Asus Wireless Adapter WL-160N User Manual
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ASUS WLAN Adapter11 Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Using the Control Center The Control Center taskbar icon displays the following information: • Link quality of the WLAN Adapter (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Not Linked) • W h e t h e r t h e W L A N A d a p t e r i s c o n n e c t e d t o a n e t w o r k ( B l u e : Connected, Gray: Not Connected) Taskbar Icon and Status Wireless Status Icons (on the taskbar) Excellent link quality and connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Good link quality and connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Fair link quality and connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Poor link quality and connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Not linked but connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Excellent link quality but not connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Good link quality but not connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Fair link quality but not connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Poor link quality but not connected to Internet (Infrastructure) Not linked and not connected to Internet (Infrastructure) ASUS WLAN Control Center ASUS WLAN Control Center is an application which makes it easier to launch WLAN applications and activate network location settings. The WLAN Control Center starts automatically when system boots. When WLAN Control Center is running, you can see a Control Center icon on the Windows taskbar. Starting the Control Center • Select ASUS WLAN Control Center in Windows Start menu, or • Double-click the ASUS WLAN Control Center icon on the desktop. 3. Software Reference
12ASUS WLAN Adapter Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Taskbar icon - Left-click menu Left-click the taskbar icon to show the following menu items: • Wireless Radio On – Click to turn the wireless radio ON. • Wireless Radio Off – Click to turn the wireless radio OFF. • Search & Connect – Click toview the properties of available access points. • Wireless Option (Windows® XP only) – Click to choose Windows® Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) service or ASUS utilities to configure your WLAN Adapter. Taskbar Icon - Launch Wireless Settings Double-click the taskbar ico n to launch the Wireless Settings utility. to launch the Wireless Settings utility. Taskbar icon - Right-click menu Right-click the taskbar icon to show the following menu items: • Wireless Settings – Click to launch Wireless Settings application. • Activate Configuration – Click to choose a preset profile. • Mobile Manager – Click to launch Mobile Manager application. • Site Monitor – Click to launch the Site Monitor application. • Preferences – Click to customize the Control Center program. You can create a Control Center shortcut on the desktop and decide whether to start Control Center when system boots. • About Control Center-Shows the version of Control Center. • Exit – Click to close the Control Center program. Taskbar Left-Click Menu
ASUS WLAN Adapter13 Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Status - Status You can view the information about the WLAN Adapter from the Status menu. The status fields are blank if the WLAN Adapter is not installed. You can turn off the WLAN Adapter by clicking the “Disable Radio” button. Association State Displays the connection status as follows: Connected - The adapter is now associated with one wireless LAN device. When operating in Infrastructure mode, this field shows the MAC address of the access point with which the WLAN Adapter is communicating. When operating in Ad Hoc mode, this field shows the virtual MAC address used by computers participating in the Ad Hoc network. ASUS Wireless Settings Utility Wireless Settings is an application for managing the WLAN Adapter. Use Wireless Settings to view or modify the configuration settings, or to monitor the operational status of your WLAN Adapter. When Wireless Settings is launched, you can see the tabbed property sheets which categorize the configuration options into groups. Starting Wireless Settings • Open the Windows Control Panel, then double-click the ASUS WLAN Adapter Settings icon. or • Click the Windows Start button, select Programs | ASUS Utility | WLAN card | Wireless Settings. or • Right-click the Control Center icon on the Windows taskbar and select Wireless Settings. NOTE: If you have more than one ASUS WLAN device installed on your computer, you may see a device selection window when you launch the “Wireless Settings” utility. Select the device you want when such situation occurs.
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Chapter 3 - Software Reference
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Scanning... : The station is trying to authenticate and associate with an access point or Ad Hoc
node.
Disconnected: The WLAN Adapter is installed to the system, but not yet connected to a wireless
device.
SSID: Displays the Service Set Identifier (SSID) of the device that the adapter
is either associated or intending to join.
MAC address: Shows the hardware address of the WLAN Adapter. MAC
address is a unique identifier for networking devices (typically written as twelve
hexadecimal digits from 0 through 9 and A through F separated by colons, i.e.
00:E0:18:F0:05:C0).
Current Channel: Displays the radio channel to which the adapter
is currently tuned. This number changes as the radio scans the available
channels.
Current Data Rate: Displays the current data rate in megabits per second
(Mbps).
Radio State: Shows the wireless radio status: ON or OFF.
Radio On - When the wireless radio is turned ON, the icon on the right
appears in the upper left of the Status page.
Radio Off- When the wireless radio is turned OFF, the icon on the right
appears in the upper left of the Status page.
Buttons
Rescan – Make the WLAN Adapter rescan all available devices. If the current
link quality or signal strength is poor, rescanning can be used to push the radio
off a weak access point and search for a better link with another access point.
This function usually takes several seconds.
Change SSID – Click this button to set the SSID to that of the AP you want to
connect.
Search & Connect – Click this button to connect to an available wireless AP.
NOTE: For 802.11n performance, select 40MHz bandwidth in wireless
router. Channel option depends on the bandwidth that you select.
ASUS WLAN Adapter15 Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Save Configuration W h e n y o u m a k e s e t t i n g s f o r a certain working environment, you may need to save your settings to a profile so that you can easily switch to the settings without repeating the configurations. For example, you can set profiles for work, home and other situations. When you travel from home to work, choose the "office" profile that contains all your settings for office use. When you travel back home, choose the “home” profile. Activate Configuration Auto roaming is enabled by default and makes the adapter automatically switch to APs of better signal. You can uncheck it if you want to connect to a specified AP using a particular profile. Status - Connection You can view the current link statistics about the WLAN Adapter. These statistics are updated once per second and are valid if the WLAN Adapter is correctly installed. Frame Sent/Received Transmitted - The number of frames that were transmitted. Received - The number of frames that were received. Frame Error Transmitted - The number of frames that were not successfully transmitted. Received - The number of frames that were not successfully received. Connection Quality Signal Strength - Shows the link quality of the access point or Ad Hoc node the WLAN Adapter is currently connected to. Ratings are: Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor. Overall Connection Quality The overall connection quality is derived from the current signal strength. A graphic chart uses percentage to show signal quality.
16ASUS WLAN Adapter Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Status - IP Config IP Config tab shows all the current host and WLAN Adapter information including host name, DNS servers, IP address, subnet mask and default gateway. Button IP Release - If you want to remove the current IP address, click this button to release the IP address from DHCP server. IP Renew - If you want to obtain a new IP address from DHCP server, click this button to renew the IP address. Ping - Click this button to open “Ping” tab which is used to ping the devices in your network. NOTE: The IP Release and IP Renew buttons can only be used on the WLAN Adapter which gets IP address from DHCP server. Status - Ping Click the "Ping" button in Status-IP Config tab to open this page. The Ping tab allows you to verify the accessibility of other computers or network devices. To ping a connection: 1. Type the IP address of the device you want to verify in the IP Address field. 2. C o n f i g u r e t h e p i n g s e s s i o n b y assigning the ping packet size and number of packet to send, and the timeout value (in milliseconds). 3. Click the “Ping” button. During the ping session, the Ping button Changes into a Stop button. To cancel the ping session, click the “Stop” button. The session field displays information on the verified connection including the roundtrip time (minimum, maximum, and average) and packets sent, received, and lost after a ping session. Click the “Clear” button to clear the session field.
ASUS WLAN Adapter17 Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Config - Basic This page enables you to change the WLAN Adapter configurations. Network Type Infrastructure – Infrastructure means to establish a connection with an access point. Once connected, the access point allows you to access wireless LAN and wired LAN (Ethernet). The C h a n n e l f i e l d t u r n s t o A u t o i f t h e connection is based on Infrastructure. Ad Hoc – Ad Hoc means to communicate directly with other wireless clients without using an access point. An “Ad Hoc” network can be setup quickly and easily without pre-planning, for example, sharing meeting notes between attendants in a meeting room. Network Name (SSID) SSID stands for “Service Set Identifier”, which is a string used to identify a wireless LAN. Use the SSID to connect with a known access point. You can enter a new SSID or select one from the drop-down list box. If you get connected by designating the SSID, you are only to connect the AP with the SSID you assigned. If the AP is removed from the network, your WLAN Adapter does not roam automatically to other APs. SSIDs must all be printable characters and having a maximum of 32 case sensitive characters, such as “ Wireless”. Channel The Channel field is for setting radio channel. Your WLAN Adapter can automatically select the correct channel to communicate with a wireless device, and the parameter is fixed to "Auto" in both Infrastructure and Ad Hoc mode. The available radio channels depend on the regulations in your country. For the United States (FCC) and Canada (IC), channel 1 to 11 are supported. For Europe (ETSI), channel 1 to 13 are supported. For Japan (MKK), channel 1 to 14 are supported. Click Apply to save and activate the new configurations.
18ASUS WLAN Adapter Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Others Encryption – Click this link to show the "Encryption" tab. Advanced – Click this link to show the "Advanced" tab. In most cases, the default values do not have to be changed. Troubleshooting – Click on this to show the Troubleshooting utility. Config - Advanced Click Advanced link on Config-Basic page to show this tab. This tab allows you to set up additional parameters for the wireless Adapter. We recommend using the default values for all items in this window. RTS Threshold (0-2347) The RTS/CTS (Request to Send/Clear to Send) function is used to minimize collisions among wireless stations. When RTS/CTS is enabled, the router refrains from sending a data frame until another RTS/CTS handshake is completed. Enable RTS/CTS by setting a specific packet size threshold. The default value (2346) is recommended. Fragmentation Threshold (256-2346) Fragmentation is used to divide 802.11 frames into smaller pieces (fragments) that are sent separately to the destination. Enable fragmentation by setting a specific packet size threshold. If there is an excessive number of collisions on the WLAN, experiment with different fragmentation values to increase the reliability of frame transmissions. The default value (2000) is recommended for normal use.
ASUS WLAN Adapter1 Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Network Authentication Since there is no precise bound in wireless LANs, the WLAN users need t o i m p l e m e n t c e r t a i n m e c h a n i s m t o p r o v i d e s e c u r i t y s o l u t i o n . T h e A u t h e n t i c a t i o n p o l i c i e s i n t h i s t a b provide protection of different levels such as Open, Shared, WPA-PSK, WPA, WPA2 and WPA2-PSK. Open - Select this option to make the n e t w o r k o p e r a t e o n O p e n S y s t e m mode, which use no authentication algorithm. Open stations and APs can authenticate with each other without checking any WEP Key, even if there is. Shared - Select this option to make the network operate on Shared key mode. In a Share Key Authentication system, four-step exchange of frames is required to validate that the station is using the same WEP Key as the access point. WPA-PSK/ WPA2-PSK - Select this option to enable WPA Pre-Shared Key under Infrastructure mode. It enables communication between your client and APs using WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK encryption mode. WPA/ WPA2 - The network is operating in IEEE 802.1x authentication mode. This mode is for environments with RADIUS (Remote Access Dial-in User Service). In a RADIUS environment, five Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) are supported, including PEAP, TLS/Smart Card, TTLS, LEAP and Md5- Challenge. Config - Encryption This page enables you to configure the Wireless LAN Adapter encryption settings. For data confidentiality in a wireless environment, IEEE 802.11 specifies a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm to offer transmission privacy. The WEP uses keys to encrypt and decrypt data packets. The encryption process can scramble frame bits to avoid disclosure to others. The WPA/WPA2 is improved security system for 802.11 which are developed to overcome the weakness of the WEP protocol.
20ASUS WLAN Adapter Chapter 3 - Software Reference Chapter 3 Software Reference Data encryption For Open and Shared authentication mode, the configuration options of encryption type are Disabled and WEP. For WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2 and WPA2-PSK authentication mode, Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) encryption and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption are supported. Disabled - Disable the encryption function. WEP - WEP Key is used to encrypt your data before it is transmitted over air. You can only connect and communicate with wireless devices that use the same WEP keys. TKIP - TKIP uses an encryption algorithm method that is more stringent than the WEP algorithm. It also uses existing WLAN calculation facilities to perform encryption. TKIP verifies the security configuration after the encryption keys are determined. AES: AES is a symmetric 128-bit block encryption technique that works simultaneously on multiple network layers. Wireless Network Key This option is enabled only if you select WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK authentication mode. Select “TKIP” or “AES” in the encryption filed as encryption mode to begin the encryption proceed. Note: 8 to 64 characters are required in this field. Wireless Network Key (WEP) This option is configurable only if you enable WEP in Network Authentication field. The WEP Key is a 64 bits (5 byte) or 128 bits (13 byte) Hexadecimal digits which is used to encrypt and decrypt data packets. Key Format You can select to enter Hexadecimal digits (0~9, a~f, and A~F) or ASCII characters to setup keys by defining the Key Format. Key Length For 64 bits encryption, each key contains 10 hex digits or 5 ASCII characters. For 128 bits encryption, each key contains 26 hex digits or 13 ASCII characters. Two ways to assign WEP keys 1. Manual Assignment - When you select this option, the cursor appears in the field for Key 1. For 64-bit encryption, you are required to enter four WEP Keys. Each Key contains exactly 10 hex digits (0~9, a~f, and A~F). For 128-bit encryption, you are required to enter four WEP Keys. Each Key contains exactly 26 hex digits (0~9, a~f, and A~F).