Wireless PC Card TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome....................................................................................1 Features .................................................................................1 Installation of the PC Card to your Laptop Computer..........2 Hardware Installation..............................................................2 Driver Installation .....................................................................3 Windows 98SE Driver Installation ..........................................3 Windows ME Driver Installation..............................................7 Windows 2000 Driver Installation .........................................10 Windows XP Driver Installation ............................................14 Configuration Utility...............................................................17 Using the Configuration Utility ..............................................18 Status ................................................................................18 Configuration.....................................................................20 Security .............................................................................23 Site Survey........................................................................24 Profile ................................................................................25 Statistics ............................................................................26 About.................................................................................27 The Configuration Utility for Windows XP ............................28 Specifications .........................................................................30 Legal Notice............................................................................31 IC Notice..................................................................................31 FCC Information .....................................................................31 Precautions! ...........................................................................33 One Year Limited Warranty ...................................................36 Appendix: Glossary ...............................................................38 ii Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Welcome Congratulations on your purchase of the PCW300 802.11b PCMCIA Card. This PC card is designed and engineered to exacting standards for reliability, long life and outstanding performance. Installation of the PC Card to your Laptop Computer Hardware Installation § § § Turn Off your laptop computer. Locate an available PC Cardbus slot on your laptop computer. With the PCMCIA adapter's 68-pin connector facing the PCMCIA slot and the "Wireless Network PC Card" label facing up, slide the PCMCIA adapter firmly into the PCMCIA slot. The hardware installation is completed. Features § § § § § § § § 11 Mbps High-Speed Transfer Rate Interoperable with IEEE 802.11b(DSSS) 2.4GHz-compliant equipment Plug-and Play operation provides easy setup. Advanced Power Management feature conserves valuable notebook PC battery life. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum compatible to prevent lost connections Rugged metal design with integrated antenna Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) 64/128-bit data encryption Driver supports Windows 98SE, Millennium, 2000 and XP § Uniden® is a registered trademark of Uniden America Corporation. and Your Gateway To The EvolutionTM are a trademarks of Uniden America Corporation. Windows® 98/2000, Millennium, and XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft® in the United States and/or other countries. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Information is subject to change without notice. 1 2 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Driver Installation Windows 98SE Driver Installation 1. Turn On your laptop computer and insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive, if you have not done so already. Windows 98 automatically recognizes a new PCW300 802.11b PCMCIA Card. Click the Next button to continue. 2. Select "Search for the best driver for your device" and click the Next button to continue. 3 4 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card 3. Make sure "Specify a location" is selected and click the Browse button. At this point, Windows will ask you to browse for the folder. Simply select the CD-ROM drive in which the driver is located, click on the NETR8180.INF folder and click the OK button or you can type in "E:\NETR8180.INF" (where "E" represents the letter of your CD-ROM drive.) Click the Next button to continue. 5. Windows has completed installing the driver. Click the Finish button to continue. Uniden PCW300v2 Wireless PC Card 4. Windows is now ready to install the driver. Click the Next button to continue. 6. To finish installing the PC card, you must restart your laptop computer. Click the Yes button to restart your laptop computer. NETR8180.INF 5 6 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Windows ME Driver Installation 1. Turn On your laptop computer and insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive, if you have not done so already. Windows automatically recognizes a new PCW300 802.11b PCMCIA Card. Select "Automatic search for a better driver". Click the Next button to continue. 2. Make sure "Specify a location" is selected and click the Browse button. At this point, Windows will ask you to browse for the folder. Simply select the CD-ROM drive in which the driver is located, click on the NETR8180.INF folder and click the OK button or you can type in "E:\NETR8180.INF" (where "E" represents the letter of your CD-ROM drive.) Click the Next button to continue. 3. Windows is now ready to install the driver. Click the Next button to continue. NETR8180.INF 7 8 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Windows 2000 Driver Installation 4. Windows has completed installing the driver. Click the Finish button to continue. 1. Turn On your laptop computer and insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive, if you have done so already. Windows 2000 automatically recognizes the new hardware. Click the Next button to continue. Uniden PCW300v2 Wireless PC Card 5. To finish installing the PC card, you must restart your laptop computer. Click the Yes button to restart your laptop computer. 9 10 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card 2. Select "Search for a suitable driver for my device" and click the Next button to continue. 4. Select the CD-ROM drive in which the driver is located or type in "E:\NETR8180.INF" (where "E" represents the letter of your CD-ROM drive), click on the NETR8180.INF folder and click the OK button. 5. Windows will search for the driver. Once the driver is located, the following screen will appear. Click the Next button to continue. 3. Select "Specify a location". continue. Click the Next button to NETR8180.INF Uniden PCW300v2 Wireless PC Card 11 12 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card 6. The Digital Signature Not Found screen is a notification by Windows 2000. However, this does not mean that there is a problem. The PCW300 has been tested extensively and has been found to work with Windows 2000. Click the Yes button to continue. Windows XP Driver Installation 1. Turn On your laptop computer and insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive, if you have not done so already. Windows XP will automatically recognize a new PCW300 Wireless 802.11b PCMCIA Card. Select "Install the software automatically". Click the Next button to continue. Uniden PCW300v2 Wireless PC Card 13 14 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card 2. Windows will notify you that it has not passed Windows Logo testing to verify its compatibility with Windows XP. This does not mean there is a problem. The PCW300 has been tested extensively and has been found to work with Windows XP. Click the Continue Anyway button. 3. Windows has completed installing the driver. Finish button to continue. Click the Uniden PCW300v2 Wireless PC 15 16 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Configuration Utility The Configuration Utility is provided to allow you further customization of the PC card and your wireless network. It is useful for operation with Windows 98SE, 2000, and ME but is not needed for Windows XP. If you are using Windows XP, please see the instructions starting on page 28. To launch the utility, double click on the icon shown below in your system tray. Using the Configuration Utility Status The Status screen provides information about the wireless connection between your PC card and the wireless access point detailing which access point you are currently connected to along with signal strength, link quality and other information about your wireless connection. 17 18 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Connected: Displays which access point is connected with your PC Card. Network: Indicates the type of wireless network being used. Transmit Rate: Shows the data transmission rate. Channel: Displays the wireless channel in operation. Encryption: Indicates the encryption status. Signal Strength: Shows how strong the wireless signal is being received from the access point. Link Quality: Displays the clarity of the current channel. Configuration The Configuration screen allows you to customize the settings of your PC Card for your wireless network. The Network Type setting determines the architecture of your wireless network. You should select Access Point mode or Peer-to-Peer mode depending on your network type. The Access Point mode, which is most commonly used and is also known as "Infrastructure Mode", allows you to be connected wirelessly to an existing wired network through an Access Point. Peer-to-Peer mode, also known as "Ad-Hoc" mode is used to connect directly to another computer without an Access Point. For Peer-to-Peer connections, you will need to specify the frequency channel and SSID. 19 20 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Note: You do not need to set the channel when using Access Point mode. The Network Name (also known as the SSID) is the unique name shared among all points in a wireless network. The Network Name must be identical for all points in the network. It is case sensitive and must not exceed 32 characters. In Access Point mode, you may instruct the adapter to select the first available Access Point by entering a Network Name of "ANY" (all upper case). You should not use a Network Name of "ANY" in Peer-to-Peer mode. The Transmit Rate field allows you to set the transmission rate for the PC card. To optimize performance and range, the Transmit Rate should be set to Fully Automatic, which will automatically adjust the transfer speed for best performance and longest range. Note: If you experience difficulty in transfering data between computers, you should try the following steps: · · Reposition either or both computers or Access Point (if one is being used). Keep in mind that closer is not necessarily better for devices of this type. If the devices are too close together, move them apart. If you have a consistent problem with many or all wireless devices on your network, you should consider using a different wireless channel for your network operations. These settings are for very advanced users, and should not be adjusted without a thorough understanding of the 802.11b protocol. The Fragmentation Threshold field allows you to increase throughput by adjusting the number of bytes being transmitted/received. However, when signal strength is low, it is better to lower the fragmentation threshold for better throughput. The RTS/CTS Threshold field is another adjustment you can make to increase performance. The higher the threshold value the better the performance. However, you'll need to adjust to a lower setting when the signal strength is low. · The Advanced screen allows you to set the Preamble Type, Fragmentation Threshold and RTS/CTS Threshold. 21 22 Wireless PC Card Wireless PC Card Security To make your network more secure, you may choose to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). Your PCW100 Wireless 802.11b USB Adapter supports both 64-bit WEP and 128-bit WEP. After selecting the Encryption mode (64-bit or 128-bit), you must complete the 4 Encryption Keys. This can be done one of three ways: Automatically by entering a Pass Phrase, manually by entering a Hexadecimal characters or manually by entering Alpha-Numeric characters. Entering a Pass Phrase is the easiest way to enable your 64-bit/128-bit WEP Encryption. A Pass Phrase is similar to a password. Once you enter the Pass Phrase into the Pass Phrase field, the program will automatically convert the Pass Phrase into a hexadecimal format for the 4 Keys. You can also choose to manually enter either Hexadecimal numbers or Alpha-Numeric characters, simply by selecting the manual configuration desired (Hexadecimal or Alpha-Numeric) and enter the characters for the for Keys. Hexadecimal characters consist of letters "A" through "F" and numbers "0" through "9". Note: 64-bit WEP encryption con ...