Sprint Nextel 550 manual Basics, 92 3E The Network Adapter Manager Notebooks Only

The Basics

The PCS Connection Card comes with an application, called the Network Adapter Manager, that is designed to manage multiple network interface cards on notebook PCs.

To understand the purpose of the Network Adapter Manager, it is necessary to understand that the card behaves differently for each type of connection. The PCS Connection Card behaves as:

▶A phone during voice connections

▶A network interface card during PCS Vision connections

It is only while the PCS Connection Card is behaving as a network interface card (when there is an active PCS Vision connection) that the Network Adapter Manager is of use.

Note: The Network Adapter Manager launches automatically whenever Windows is started. Unless you manually exit the application, it remains running from the time you start Windows until you shut down. Generally, the status area icon is the only evidence that the Network Adapter Manager is running.

When you have more than one network interface card inserted, Windows routes the data traffic through only one of the cards. This means that when you have a PCS Vision connection with the PCS Connection Card, and you have another network interface card (such as an Ethernet or Token Ring LAN card) inserted, data traffic is routed through either the PCS Connection Card or the LAN card – not both. The card through which data traffic is being routed is the “primary” card. The Network Adapter Manager shows you which card is primary by displaying an icon in the status area (usually located in the lower right corner of your screen).

Tip: The tooltip, displayed when you position the pointer over the Network Adapter Manager icon in the status area, identifies the primary card:

Section 3: Using the PCS Connection Card

92 3E: The Network Adapter Manager (Notebooks Only)