Lenovo S430 Establishing wireless WAN connections, Using Bluetooth, Access Connections gauge

Access Connections, a connectivity assistant program, can easily enable one network card and disable the other cards on demand. After setting up your wireless networking connection, you can use the program to quickly switch the network settings.

Establishing wireless WAN connections

Wireless Wide Area Network (wireless WAN) enables you to establish wireless connections over remote public or private networks. These connections can be maintained over a large geographical area, such as a city or an entire country, by use of multiple antenna sites or satellite systems maintained by wireless service providers.

Some ThinkPad notebook computers come with a built-in wireless WAN card integrating some wireless WAN technologies, such as 1xEV-DO, HSPA, 3G or GPRS. You can connect to the Internet or your company network with the built-in wireless WAN card and the configuration utility to make a wireless WAN connection and monitor its status.

Note: Wireless WAN service is provided by authorized service providers in some countries.

To locate the wireless WAN antenna on your computer, see “Location of the UltraConnect wireless antennas” on page 132.

To use the wireless WAN feature, start the Access Connections program. For information on how to start the Access Connections program, see “Accessing ThinkVantage programs on the Windows 7 operating system” on page 13.

Using Bluetooth

If your computer is equipped with the integrated Bluetooth feature, you can enable or disable the feature by pressing F9. When you press F9, a list of wireless features is displayed. You can enable or disable the Bluetooth feature with a single click.

To configure a Bluetooth device or manage connection settings, use Bluetooth Devices in Control Panel.

1.Click Start ➙ Control Panel.

2.Click Hardware and Sound.

3.Click Devices and Printers.

To send data to a Bluetooth-enabled device, do the following:

1.Right-click the data that you want to send.

2.Select Send To ➙ Bluetooth Devices.

For details, refer to the Windows help information system.

Note: If you use the wireless feature (the 802.11 standard) of your computer simultaneously with a Bluetooth option, data transmission speed can be delayed and the performance of the wireless feature can be degraded.

Checking the wireless connection status

You can check your computer wireless connection status and wireless signal strength through the Access Connections gauge on the taskbar, or through the Access Connections icon and wireless status icon on the taskbar.

Access Connections gauge

The Access Connections gauge on the taskbar displays the signal strength and status of your wireless connection.

Chapter 2. Using your computer 31