory compliance FCC Warning This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:
Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver. receiver is connected.
Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help. You are cautioned that changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void your authority to operate the equipment. IMPORTANT NOTE:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Radiation Exposure Statement This equipment complies with FCC radiation exposure limits set forth for an uncontrolled environment. This equipment should be installed and operated with minimum distance 20cm between the radiator & your body. This transmitter must not be co-located or operationgin conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter. CE Mark Warning This is a Class B product. In a domestic environment, this product may cause radio interference, in which case the user may be required to take adequate measures. 2 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual About this manual This Users Manual describes how to install and operate your USB Wireless Network Adapter. Please read this manual before you install the product. This manual includes the following topics:
Product description and features.
Hardware installation procedure.
Software installation procedure.
FAQ 3 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Table of Contents Regulatory compliance About this manual Chapter 1- Introduction Features What is Wireless LAN?
Wireless LAN Modes Notes on Wireless LAN Configuration Chapter 2 - Hardware Installation Package Contents System Requirements for the Adapter Connecting the USB Adapter LEDs Indicators Disconnecting the USB Adapter Chapter 3 Driver Installation for Windows Driver installation for Windows 98 Driver installation for Windows 2000 Driver installation for Windows ME Chapter 4 Using the Wireless Utility Installation in Windows Configuring the USB Wireless Network Adapter Chapter 5 Installing Network Protocols 29 Installing the Network Protocols for Windows 98 and Millennium Appendix A FAQ Appendix B Specifications 5 5 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 10 11 11 14 17 20 20 24 29 32 34 4 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Chapter 1 - Introduction Thank you for purchasing the USB Wireless Network Adapter. This high-speed USB Wireless Network Adapter provides you with an innovative wireless networking solution. The Adapter is easy to set up and use. With this innovative wireless technology, you can share files and printers on the networkwithout inconvenient wires! Now you can carry the LAN in your pocket!
The Adapter is a network adapter with a rate of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps operating in the ISM band using Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) transmission implementing the IEEE 802.11b standard. This adapter provides Device Drivers for Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows ME. It also provides tools for the configuration of the adapter. The tool, as well as the installation steps of the plug-
and-play procedure for the Microsoft Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows 2000 operating systems, is described in this document. Features The USB Wireless Network Adapter offers compliance with the IEEE 802.11b specification. This feature allows them to communicate with other wireless devices that support the standard. Features of the adapter are:
Uses 2.4GHz frequency band, which complies with worldwide
Wireless interface following the IEEE 802.11b standard
Using Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface
Enciphering/deciphering of wireless data by the implementation of the
Wire-free access to networked resources from anywhere beyond the requirement WEP algorithm desktop
Allows users move between Access Points without resetting their connection reconfiguration
Delivers data rate up to 11 Mbps
Supports 11, 5.5, 2, and 1 Mbps rates
Provide USB Wireless Network Adapter Configuration utility
Antenna is built in to the Adapter with LEDs indicating Power and Link
Supports most popular operating systems: Window 98/2000 & Windows ME 5 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual What is Wireless LAN?
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems offer a great number of advantages over traditional wired systems. WLAN is flexible and easy to setup and manage. They are also more economical than wired LAN systems. Using radio frequency (RF) technology, WLAN transmit and receive data through the air. WLAN combine data connectivity with user mobility. For example, users can roam from a conference room to their office without being disconnected from the LAN. Using WLAN, users can conveniently access-shared information, and network administrators can configure and augment networks without installing or moving network cables. WLAN technology provides users with many convenient and cost saving features:
Mobility: WLAN provide LAN users with access to real-time information anywhere in their organization, providing service opportunities that are impossible with wired networks. Ease of Installation: Installing is easy for novice and expert users alike, eliminating the need to install network cables in walls and ceilings. Scalability: WLAN can be configured in a variety of topologies to adapt to specific applications and installations. Configurations are easily changed and range from peer-to-peer networks suitable for a small number of users to full infrastructure networks of thousands of users roaming over a broad area. Wireless LAN Modes Wireless LANs can be configured in one of two ways:
Ad-hoc Networking Infrastructure Networking Also known as a peer-to-peer network, an ad-hoc network is one that allows all workstations and computers in the network to act as servers to all other users on the network. Users on the network can share files, print to a shared printer, and access the Internet with a shared modem. However, with ad-hoc networking, users can only communicate with other wireless LAN computers that are in the wireless LAN workgroup, and are within range. Infrastructure networking differs from ad-hoc networking in that it includes an access point. Unlike the ad-hoc structure where users on the LAN contend the shared bandwidth, on an infrastructure network the access point can manage the bandwidth to maximize 6 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual bandwidth utilization. Additionally, the access point enables users on a wireless LAN to access an existing wired network, allowing wireless users to take advantage of the wired networks resources, such as Internet, email, file transfer, and printer sharing. Infrastructure networking has the following advantages over ad-hoc networking:
Extended range: each wireless LAN computer within the range of the access point can communicate with other wireless LAN computers within range of the access point. Roaming: the access point enables a wireless LAN computer to move through a building and still be connected to the LAN. Wired to wireless LAN connectivity: the access point bridges the gap between wireless LANs and their wired counterparts. Notes on Wireless LAN Configuration When configuring a wireless LAN (WLAN), be sure to note the following points:
Optimize the performance of the WLAN by ensuring that the distance between access points is not too far. In most buildings, WLAN cards operate within a range of 100 ~ 300 feet, depending on the thickness and structure of the walls. Radio waves can pass through walls and glass but not metal. If there is interference in transmitting through a wall, it may be that the wall has reinforcing metal in its structure. Install another access point to circumvent this problem. Floors usually have metal girders and metal reinforcing struts that interfere with WLAN transmission. This concludes the first chapter. The next chapter deals with the hardware installation of the Adapter. 7 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Chapter 2 - Hardware Installation This chapter covers connecting your USB Wireless Network Adapter to USB port of desktop / notebook PC. Package Contents Please make sure that items below are included on package.
One USB Wireless Network Adapter
One USB cables
One Driver / Utility CD-ROM (this uses manual included)
One Quick Installation Guide System Requirements for the Adapter
Operating System: MS Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME
Desktop PC or notebook PC with CD-ROM drive
One free USB port
Pentium-Class 90MHz or higher Connecting the USB Adapter NOTE: These instructions apply to most desktop/notebook computers. For detailed information on inserting USB adapters into your desktop/notebook PC, consult the desktop/notebook PC Users Manual. The Adapters USB port is located on the back of the Adapter. 8 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual And your Adapter comes with a USB cable that has two different types of connectors type A & type B. Type A connector of the USB cable plugs into your notebook/desktop PCs USB port. And type B connector of the USB cable connects to the USB port of your USB Wireless Network Adapter. USB Type A USB Type B LED Indicators POWER LINK The following table describes the meaning of LED indicators:
LED MEANING POWER Indicates that the Adapter is powered on when the LED LINK lights up. Indicates link status. The LED lights up while the wireless connection is linked. If the light is blinking, it is disconnected, and is scanning the wireless network. 9 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Disconnecting the USB Adapter In Win 98/ME operating systems, you do not have to power down your notebook/desktop PC to remove the Adapter. The Adapter is hot swappableyou can remove the Adapter when your notebook/desktop PC is powered on. However, Microsoft recommends that you stop the Adapter before removing the Adapter. Refer to your Win 98/ME online help for information on stopping the USB Adapter. WARNING: Do not remove the USB Wireless Network Adapter when a data transmission is taking place. Exit your communications program normally, stop the Adapter if necessary, and then remove the adapter. 10 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Chapter 3 Driver Installation for Windows The following sections cover USB Wireless Network Adapter driver installation in the Windows 2000/ME/98//95 operating systems. Note: You have to install your hardware first before you begin to install the drivers. Driver installation for Windows 98 Follow the steps below to install the USB Wireless Network Adapter drivers for Windows 98. 1. Connecting the Adapter to the USB port of a notebook or desktop PC. (Refer to Chapter 2 Hardware installation. ) 2. After Windows 98 detects the USB Wireless Network Adapter, the Add New Hardware Wizard window appears. Clicks Next to continue the installation. 3. A screen appears prompting you to select an installation method. Select Search for the best driver for your device. (Recommended) and click Next to continue. 11 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 4. Ensure that the CD-ROM drive is selected. Inserts the driver CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive and clicks Next to continue. 5. The following screen appears showing the driver search result. Click Next to continue the installation. 12 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 6. Windows 98 copies files to your hard disk. The following screen will appear to inform you when the software installation has finished. Click Finish to finish the installation. 7. The following screen will ask you to restart your computer to finish the installation. Click Yes to restart your computer to make the hardware setting up available. 13 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual NOTE : In most cases, Windows will automatically copy all of the files needed for networking. If Windows asks you for the files and prompts you to input the path to the files. Follow the instructions on your screen, and then click OK to continue. Driver installation for Windows 2000 Follow the steps below to install the USB Wireless Network Adapter drivers for Windows 2000. 1. Connecting the Adapter to the USB port of a notebook or desktop PC. ( Refer to Chapter 2 Hardware installation. ) 2. After Windows 2000 detects the USB Wireless Network Adapter, the Found New Hardware Wizard window appears. Click Next to start the installation. 3. A screen appears prompting you to select an installation method. Select Search for a suitable driver for my device (recommended) and click Next to continue. 14 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 4. Ensure that the CD-ROM driver is selected and insert the driver CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive and click Next to continue. 5. The following screen appears showing the driver search result. Click Next to continue the installation. 15 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 6. The following screen appears. Click Yes to continue 7. The Windows has finished installing software for the device. Click Finish to finish the installation. 16 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Driver installation for Windows ME Follow the steps below to install the USB Wireless Network Adapter drivers for Windows ME. 1. Connecting the Adapter to the USB port of a notebook or desktop PC. ( Refer to Chapter 2 Hardware installation. ) 2. After Windows ME detects the USB Wireless Network Adapter, the Add New Hardware Wizard window appears. Select Automatic search for a better driver
(Recommended) and insert the driver CD-ROM into CD-ROM drive and click Next to continue. 17 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 3. The system will find the setup files and follow the instruction to copy files to your hard disk. The following screen will appear when the software installation has finished. Click Finish to finish the installation. 4. The following screen will ask you to restart your computer to finish the hardware setting up. Click Yes to restart your computer to make the hardware setting up available. 18 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual NOTE. : In most cases, Windows will automatically copy all of the files needed for networking. If Windows asks you for the files and prompts you to input the path to the files. Follow the instructions on your screen, and then click OK to continue. 19 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Chapter 4 Using the Wireless Utility The following sections cover the USB Wireless Network Adapter utility installation and configuration. Installation in Windows After you have installed the USB Wireless Network Adapter driver and have rebooted the computer. Please follow the steps below to install the wireless utility. 1. Execute Setup.exe under the Utility folder in your CD-ROM drive or select Run function from the Start Menu in the Windows environment and type K:\ Utility \
Setup.exe where K is your CD-ROM drive letter. 2. Once you see the following screen, click Next to continue. 20 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 3. The screen will show you the default destination chosen by the utility. Click Next to continue or click the Browse button to select an alternate destination. 4. The following screen will start to copy the program files. Click Next to continue or click Back to review or change any settings. 21 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 5. The following screen shows you the Setup status by percentage. 6. Once the configuration Utility has been successfully installed, the Wizard will ask you to restart your computer. Select Yes, I want to restart my computer now., then click Finish to restart your computer and complete set up. 22 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual After you have installed the utility and have rebooted your desktop PC, you will see the wireless utility icon in the Windows taskbar:
Wireless Utility icon Icon Meaning Green: indicates a connection is linked to a wireless network. Red: indicates that the wireless LAN card is looking for an available access point. Double-click the icon to open the configuration utility. 23 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Configuring the USB Wireless Network Adapter 1. This screen shows you the status of your current connection. 2. Select the Configuration tab. The profile setting allows you to save configurations in different profiles for different working environments. The default profile will contain the initial configuration setting when you install the Card. Under the Wireless Mode drop-box, you may choose either Infrastructure or Ad-Hoc. The Infrastructure mode allows a wireless adapter to communicate with a wired network employing an Access Point, while the Ad-Hoc mode allows wireless-to-wireless, peer-to-peer communication. If you choose Infrastructure, the SSID should have the same name as the Access Point. If you choose Ad-Hoc, all clients should share the same SSID name. You may also select which Transfer Rate you wish to use: 1, 2, 5.5, 11Mbps or Auto Rate. Under Power Saving Mode, you can select Enabled to allow your adapter to go to sleep mode while the adapter doesnt proceed the data transmission. Or select Disabled to make the adapter never go to sleep mode. Click Apply to save the settings. 24 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 3. Select the Site Survey tab. The list on the adjacent screen shows you available Access Points and their features. Click on the desired Access Point, then click Connect to connect or Search to search for more Access Points. Click OK when you are finished. 25 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 4. Click on the Encryption tab. Under the drop-box, you can choose to have WEP encryption Disabled, 64-Bit, or 128-Bit. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an encryption scheme used to protect wireless data communication. The Disabled setting prevents the sharing of data with other computers on the WEP network. For data sharing to be enabled, select the level of encryption desired, either 64 or 128-
bit. 26 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 5. Select the Advanced tab. You can choose the fragmentation threshold to define the maximum data frame size your adapter will transmit. When the packet error rate is high, you may set the threshold value to transmit shorter frames. You may select RTS/CTS threshold to define when will your adapter send out RTS/CTS frames to reserve bandwidth for transmission. By using the RTS/CTS function, you may request bandwidth from AP to allow you have better chance to send out your data. For the Security, its only applicable while WEP is enabled. You can choose the Deny Unencrypted Data Frames to deny to receive unencrypted data frames to prevent from unknown intruders probe your station. For the Authentication Type, the current supported algorithms are Open System, and Shared Key. The algorithm will be invoked when associated to Access Point. To associate to the desired Access Point you must set the same algorithm as the one of the desired Access Point. You can also select Preamble Type which is for framing synchronization. The possible setting are long and Short. The setting must be the same as the setting of the Access Point you are going to associate. 27 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 6. The About tab shows you copyright and version information about the driver, the configuration utility, and the firmware. Click OK to complete the configuration. 28 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Chapter 5 Installing Network Protocols Protocols are necessary for computers to be recognized on your network. Windows 2000 users need to check their Windows User Guides for protocol installation. Installing the Network Protocols for Windows 98 and Millennium 1. From the Start Menu, select Settings and bring up the Control Panel. From the Control Panel, double-click on the Network icon. Note: Before adding any network protocols, verify that the protocol is not already installed. Never install duplicate protocols. 2. Select IEEE802.11b WLAN USB Adapter v2.5 from the list and click the Add button. 29 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 3. Highlight Protocol and click the Add button. 4. Select Microsoft from the list of Manufacturers and TCP/IP from the list of Network Protocols and click the OK button to finish the installation. 30 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 31 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Appendix A FAQ 1. What is IEEE 802.11 standard?
The IEEE 802.11 is a wireless LAN industry standard, and the objective of IEEE 802.11 is to make sure that different manufactures wireless LAN devices can communicate to each other. 2. What is WEP?
As described in the IEEE 802.11 standard, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is a data privacy mechanism based on a 40 bit shared key algorithm. 3. My notebook / desktop PC cannot recognize the USB Wireless Network Adapter.
Please make sure that the Adapter is inserted into the USB port of your notebook / desktop PC properly.
And also make sure that the USB controller is enabled in the BIOS of your notebook / desktop PC. 4. How to check that the USB controller on my notebook / desktop PC is working properly?
Right click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Device Manager tab and select the Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Click on Properties button. In the General tab, check under Device status that the USB controller is working properly. 5. The Adapter does not work properly.
Check that the Adapter drivers are loaded properly. You can easily check it through the Network Adapter (Right click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Device Manager tab and select the Network Adapter). If there is a yellow exclamation mark on USB Wireless Network Adapter, the resource may be conflicting. Please uninstall the Adapter and restart your notebook / desktop PC. The repeat hardware and software installation as specified in this manual. 32 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual 6. In Infrastructure mode, my notebook / desktop PC cannot communicate with the others PCs on the network.
First, make sure that the SSID is same as the others PC.
Check that your Adapter is configured on the same channel & WEP as the others PCs on the network. 33 USB Wireless Network Adapter Users Manual Appendix B Specifications Standards:
Channels:
Antenna:
Frequency:
Data Rate:
IEEE 802.11b USB 1.0, 1.1 11 Channels (US, Canada) 13 Channels (Europe) 14 Channels (Japan) Dipole Antenna inside 2.412 to 2.462GHz (Industrial Scientific Medical Band) up to 11Mbps 34