Introduction |
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A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) serves the same purpose as a conventional | |
1wired Ethernet | network (LAN) but without the wires. Computers are linked |
together by radio waves. The wireless adaptor is your “wireless network card”. It turns your computer into a wireless station, allowing it to connect to other wireless stations or wireless access points to share network resources including Internet access. Your wireless adaptor is
THIS PRODUCT CAN BE SET UP ON TWO TYPES OF WIRELESS NETWORKS
1.Infrastructure network
In an infrastructure network, your wireless adaptor connects your computer to a wired network via a wireless access point. This enables your computer to share all available resources including Internet access and peripherals on the wired network.
2.Ad-hoc (peer to peer) network
This is a computer network built of wireless stations. Your wireless adaptor connects your computer to other wireless stations for file sharing.
WIRELESS PRIVACY
Privacy is an important issue with wireless. These functions are provided for access control and security:
1.Service Set ID (SSID)
This is a user specified name that uniquely identifies a wireless domain. You must set your wireless adaptor to use the SSID for the wireless network.
2.Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an authentication algorithm that protects users from eavesdropping. When enabled, all wireless stations always transmit data encrypted using a key of your choice. The receiving station will use the same key for decryption.
2Installing the Wireless Adaptor
IMPORTANT: Do not connect the wireless adaptor to your computer before installing the supplied software from the manufacturer’s CD. Otherwise if you connect the adaptor to your computer Windows would pop up a message box requesting the driver in which case click Cancel to proceed.
Windows XP comes with built in wireless adaptor software. You only need to follow section 2.2 to install the driver. Please skip the procedure in section 2.1.