GIGA BYTE TECHNOLOGY GN-WBZB-M IEEE 802.11b USB WLAN Card User Manual 2
GIGA-BYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. IEEE 802.11b USB WLAN Card 2
Manual
GN-WBZB-M
IEEE 802.11b USB WLAN Card
User’s Manual
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw
Rev. 1.0 First Edition
Federal Communication Commission Interference Statement
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 of the
following measures:
- Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
- Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
- Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is
connected.
- Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
FCC Caution: To assure continued compliance, any changes or modifications not expressly
approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate this
equipment.
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two
conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept
any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
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 operating in conjunction with any other antenna or
transmitter.
Contents
CHAPTER 1. PRODUCT OVERVIEW 1
1-1. INTRODUCTION TO THE WIRELESS LAN CARD ..............................................................1
1-2. FEATURES .................................................................................................................1
1-3. PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS/PACKAGING.............................................................................1
1-4. LED INDICATING LIGHTS .............................................................................................2
1-5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2. INSTALLING THE WIRELESS LAN CARD 3
2-1. INSTALLING THE DRIVER & UTILITY FOR PC..................................................................3
CHAPTER 3. USING THE UTILITY ON PC 6
3-1. INFO..........................................................................................................................6
3-2. STATISTICS................................................................................................................7
3-3. CONFIGURATION ........................................................................................................8
3-4. ENCRYPTION..............................................................................................................9
3-5. ADVANCED ..............................................................................................................10
3-6. ABOUT ....................................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 4. SPECIFICATION 12
Chapter 1. Product Overview
1-1. Introduction to The Wireless LAN Card
This wireless LAN (Local Area Network) card is composed of the IEEE 802.11b MAC,
Baseband, and radio components, USB 1.1 interface, and one external antenna. This
product adopts the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) technology and the DBPSK,
DQPSK, and CCK modulation mode to provide a very stable wireless communication
quality and an excellent signal receiver capability.
This product features the compact size, low power consumption, and power management
functions, and provides a high-speed wireless data communication. Therefore, this product
is ideally suitable for being integrated into the MotherBoard.
1-2. Features
Conforms to IEEE 802.11b specification.
Transmits data rate up to the maximum speed of 11Mbps.
Dynamically scales the data rate to 11, 5.5, 2, and 1Mbps.
Host Interface USB 1.1.
One external antenna.
Supports 64-bit /128-bit WEP encryption.
Driver supports Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP.
1-3. Physical Dimensions/Packaging
Dimensions: 122mm* 48mm* 22mm
Before the installation procedures, please ensure the components are not damaged during
the shipping. The shipment of the GN-WBZB-M includes:
One GN-WBZB-M Wireless LAN Card
One Antenna
One Connect Cable
One Installation CD (including User’s Guide and Driver)
One User Guide
Please contact your local distributor or authorized reseller immediately for any missing or
damaged components. If you require returning the damaged product, you must pack it in
the original packing material or the warranty will be voided.
1
1-4. LED Indicating Lights
This wireless LAN card conforms to the USB standard. There are two LED-indicating lights.
One indicates Power status. One indicates Link status.
Power: This LED is continuously on while the card is powered on.
Link: Blinking Slow The card is scanning the network.
Continuously On The card is successfully connected to a network.
Blinking Quickly The data is being transmitted/received
1-5. System Requirements
1-5-1. Supported Platform:
IBM PC/AT compatible computer
1-5-2. Supported Operation System:
Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
2
Chapter 2. Installing the Wireless LAN Card
2-1. Installing The Driver & Utility for PC
Step 1: Click “Cancel”.
Step 2: Insert our setup CD into your CDROM drive, the following window will pop up
Step 3: Click “Next”.
3
Step 4: Click “Next”.
Step 5: Click “Yes”, and then your installation is ok. Reboot you computer
Step 6: Click “YES”.
4
5
Chapter 3. Using The Utility on PC
The Configuration & Monitor Utility is a powerful application that helps you to configure the
card and monitor the statistics of the communication link. Unlike the standard method of
configuring the card via the operating system utilities (e.g. Control Panel), this application
permits the dynamic modification of the configuration parameters while the card is
operating. It also offers some more configuration options. It appears as an icon on the
Windows system tray whenever the card is running (see Figure 3-1). The icon can tell you
the received signal strength by four small green lights. You can open it by double-clicking
on this icon.
Figure 3-1. The icon of the Configuration & Monitor Utility
3-1. Info
The Info tab shows you the current Link States of the Wireless LAN Card and the
Reachable Assess Points and the Wireless LAN Card(see Figure 3-2).
Figure 3-2. Current link states of the wireless LAN card
Link State:
There are three states of a Wireless LAN Card:
1. Connected to Access Point: The wireless LAN card is now connecting to an Access
Point.
2. Connected to Ad Hoct: The wireless LAN card is now connecting to a Peer-to-Peer
network.
3. Connecting: The wireless LAN card is now searching for an Access Point or
wireless LAN card with the same network name, or SSID
for the connection.
6
Other items in the table are the detailed information about the link state, which are
available only when the wireless LAN card is connected to an access point or other
wireless LAN card.
SSID: Network name.
Channel: The current channel used by the wireless LAN card.
TxRate: The current transmission rate used by the wireless LAN card.
AP Signal: It shows the signal quality and signal intensity of the currently connected base
station.
Signal Quality: It is only available in Access Point/Station mode, which represents the
quality of communication between the Wireless LAN Card and Access
Point.
Reachable Access Points / Stations:
This item will show you all of the 802.11 Access Points or Wireless LAN Cards in your
wireless environment. The icon in the front of every item represents an Access Point or a
Wireless LAN Card. You can add a network easily by clicking on the desired SSID.
Strength: It shows the signal quality and signal intensity of the currently connected base
station.
Refresh( ): After this button is clicked, the wireless LAN card will rescan the wireless
environment and show you all the updated reachable Access Points and
Stations.
Connect( ): After this button is clicked, the wireless LAN card will connect the wireless
environment reachable Access Points or wireless LAN card.
3-2. Statistics
The “Statistics” tab shows you the number of packets sent and received by the card(see
Figure 3-3).
Figure 3-3. The statistic number of packets sent and received by the card
7
3-3. Configuration
The Configuration Tab contains several fields where operating parameters of the driver
can be viewed or changed. Changes to any of the parameters in this panel can be applied
to the driver without resetting the wireless LAN card(see Figure 3-4).
Figure 3-4. Configuration
Cancel
Press this button to restore the default value in each field of the panel. The “Apply
Changes” button should be pressed before the default values are saved to the driver and
registry.
Profile
You can save various wireless settings for different environments.
Network Name
It is also known as SSID and is the unique name shared among all access points (base
station) or stations (wireless LAN card) in the wireless network. The SSID must be
identical for all points in the network for sharing information and communication. It is case
sensitive and must not exceed 32 characters.
Network Type
This field allows you to select the network type from a list of supported Network “Modes”.
The modes displayed have two values: “Peer-to-Peer” and “Access Point”.
Peer-to-Peer(Ad Hoc)
This is the 802.11 peer-to-peer mode of operation. All communications are done from
Client to Client without using the base station. Peer-to-Peer networking uses the same
SSID for establishing the wireless connection.
Base Station (Infrastructure)
This mode of operation requires the presence of an 802.11 Base Station. All
communications are done via the Base Station, which relay packets to other wireless
Clients in the BSS as well as the nodes on a connected network such as Ethernet.
Peer-to-Peer channel
This specifies the channel used in wireless communication and should be set to the same
channel as the other points in the wireless network. This setting can only be adjusted in
8
Peer-to-Peer mode.
TX Rate: The transmission rate for transmitting data packets at the user end. You may set
the transmission rate to 1Mb, 2 Mb, 5.5 Mb, 11 Mb, or Fully Automatic.
3-4. Encryption
To prevent unauthorized user to access the data on wireless stations, the Wireless LAN
Card offers a highly secure data encryption, known as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).
If you require high security in transmission, go to the Encryption tab and set it up as
follows(see Figure 3-5).
Figure 3-5. Encryption
¾ Pull down the Encryption menu and select either 64bit or 128bit encryption method.
¾ Specify the encryption keys. There are two methods to set the WEP password, as
described below:
From the WEP encryption item, pull down the menu and it will list three options:
Disable – Allows the communication between the wireless LAN card and Access Point
without data encryption.
64 Bit –Allows wireless LAN card to encrypt data with the 64-Bit encryption algorithm.
128 Bit –Allows wireless LAN card to encrypt data with the 28-Bit encryption algorithm.
The Encryption tab enables you to identify up to 4 different encryption passwords and
select one of them to encrypt your transmission data. The password of your choice may
either be:
For 64-bit encryption:
Five alphanumeric characters in the range of “a-z”, “A-Z” and “0-9” (e.g. MyKey)
10 hexadecimal values in the range of “0-F” (e.g. 11AA22BB33).
For 128-bit encryption:
13 alphanumeric characters in the range of “a-z”, “A-Z” and “0-9” (e.g.
9
WEPencryption).
26 hexadecimal values in the range of “0-F” (e.g. 11AA22BB33123456789ABCDEFF).
you have the option to select whether Open System, Shared Key, or Auto authentication
will be used. In order to take effect the changes you wish to make, click the “Apply” button
at the bottom of the screen.
3-5. Advanced
By Choosing the Advanced option in any of the two modes, you can change advanced
configuration settings, such as the Fragmentation Threshold, and RTS/CTS Threshold
(Figure 3-6). Figure 3-6 shows the default configuration for the advanced settings.
Note: In order to enable the Fragmentation and the RTS/CTS Threshold parameters move
the slide bar with your mouse and then use the right and left arrow keys of your keyboard
in order to select an exact number.
Figure 3-5. Advanced settings
3-6. About
By choosing this option, you can view basic information about the utility like the Driver,
Firmware and Application Version and this adapter’s MAC address(see Figure 3-7).
10
Figure 3-7. Version information and MAC address
The “About” tab shows the detail of information on the version of the product such as the
version of Driver, Configuration Utility, and the version of wireless LAN card’s firmware.
Users must use this version number when reporting their problems to the technical
support.
11
Chapter 4. Specification
System
Standards IEEE 802.11b compliant
Host Interface USB 1.1
Modulation 1Mbps: DBPSK; 2Mbps: DQPSK; 5.5 and 11 Mbps: CCK
Data Rate 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps
Operating Voltage 5V
Power Tx 320mA; Rx 230 mA; Sleep 50 mA
Operating Range Open space: 100 - 300m; Indoor: 30 - 100m
RF
Frequency Band 2.400 ~ 2.4840 GHz (subject to local regulation)
Radio Technology DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum)
11 Channels (US, Canada) 4 channels (France)
Number of Channel 14 Channels (Japan) 13 Channels (Most European countries, ETSI)
Output power 15 dBm@ Nominal Temp Range
Receive Sensitivity - 80dBm @ 11 Mbps date rate, 8% PER
Antenna One external antenna
Regulatory and Environmental Compliance
FCC part 15 (USA) DGT (Taiwan)
EMC certification CE (Europe) TELEC (Japan)
Temperature Range Operating: 0 ~ 50 degree C, Storage: -20 ~ 65 degree C
Humidity Max. 90% Non-condensing
Software
Driver Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
Roaming Full mobility and seamless roaming
Security 64 and 128 bit WEP
Management Utility Link Configuration for network join and statistics.
Mechanical
Dimensions 122mm * 48mm * 22mm
Weight 61± 1 g
Packaging Generic, Gigabyte, private labeling optional
LED indicator Two LEDs indicating Link/Act status
12