Instant Wave Wireless LAN NDC Communications, Inc. 265 Santa Ana Court Sunnyvale, CA 94086, USA Tel: +1 (408) 730-0888 Fax: +1 (408) 730-0889 Technical Support E-mail: (US only) Toll-Free (US only): 800-632-1118 Europe and Asia Pacific E-mail: NDC World Wide Web www.sohoware.com www.ndclan.
NDC provides this document "as is,” without warranty of any kind, neither expressed nor implied, including, but not limited to, the particular purpose. NDC may make improvements and/or changes in this manual or in the product(s} and/or the programs) described in this manual at any time.
Nat ice: The changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.
Table Of Contents INTRODUCTION INSTANT WAVE FAMILY SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE INSTALLATION ISAAC Card Installation. PC Card Installation . LESS. DRIVER INSTALLATION IN WINDOWS 0! Uninstalling the Adapter from Windows 95 . Uninstalling the Adapter from Windows NT 4. THE INSTANT WAVE UTILITY PROGRAM OVERVIEW... USING THE INSTANT WAVE UTILITY PROGRAM Adapter Properties . Configuration Adapter Properties Advanced Information Troubleshooting Diagnostic Program.
Packing List The package contents vary depending on whether you have purchased the PP ISAAC Card, or the PC Card version: The PnP ISAAC Card package should contain the following items: * One PnP ISA/PCI/PC Card * One Antenna | ¢ One Windows Driver Diskette | * One Windows Utility Diskette | * One DOS ODI Driver/Utility Diskette * This User’s Guide The PC Card package should contain the following items: ! * Phonecard * One Windows Driver Diskette * One Windows Utility Diskette * One DOS ODI Driver/Utility Di
List of Figures FIGURE 1. AN AD-HO NETWORK FIGURE. AN INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK FIGURE 3. A WIRELESS CELL (GROUP). FIGURE. ROAMING IN THE SAME DOMAIN FIGURES. REMOVING THE COMPUTER COVER FIGURE. INSERTING THE FIGURE 7. REPLACING THE COMPUTER COVER. FIGURE 8. CONNECTING THE ADAPTER CARD ANTENNA FIGURES. INSERTING THE PC CARD FIGURE 10. SYSTEM PROPERTIES FIGURE 11. NEW HARDWARE FOUND. FIGURE 12. INSTALL FROM DISK FIGURE 13. UPDATE DEVICE DRIVER WIZARD FIGURE 14 UPDATE DEVICE DRIVER WIZARD-2.
Introduction Congratulations on choosing an Instant Wave wireless networking family product. Instant Wave is one of the first IEEE 802.11 standard compliant products in the industry and was designed with 2 “Maximizing the convenience of networking ” philosophy in mind. You will find Instant Wave very easy to use and configure.
Glossary Wireless Network In the IEEE 802,11 definition, a wireless network is classified as an Haddock Network or an Infrastructure network. Ad-Ho Network An Ad-Ho network is formed by a number of wireless Stations {without an Access Point) communicating via radio waves. For the user, the shared resources on the wireless network appear exactly as they would on a regular wired network. The wireless operation of the network is totally transparent.
Figure 2. An Infrastructure Network Group DISSIDENT A Group 1D (the 802.11 standard uses the term SUBSIDE) is the ID of a wireless cell. A wireless cell is usually made up of stations in an area that the radio signal can comfortably cover. In other words, any wireless station in the cell can communicate with any other within reach of the radio signal (see Figure Figure.
Domain Nameless A domain is usually defined by the network administrator as a segmentation of a large network and may be made up of overlapping wireless cells. Wireless nodes can roam freely within the same domain without disconnecting from the network, Figure 4 depicts a common wireless network setup. Figure 4.
Access Point An Access Point (AP) provides a transparent bridged connection between a wired network and a wireless network and allows wireless stations to communicate with devices attached to a wired network. It manages the flow of data packets from the wired LAN to the Wireless LAN and vice versa.
Getting Started Overview This section explains how to quickly setup a wireless station. Hardware Installation ISAAC Card Installation To install the ISAAC Instant Wave card into a computer, simply follow these steps: slept. Tum off the power to your computer and all peripherals and unplug the power cord from the wall socket. step. Remove the computer's cover (Figure 5). Figure 5. Removing the Computer Cover step. Select a free ISAAC Bus expansion slot and remove the slot cover, steps.
Figure 6, Inserting the Card step. Replace the computer cover (Figure 7) and reconnect the previously disconnected cables. Figure 7. Replacing the Computer Cover step. Screw the antenna into the Instant Wave card (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Connecting the Adapter Card Antenna step?. Repeat the above procedure to fit an Instant Wave card into each of the other computers to be networked. PC Card Installation The PC card fits into a Type II or Type III PCMCIA slot. The antenna is encased in a plastic case, in line with the main body of the PC card, such that it extends outside the PCMCIA slot when the card is inserted. The slot must allow for a card extension of unto 30mm as specified in the PC Card specifications. slept.
Right click My Computer and click Properties. The System Properties screen will open (see Figure 16). Check the version number Figure 10. System Properties On the General card you will find the Windows 95 version number: » If the version number is 4.00.950 or 4.00.950a you are running the original version of Windows 95. (Follow procedure A below) s For version 4.00.950 B or later, go to Procedure B on page 10. Procedure A (For Windows 95 versions 4.00.950 and 4.00.950a) steeple.
step. Choose “Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer” and click OK. The Install From Disk dialog box will open (Figure 12). Rey Figure 12. Install From Disk step. Insert the Windows driver diskette into drive A: (or B:). The driver is in the root directory of the driver diskette. Type A\ (or B:\) and click OK. The system will copy the driver files to the Windows 95 system. step. Follow steps described in the next procedure (Procedure B). Procedure B (For Windows 95 4.00.950 B and 4.00.
step. stop. step. Insert the windows driver diskette into drive A: (or B:) and then click Next. The Update Device Driver Wizard will indicate that Windows 95 found the driver in the root directory of the floppy diskette, Click Finish Figure 14 Update Device Driver Wizard-2 The installer is going to copy the driver files into system. There is a known problem with the Windows 95 OSCAR device installer. The installer may default to the wrong source location.
Figure 16 Update Device Driver Wizard-4 step. After the driver files have been copied, the setup will ask you to insert the Instantiate Utility Setup Diskette’, bd Figure 17 Insert Utility Diskette step?. After the Instant Wave Utility files have been copied, the Network Identification dialog box will open. Enter a unique computer name and the Domain Name (ESSIE) of the network to which the wireless adapter will connect. Figure 18.
steps. staph. steppe. steppe, Click Next, The Network Properties dialog box will open. Enter the Network Type and Carrier Set. If the station is connected to an Access Point, Infrastructure mode must be specified. Select Ad Hoe mode to make a peer to peer connection to other wireless stations. If the country of operation is different from the country in which the product was purchased, the user can change the carrier set.
steppe. If the TCP/IP protocol is required {necessary for Internet access), the user can add this protocol via “Control Panel”, “Network”, and “Configuration”. That completes the hardware and driver installation. Uninstalling the Adapter from Windows 95 You may need to uninstall your adapter for the following reasons: 1. The installation fails or is interrupted by unknown factors. If this happens the Instant Wave Adapter will be marked with an exclamation mark “1” in Device Manager.
slept. Double-click My Computer, then double-click Control Panel. step. In Control Panel double-click the System icon ta open the System Properties window. Select the Device Manager card. step. Double-click Network adapters, or click the symbol to the left of Network adapters. steps. Select the Instant Wave Adapter and click the Remove button. Confirm the device removal and click OK to reboot the PC.
Figure 21. Add New Hardware Wizard.2 steps. Select Search for the best driver for your device. Click Next fo open the following dialog. Figure 22. Add New Hardware Wizard-3 step S. Insert the Instant Wave driver diskette into drive A: {or B) and then click Next. step. The Add New Hardware Wizard will indicate that Windows 98 found the driver in the root directory of the floppy diskette (Figure 23).
step. Figure 23. Add New Hardware Wizard-4 Follow step described in the Procedure B The default Network protocol for windows 98 is TCP/IP. If other network protocols are required they can be added via “Control Panel”, “Network”. Driver Installation in Windows NT 4.0 important: Before installing the driver in Windows NT 4.0 check that PnP step. step. step. steps. steps. step. and PC settings in the computer's BIOS are set to NO for “PnP OS Installed’.
step?. stops. Figure 24. Select Adapter Type Select the correct adapter and click OK. If PC Card is selected, the dialog box for setting the I/O address and Interrupt number will be shown. Users can specify a different T/O address and Interrupt number for this adapter whenever there is a conflict with an existing card in the computer. Figure 25. Enter Interrupt Number and /O Address Click OK. The Network Properties dialog box will open. Enter the Network Type and Carrier Set.
step. steppe. steppe. Figure 26. Set Network type and carrier set Click OK. The Roaming Switch dialog box is shown. When Roaming is enabled, the station is allowed to roam to another Access Point under the same Domain Name whenever the radio sign] quality of the currently connected AP is below the acceptable level. Figure 27. Set Roaming Switch Click OK to open the security dialog box. Figure 28. Set Security Security is enabled to restrict unauthorized access.
steppe. steppe. steppe. steps. steppe. Figure 29. Enter Security iD Enter a password and click OK. Windows NT will begin copying files. The Instant Wave Adapter will now be shown on the Adapters card in the Network configuration box. Click Close. If the user needs to bind the adapter to TCP/IP, then the TCP/IP properties must be added. The System Settings Change dialog box will ask you if you want to restart the computer.
Uninstalling the Adapter from Windows NT 4.0 step. Double-click My Computer, double-click Control Panel. step. Double-click Network and open the Adapters Card. step. Select the Instant Wave adapter, and click Remove.
The Instant Wave Utility Program Overview The Instant Wave Utility program is a windows-based application that allows users to monitor and configure the wireless network. The program includes a “Net-Watcher” function which allows users to determine the best location to place the Instant Wave products, or to diagnose the wireless network for problems.
Figure 30. Choose Destination Location step. From the Choose Destination Location dialog box copy the program files to the default location, or click Browse to choose another location. Then click Next. You can stop the process anytime by clicking Cancel. steps. The setup program will copy the necessary files into the specified directory. File copying progress will be displayed in the Instant Wave utility setup screen staph. Click Finish to complete the installation.
Figure 31. Instant Wave Utility step. Click Tool Bar and the task icons will appear in the upper right corner of the screen, offering fast access to the utility functions. Click the icon for the task you wish to perform. Figure 32. Tool bar The functions provided by the utility program are, reading from left to right: + Adapter Properties » Network Watcher «Signal Quality Indicator +» Throughput Monitor step. Right-click the Instant Wave Utility toolbar.
* Preferences allows you to customize utility settings * About provides product information step S. Click Preferences. The Preferences dialogue box will be shown (Figure 33). * Launch Instant Wave Utility on startup automatically starts the utility at each system boot Figure 33.
* Pop up message dialog is used to display a warning message in case of abnormal conditions. * Play sound is used to generate an alert sound in case of abnormal conditions. Right-click on the icon to open a popup menu for fast access the utility programs, Preferences, and Help. Adapter Properties There are two ways to access Adapter Properties. One is by clicking Start/Programs/InstantWave Utility/ Adapter Properties.
Figure 35. Configuration Network Type The 802,11 Wireless Specifications allow for two types of network, Infrastructure or Ad-Ho (see the Glossary on page 2) Infrastructure is used when networking with an Access Point. The default setting is Infrastructure. Computer Name — The must be the same name as entered in Control Panel, Network, Identification. : Domain Name Stations and APs in the same group must use the same domain name. This field is defined in the 802.
Figure 386. Wireless Adapter Properties The window is divided into three sections as described below: + Basic Information This section contains the manufacturer's name and the Instant Wave MAC firmware version number. The information is read from the MAC firmware of the Instant Wave card. * Hardware Configuration Information Shows the adapter bus type, TO address, IRQ number, and the station MAC address. ® Adapter Status — Display the adapter’s working status.
Figure 37. Troubleshooting Network Watcher (Site Survey Infrastructure) On an Infrastructure network, Network Watcher scans for all existing wireless cells in range and display the AP names, the MAC address, the Domain Name, the Signal Strength, the number of stations currently connected to each AP, and the connection status, When Network Watcher is run, the program first reads and displays information stored in the database.
Scan Click Scan to obtain and display updated data. You may need to wail a short time depending on the number of wireless cell replies received. Join Selecting one of the APs from the list will enable the Join command. The Join command allows you to manually connect to a specific AP. If joining carrot be accomplished within 20 seconds (possibly due to an AP that has gone off the air since the data was last refreshed, to RF interference, or a busy AP), the operation will fail.
Figure 40. Monitor RF Signal Quality View Station Throughput This item enables users to monitor the throughput (transmitted and received bytes) of the wireless station (Figure 41). Fat rat | SE Figure 41. View Station Throughput The graph shows the amount of transmitted/received bytes from/to this station, Uninstalling the Utility Program Should you wish to uninstall the Instant Wave Utility program: step. Click Control Panel. step. Click Add/Remove Programs and select Instant Wave Utility. step.
DOS ODI Driver Installation NDC also provides MS-DOS ODI driver support for the NDC Instant Wave Adapters. Check that the following items are present prior to the ODI driver installation: ¢ DC's Instant Wave ISAAC or PC Card «The ODI Driver Disk labeled “Instant Wave ODI Drivers Utility” Installation Procedure Install the Instant Wave Adapter into the PC as detailed in Hardware Installation, on page 6. step. Boot the PC to an MS-DOS environment. step.
step. Click Next. The Custom Installation screen will open, Figure 43. Custom Installation ODI Driver section In the ODI Driver section, select the adapter type you wish to install. Net Ware Requester section Nov ell provides two types of requester, a VLM requester and a NEXT requester. Only Net Ware 4.x and above support the VLM requester. Target Directory A Target Directory must be entered. If the field is empty, the program will flag the user with a pop-up error window.
The Configuration screen provides options for modifying the Instant Wave cards’ wireless network options. Users can also perform hardware diagnostics here by clicking the “Diagnose” button. When the Diagnosis is performed, it checks through the hardware (Figure 45) and presents a report (Figure 46). Figure 46, Diagnosis Report step. Click the OK button to close the On-Board Diagnosis screen and click OK on the Configuration screen to complete the setup/configuration change.
Figure 47. Restart Computer Click Yes to restart the PC. Once the PC is rebooted, type ‘Start Net BAT’ to load the ODI driver into DOS Memory. The Twixt LED will blink, indicating the Instant Wave adapter is being enabled.
Software Upgrade Procedures ‘Windows DIS Driver Upgrade Follow the instructions below to install 2 new DIS ISA/PCHPC Card driver release. step. step. step. steps. stops. In Control Panel, click the Network icon, then highlight the Instant Wave adapter driver entry Click the Remove button to remove the old Instant Wave adapter driver Click Close. The system will ask you to reboot the PC. Click Yes to restart the PC ‘The Windows 95 PnP device manager will recognize the wireless adapter again.
Troubleshooting Windows 95/98 Installation Problems Windows could not find the adapter «The adapter is not properly inserted in the soft 1. Power off the computer 2. Remove and reinsert the wireless adapter 3. Reboot the computer and re-install the adapter driver e A previous adapter installation was aborted by the user, or by Windows I. Check Control Panel/System/Device Manager/?Unknown Devices for a Wireless adapter entry 2.
5. Select a new [RQ value. When the ‘Conflicting device list’ confirms there are no conflicts, click OX to close the windows 6. Reboot the computer There are more than one wireless adapter entries shown in the Central Panel/Network folder. You do not know which one is the current one * A previously installed wireless adapter entry for a different card was not removed 1. Remove both wireless LAN adapter entries from the Network window 2. Reboot the PC to re-install the wireless adapter Windows NT 4.
The Instant Wave adapter driver cannot be started and the adapter LED are not flashing e More than one driver is present in the Network setup folder 1. Click Control Panel/Network/Adapters 2. If there is more than one entry for the same Instant Wave adapter, remove them alt 3. Reboot Windows NT 4, Reinstall the Instant Wave adapter driver DOS ODI Installation Problems ODI could not find the adapter * The adapter is not properly inserted in the slot 1. Power off the computer 2.
General Utility Error Messages “Cannot find the Wireless adapter’ » The Wireless adapter driver is installed, but the wireless adapter is not in the computer slot 1f you are using the wireless PC card, you will only need to reinsert the PC card to the PCMCIA slot to re-enable the driver. However, if you are using the ISAAC adapter, you will need to power down the PC and plug in the ISAAC card, then reboot the computer ‘Adapter is not responding’ «The card is in the system.
2. Highlight the Wireless LAN adapter entry and click Properties 3, Click the “Advanced” tab to open the device configuration menu 4. Select the ‘Domain (ESSIE’ entry and input the correct domain name. The name should be the same as the AP’s domain name (ESSIE. 5. Close all windows and reboot the computer «Station is having difficulties finding an AP to join 1. Use Site Survey to scan for all APs in the same wireless domain 2.
Transmission or reception throughput is low during network file accessing + Many stations are connected to the same group and heavily utilizing the network 1. Oman Infrastructure wireless network, use Site Survey 10 find, and connect to, a different AP with only a few PC connections 2.
How to Reach Qur Technical Support If you are having a problem using an NDC product and cannot resolve it, please note the following information and contact NDC Technical Support: * What were you doing when the error occurred? e What error messages did you see? » Can you reproduce the problem? * What is the serial number of your product? Send the description with the output of the Troubleshooting Diagnostic Program (see page 28) to one of the following addresses: NDC Technical Support is available via e-mai
[ EC DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY | For the following equipment: Product Name: : Instant Wave Wireless CUPCAKE Card Model Number: : NWB10A (PC Card} NWB20A (ISA Card) NWB30A (PCI Lard) Produced by: Manufacturer Name : NATIONAL DATA COMM CORPORATION Manufacturer Address INDUSTRY EAST 9™ ROAD SCIENCE PARK, SICHUAN, TAIWAN, R.O.C.
Index A Access Point... Adapter bus type Adapter Properties . Ad-Ho network Antenna ISAAC card B Basic Adapter Information... 28 SUBSIDE 3,22,30 c Carrier Set... Configuration. Connection Status D Diagnostics .. Domain E ESSIE. Extended Service Set G Glossary... Group ID. Bon 4,27,29 = H Hardware Configuration Information... Hardware Diagnostic: I Icons... Infrastructure Network Installation DOS ODI Driver in Windows 95... in Windows 98 in Windows oon ona eo RD MAC address Manually Connect to AP.
R Radio Frequencies .. 4 radio signal quality 0,42 Roaming... , 22,26 § Signal Quality .. . Signal Strength 29 Site Survey (Ad-Ho) , Site Survey (Infrastructure) ., 26 Station name "e Tr Target Directory Uninstalling from Windows 95... from Windows NT 4. the Utility program Upgrades... DOS ODI Driver Instant wave Utility ISA/PCI/PCMCIA Using the Utility Program. Utility Installation. Utility tools Vv BRAE RR A View Station Wireless Domain.