LINKSYS WMP11V4 Wireless-B PCI Adapter User Manual WMP11v4 UG Rev A

LINKSYS LLC Wireless-B PCI Adapter WMP11v4 UG Rev A

Contents

Part 3

Wireless-B PCI Adapter27Instant Wireless®Series266. The Security Settings screen (Figure 7-13) will appear. Enable or disableWired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption for your wireless network. Ifyou enable WEP, enter a Passphrase or WEP key. Click the Next button tocontinue or the Back button to return to the previous screen.WEP (Disabled/64-bit WEP/128-bit WEP) - If you do not want to useWEP encryption, choose Disabled. To use WEP encryption (recommendedto increase network security), select 64-bit or 128-bit WEP from the drop-down menu, and enter either a Passphrase or WEP key. Passphrase - Instead of manually entering WEP keys, you can enter aPassphrase, so that a WEP key is automatically generated. It is case-sensi-tive and should not be longer than 16 alphanumeric characters. Thispassphrase must match the passphrase of your wireless network and is com-patible with other Linksys wireless products only. (If you have any non-Linksys wireless products, enter the WEP key(s) manually on those prod-ucts.) Key 1 - This WEP key must match the WEP key of your wireless network.If you are using 64-bit WEP encryption, then the key must consist of exact-ly 10 hexadecimal characters. If you are using 128-bit WEP encryption,then the key must consist of exactly 26 hexadecimal characters. Valid hexa-decimal characters are “0” to “9” and “A” to “F”.Figure 7-135. The Network Setting screen (Figure 7-12) will appear.If your network has a DHCP server, click the radio button next to Obtainan IP address automatically (DHCP). Click the Next button to continue,or click the Back button to return to the previous screen.If your network does not have a DHCP server, click the radio button next toSpecify the IP address. Enter an IP Address, Subnet Mask, DefaultGateway, and DNS appropriate for your network. Enter each address in thisformat: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (the x’s represent the numbers that make up eachaddress). You must specify the IP Address and Subnet Mask on this screen.If you are unsure about the Default Gateway and DNS addresses, then leavethese fields alone. IP Address - This IP Address must be unique to your network. Subnet Mask - The Adapter’s Subnet Mask must be the same as your wirednetwork’s Subnet Mask.Default Gateway - Enter the IP address of your network’s Gateway here. DNS - Enter the DNS addresses of your Ethernet (wired) network here. Click the Next button to continue or the Back button to return to the previ-ous screen.Figure 7-12
Wireless-B PCI Adapter29Instant Wireless®Series28Appendix A: TroubleshootingThis chapter provides solutions to problems that may occur during the installa-tion and operation of the Wireless-B PCI Adapter. Read the descriptions belowto solve your problems. If you can’t find an answer here, check the Linksyswebsite at www.linksys.com.1. The Wireless-B PCI Adapter does not work properly.• Reinsert the Adapter into the PC’s PCI slot. • For Windows 98 or Me, right-click My Computer, and select Properties.Select the Device Manager tab, and select the Adapter. You will find theAdapter if it has been installed successfully. If you see a yellow exclamationmark, the resources may be in conflict, and you must follow the steps below:• Uninstall the driver software from your PC.• Restart your PC and repeat the hardware and software installation as spec-ified in this User Guide.2. I cannot communicate with a wired computer linked via an access point in theinfrastructure configuration.• Make sure that the notebook or desktop PC is powered on.• Make sure that the Wireless-B PCI Adapter is configured with the samechannel, SSID, and WEP encryption as the other computers in the infra-structure LAN.Can I run an application from a remote computer over the wireless network?This will depend on whether or not the application is designed to be used overa network. Consult the application’s user guide to determine if it supports oper-ation over a network.Can I play computer games with other members of the wireless network?Yes, as long as the game supports multiple players over a LAN (local area net-work). Refer to the game’s user guide for more information.What is the IEEE 802.11b standard?It is one of the IEEE standards for wireless networks. The 802.11b standardallows wireless networking hardware from different manufacturers to commu-nicate, provided that the hardware complies with the 802.11b standard. TheCommon Problems and SolutionsFrequently Asked Questions7. The Confirm NewSettings screen(Figure 7-14) willappear. If these set-tings are correct,click Ye s . If theyare not, click No.8. The Congratula-tions screen (Figure 7-15) will appear next. Click Activatenew settings now to implement the new settings immediately and finish theWLAN Monitor.Click Activate newsettings later to keepthe current settingsactive, and return tothe Profiles screen sothat you can edit yourprofile or createanother profile. You have successfully created a connection profile. Click the X (Close)button in the upper right corner to exit the WLAN Monitor.Figure 7-14Figure 7-15
Wireless-B PCI Adapter31Instant Wireless®Series30As the user moves on, the end node’s RF transmitter regularly checks the sys-tem to determine whether it is in touch with the original access point or whetherit should seek a new one. When a node no longer receives acknowledgmentfrom its original access point, it undertakes a new search. Upon finding a newaccess point, it then re-registers, and the communication process continues.What is ISM band?The FCC and their counterparts outside of the U.S. have set aside bandwidthfor unlicensed use in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band.Spectrum in the vicinity of 2.4 GHz, in particular, is being made availableworldwide. This presents a truly revolutionary opportunity to place convenienthigh-speed wireless capabilities in the hands of users around the globe. What is Spread Spectrum?Spread Spectrum technology is a wideband radio frequency technique devel-oped by the military for use in reliable, secure, mission-critical communica-tions systems. It is designed to trade off bandwidth efficiency for reliability,integrity, and security. In other words, more bandwidth is consumed than in thecase of narrowband transmission, but the trade-off produces a signal that is, ineffect, louder and thus easier to detect, provided that the receiver knows theparameters of the spread-spectrum signal being broadcast. If a receiver is nottuned to the right frequency, a spread-spectrum signal looks like backgroundnoise. There are two main alternatives, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum(DSSS) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS).What is DSSS? What is FHSS? And what are their differences?Frequency-Hopping Spread-Spectrum (FHSS) uses a narrowband carrier thatchanges frequency in a pattern that is known to both transmitter and receiver.Properly synchronized, the net effect is to maintain a single logical channel. Toan unintended receiver, FHSS appears to be short-duration impulse noise.Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum (DSSS) generates a redundant bit patternfor each bit to be transmitted. This bit pattern is called a chip (or chippingcode). The longer the chip, the greater the probability that the original data canbe recovered. Even if one or more bits in the chip are damaged during trans-mission, statistical techniques embedded in the radio can recover the originaldata without the need for retransmission. To an unintended receiver, DSSSappears as low power wideband noise and is rejected (ignored) by most nar-rowband receivers. Would the information be intercepted while transmitting on air?WLAN features two-fold protection in security. On the hardware side, as withDirect Sequence Spread Spectrum technology, it has the inherent security fea-802.11b standard states a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps and an oper-ating frequency of 2.4GHz.What IEEE 802.11b features are supported?The product supports the following IEEE 802.11b functions: • CSMA/CA plus Acknowledge protocol • Multi-Channel Roaming • Automatic Rate Selection • RTS/CTS feature • Fragmentation • Power Management What is ad-hoc mode?When a wireless network is set to ad-hoc mode, the wireless-equipped com-puters are configured to communicate directly with each other. The ad-hocwireless network will not communicate with any wired network. What is infrastructure mode?When a wireless network is set to infrastructure mode, the wireless network isconfigured to communicate with a wired network through a wireless accesspoint.What is roaming?Roaming is the ability of a portable computer user to communicate continu-ously while moving freely throughout an area greater than that covered by a sin-gle access point. Before using the roaming function, the workstation must makesure that it is the same channel number with the access point of dedicated cov-erage area. To achieve true seamless connectivity, the wireless LAN must incorporate anumber of different functions. Each node and access point, for example, mustalways acknowledge receipt of each message. Each node must maintain contactwith the wireless network even when not actually transmitting data. Achievingthese functions simultaneously requires a dynamic RF networking technologythat links access points and nodes. In such a system, the user’s end node under-takes a search for the best possible access to the system. First, it evaluates suchfactors as signal strength and quality, as well as the message load currentlybeing carried by each access point and the distance of each access point to thewired backbone. Based on that information, the node next selects the rightaccess point and registers its address. Communications between end node andhost computer can then be transmitted up and down the backbone.
Wireless-B PCI Adapter33Instant Wireless®Seriesture of scrambling. On the software side, WLAN offers the encryption function(WEP) to enhance security and access control.Can Instant Wireless products support printer sharing?Instant Wireless products perform the same function as LAN products.Therefore, Instant Wireless products can work with NetWare, WindowsNT/2000, or other network operating systems to support printer or file sharing.What is WEP?WEP is Wired Equivalent Privacy, a data privacy mechanism based on a 40/104bit shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802.11 standard. 32Appendix B: Glossary802.11b - One of the IEEE standards for wireless networking hardware.Products that adhere to a specific IEEE standard will work with each other,even if they are manufactured by different companies. The 802.11b standardspecifies a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps, an operating frequency of2.4GHz, and WEP encryption for security. 802.11b networks are also referredto as Wi-Fi networks.Ad-hoc Network - An ad-hoc network is a group of computers, each with awireless adapter, connected as an independent 802.11 wireless LAN. Ad-hocwireless computers operate on a peer-to-peer basis, communicating directlywith each other without the use of an access point. Ad-hoc mode is alsoreferred to as an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) or as peer-to-peermode, and is useful at a departmental scale or SOHO operation.CTS (Clear To Send) - An RS-232 signal sent from the receiving station to thetransmitting station that indicates it is ready to accept data.Default Gateway - The router used to forward all traffic that is not addressedto a station within the local subnet.DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) - A protocol that lets networkadministrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of InternetProtocol (IP) addresses in an organization’s network. Using the Internet’s set ofprotocol (TCP/IP), each machine that can connect to the Internet needs aunique IP address. When an organization sets up its computer users with a con-nection to the Internet, an IP address must be assigned to each machine.Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer and,if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IPaddress must be entered. DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and dis-tribute IP addresses from a central point and automatically sends a new IPaddress when a computer is plugged into a different place in the network. DHCP uses the concept of a “lease” or amount of time that a given IP addresswill be valid for a computer. The lease time can vary depending on how long auser is likely to require the Internet connection at a particular location. It’s espe-cially useful in education and other environments where users change fre-quently. Using very short leases, DHCP can dynamically reconfigure networksin which there are more computers than there are available IP addresses.
Wireless-B PCI Adapter35Instant Wireless®Series34LAN. In infrastructure mode, the wireless devices communicate with eachother and to a wired network by first going through an access point. An infra-structure wireless network connected to a wired network is referred to as aBasic Service Set (BSS). A set of two or more BSS in a single network isreferred to as an Extended Service Set (ESS). Infrastructure mode is useful ata corporation scale, or when it is necessary to connect the wired and wirelessnetworks.IP Address - In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP)today, an IP address is a 32-binary digit number that identifies each sender orreceiver of information that is sent in packet across the Internet. When yourequest an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IPincludes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if morethan one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by lookingup the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in thee-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can seethe IP address of the Web page requester or the e-mail sender and can respondby sending another message using the IP address it received. IPCONFIG - A utility that provides for querying, defining and managing IPaddresses within a network. A commonly used utility, under Windows NT and2000, for configuring networks with static IP addresses.ISP - An ISP (Internet service provider) is a company that provides individualsand companies access to the Internet and other related services such as Web sitebuilding and virtual hosting. LAN - A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and associateddevices that share a common communications line and typically share theresources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area (forexample, within an office building). MAC Address - The MAC (Media Access Control) address is your computer’sunique hardware number. mIRC - mIRC runs under Windows and provides a graphical interface for log-ging onto IRC servers and listing, joining and leaving channels.Network Mask - also known as the “Subnet Mask.”Plug-and-Play - The ability of a computer system to configure expansionboards and other devices automatically without requiring the user to turn offthe system during installation.DHCP supports static addresses for computers containing Web servers thatneed a permanent IP address. DNS - The domain name system (DNS) is the way that Internet domain nameare located and translated into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. A domain nameis a meaningful and easy-to-remember “handle” for an Internet address. DSSS (Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum) - DSSS generates a redundant bitpattern for all transmitted data. This bit pattern is called a chip (or chippingcode). Even if one or more bits in the chip are damaged during transmission,statistical techniques embedded in the receiver can recover the original datawithout the need for retransmission. To an unintended receiver, DSSS appearsas low power wideband noise and is rejected (ignored) by most narrowbandreceivers. However, to an intended receiver (i.e. another wireless LAN end-point), the DSSS signal is recognized as the only valid signal, and interferenceis inherently rejected (ignored).Dynamic IP Address - An IP address that is automatically assigned to a clientstation in a TCP/IP network, typically by a DHCP server. Network devices thatserve multiple users, such as servers and printers, are usually assigned static IPaddresses. ESS (Extended Service Set) - A set of more than two or more BSSs (multipleaccess points) forming a single network.Firmware - Code that is written onto read-only memory (ROM) or program-mable read-only memory (PROM). Once firmware has been written onto theROM or PROM, it is retained even when the device is turned off.IEEE - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The IEEEdescribes itself as “the world’s largest technical professional society—promot-ing the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciencesfor the benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well-being of our members.” The IEEE fosters the development of standards that often become national andinternational standards. The organization publishes a number of journals, hasmany local chapters, and several large societies in special areas, such as theIEEE Computer Society. Infrastructure Network - An infrastructure network is a group of computersor other devices, each with a wireless adapter, connected as an 802.11 wireless
Wireless-B PCI Adapter37Instant Wireless®Series36cient delivery over the network. UDP is known as a “connection-less” protocoldue to NOT requiring the receiver of a packet to return an acknowledgment ofreceipt to the sender of the packet (as opposed to TCP).WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) - A data privacy mechanism based on a 64-bit shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802.11b standard. WINIPCFG - Configuration utility based on the Win32 API for querying,defining and managing IP addresses within a network. A commonly used util-ity under Windows 95, 98, and Me.WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) - A group of computers and associat-ed devices that communicate with each other wirelessly.Roaming - In an infrastructure mode wireless network, this refers to the abili-ty to move out of one access point's range and into another and transparentlyreassociate and reauthenticate to the new access point. This reassociation andreauthentication should occur without user intervention and ideally withoutinterruption to network connectivity. A typical scenario would be a locationwith multiple access points, where users can physically relocate from one areato another and easily maintain connectivity.SSID (Service Set Identifier) - An identification name that wireless devicesuse to make connections. In order for wireless devices to communicate, theymust all be set to the same channel and they all must use the same SSID. Forinstance, if you are using an access point to connect two computers using wire-less devices, the access point and each of the wireless devices must use thesame SSID. Even if they are set to the same channel, they cannot communicateunless the SSID is the same. Static IP Address - A permanent IP address that is assigned to a node in aTCP/IP network. Subnet Mask - The method used for splitting IP networks into a series of sub-groups, or subnets. The mask is a binary pattern that is matched up with the IPaddress to turn part of the host ID address field into a field for subnets. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) - A method (protocol) used along withthe IP (Internet Protocol) to send data in the form of message units (datagram)between network devices over a LAN or WAN. While IP takes care of handlingthe actual delivery of the data (routing), TCP takes care of keeping track of theindividual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for effi-cient delivery over the network. TCP is known as a "connection oriented" pro-tocol due to requiring the receiver of a packet to return an acknowledgment ofreceipt to the sender of the packet resulting in transmission control.TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) - The basic com-munication language or set of protocols for communications over a network(developed specifically for the Internet). TCP/IP defines a suite or group ofprotocols and not only TCP and IP.UDP (User Datagram Protocol) - A method (protocol) used along with the IP(Internet Protocol) to send data in the form of message units (datagram)between network devices over a LAN or WAN. While IP takes care of handlingthe actual delivery of the data (routing), UDP takes care of keeping track of theindividual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for effi-
Wireless-B PCI AdapterDimensions 4.80" x 4.76" x 0.75" (122 mm x 121 mm x 19 mm)Unit Weight 3.88 oz. (0.11 kg)Power 3.3 or 5V DCCertifications FCC Class B, IC-03Operating Temp. 32ºF to 131ºF (0ºC to 55ºC)Storage Temp. -4ºF to 158ºF (-20ºC to 70ºC)Operating Humidity 0% to 90%, Non-CondensingStorage Humidity 0% to 95%, Non-Condensing39Instant Wireless®Series38EnvironmentalAppendix C: SpecificationsModel Number WMP11 Standards IEEE 802.11bChannels 11 Channels (USA)13 Channels (Europe)14 Channels (Japan) Port One AntennaTransmit 19 dBmReceive Sensitivity -82 dBmModulation BPSK, QPSK, CCKNetwork Protocols IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, NetBEUILEDs Power, Link
Wireless-B PCI Adapter41Instant Wireless®Series40Appendix E: Contact InformationFor help with the installation or operation of the Wireless-B PCI Adapter, con-tact Linksys Technical Support at one of the phone numbers or Internetaddresses below.Sales Information 800-546-5797 (LINKSYS)Technical Support 800-326-7114RMA (Return MerchandiseAuthorization) Issues www.linksys.com (or call 949-271-5461)Fax 949-265-6655Email support@linksys.comWeb http://www.linksys.comFTP Site ftp.linksys.comAppendix D: Warranty InformationBE SURE TO HAVE YOUR PROOF OF PURCHASE AND A BARCODEFROM THE PRODUCT’S PACKAGING ON HAND WHEN CALLING.RETURN REQUESTS CANNOT BE PROCESSED WITHOUT PROOF OFPURCHASE. IN NO EVENT SHALL LINKSYS’ LIABILITY EXCEED THE PRICE PAIDFOR THE PRODUCT FROM DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDEN-TAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USEOF THE PRODUCT, ITS ACCOMPANYING SOFTWARE, OR ITS DOCU-MENTATION. LINKSYS DOES NOT OFFER REFUNDS FOR ANY PROD-UCT. LINKSYS OFFERS CROSS SHIPMENTS, A FASTER PROCESS FOR PRO-CESSING AND RECEIVING YOUR REPLACEMENT. LINKSYS PAYSFOR UPS GROUND ONLY. ALL CUSTOMERS LOCATED OUTSIDE OFTHE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA SHALL BE HELDRESPONSIBLE FOR SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES. PLEASECALL LINKSYS FOR MORE DETAILS.
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