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11 Mbps Wireless LAN
PC Card User Guide
Full featured wireless local area networking made simple.
Version 2.0
http://www.3com.com/
http://support.3com.com/warrantyregistration/register.pl
Published March 2001
Version 2.0.1
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3Com Corporation 5400 Copyright © 2001, 3Com Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be Bayfront Plaza Santa reproduced in any form or by any means or used to make any derivative work (such as translation, Clara, California transformation, or adaptation) without written permission from 3Com Corporation. 95052-8145 3Com Corporation reserves the right to revise this documentation and to make changes in content from time to time without oblig
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CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION How Does a Wireless LAN Work? 5 Network Association 5 Roaming 5 Security 5 Ad Hoc Networks 5 Setting Up a 3Com Wireless LAN 6 All Wireless Networks 6 Wired/Wireless Networks 6 Product Registration and Support 7 2 INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT Requirements 9 Disk Factory 9 Inserting the PC Card 10 Installing the Software 11 Windows Wizard Installation 11 Install Files 11 Set Up the PC Ca
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4 SETTING THE WIRELESS CLIENT CONFIGURATION Changing Network and Security Settings 23 Network Settings 23 Security Settings 24 40-bit Shared Key (Wi-Fi) Encryption Settings 24 128-bit Dynamic Security Link Settings 25 Setting up Auto Network Connect 25 Setting up an Ad Hoc Network 26 Starting an Ad Hoc Network Session 26 Joining an Ad Hoc Network Session 27 Ending an Ad Hoc Network Session 27 Changing Po
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INTRODUCTION 1 3Com wireless technology brings the benefits of a local area network (LAN) to your office without the restraints and expense of network wiring. If your office already has an Ethernet LAN, the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN can extend the network without adding more wires. How Does a Wireless In a traditional LAN, computers communicate through wires. Instead of wires, a LAN Work? wireless LAN uses radio signals to communicate. Network Association Computers tha
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HAPTER NTRODUCTION 6 C 1: I Setting Up a 3Com The type of network you decide to set up depends on the size of your office and Wireless LAN whether or not you require connection to a wired LAN. You can also set up security for each of the different types of networks. Your set up will probably resemble one or more of the following examples. All Wireless Networks The simplest 3Com wireless LAN consists of several clients associating in an ad hoc network without an access poin
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Product Registration and Support 7 Product Registration To register your product with 3Com, go to the following Web page: and Support http://support.3com.com/warrantyregistration/frontpg.pl For support information, see “Technical Support” on page 39 and go to the following Web page: http://support.3com.com POWER POWER WIRELESS WIRELESS ETHERNET ETHERNET
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INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT 2 Installing a wireless client consists of inserting the 3Com Wireless LAN PC Card ® with XJACK Antenna in your computer and installing the software driver and utilities. If you have 3Com Administrator Utilities installed on a wireless client, you can manage access points or run a site survey. Requirements Before you start the installation, make sure that you have the following items: Operating System One of the following: Windows 95
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10 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT with a CD-ROM drive and a floppy drive and eight or more diskettes. Make sure you have enough diskettes on hand. 1 For the driver software, prepare a diskette labeled Drivers. For the rest of the software, label diskettes numerically (Disk 1, Disk 2, Disk 3...). 2 Put the 3Com CD in the CD-ROM drive. The setup program should start automatically. If it does not start, you can run it manually by selecting Run from the Start menu and specifying the srs
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Installing the Software 11 Installing the Depending on how your computer is set up, the installation program may ask for Software the operating system installation media (usually a CD supplied with your computer) or for a path to the operating system files. If you have other networking software installed on your computer, the installation program may ask for the networking software installation media. Make sure that you have the appropriate installation CDs or that you know the appropriate p
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12 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT Set Up the PC Card After the computer restarts, the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Setup window opens, in which you specify the PC Card configuration. 1 In the 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Setup window, select Typical and click Next. Typical configures the PC Card with the following default values: WLAN Service Area—Attach to any WLAN Service Area automatically Security Setting—No security (Open system) If you want to customize the PC Card con
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Windows NT Installation with Networking Installed 13 The CardWizard utility, which helps Windows NT to load and manage software, must be installed. If the installation program does not detect the CardWizard utility on your computer, it will ask whether you want to install it. If you already have a similar utility installed, you must first uninstall that utility to prevent conflicts with CardWizard. Internet Explorer version 4 is required to view help files. It is recommended that you install I
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14 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT 4 Read the CardWizard Software License Agreement and click Yes. 5 When prompted to remove the PC Card, eject the card and click Yes. 6 In the Select Type of Platform window, select your computer type and click Next. If your computer type is not listed, select Other Notebook and click Next. 7 Respond to the prompts to install CardWizard. 8 When the CardWizard installation finishes, click the radio button to restart the computer and click Finish. 9 Inse
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Confirming the Installation 15 7 In the next window, if the option to restart the computer appears, select it and click Finish. If you had a service pack installed before setting up the PC Card, reinstall it and restart the computer. This completes the basic installation. To confirm the installation, see “Confirming the Installation”. Confirming the When the PC Card and software are installed correctly, you will see the following Installation items after you restart the computer: PC Card LED
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16 CHAPTER 2: INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CLIENT To get the best reception: Clear the area around the antenna of items that could block radio transmission, such as metal objects, electronic devices, and cordless telephones. Even a slight change in antenna orientation can affect the network association. If necessary, move your computer a few inches to find a better signal. Custom Installation If you want to set up a custom configuration during installation, when the Options installation program
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Installing the Documentation 17 To enter hexadecimal keys: 1 In the Security settings window, select 40-bit Shared Key (Wi-Fi) and click Next. 2 In the Encryptions Settings window, select Hexadecimal Keys. 3 Type the encryption key sequences in the spaces provided. You must enter key sequences for all four keys. 4 Click one of the radio buttons to select a key to use for encrypting data from your computer. 5 Click Next when finished. 128-bit Dynamic Security Link Authentication 128-bit Dynam
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USING THE WIRELESS LAN 3 The 3Com WLAN Launcher shows the status of your network association and allows you to perform some network association and configuration tasks. The functions of the 3Com WLAN Launcher buttons are: Access Refreshes the association with the access point when you are associated Point with an access point. When you are associated with an ad hoc network, this button ends the ad hoc session and associates you to an access point. Computer Displays the Ad Hoc Network Login win
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20 CHAPTER 3: USING THE WIRELESS LAN About the 3Com Icon When the 3Com WLAN Launcher is running, the 3Com icon in the Windows system tool tray displays the status of the network association: Associated Green radio waves indicate a good association with an access point. Not Associated Red circle with a white X indicates no association with an access point. Card Removed Yellow circle with a black X indicates that no PC Card is detected by the computer. If the 3Com WLAN Launcher is hidden, click
