WLAN PC-Card setup

The Access Point will allow multiple Wireless clients to communicate with each other and
to systems connected via network cables on a LAN:

most PC-Card are shipped with software, which contains a default configuration allowing easy
connection of wireless clients to the Access-Point, either with minimal or sometime no need for
configuring the WLAN card, it is highly recommended to become familiar with the setup,
especially the security features of the Access-Point.

The following example shows a Belkin PC-Card (F5D7010), but other WLAN PC-cards
have similar configurations (to be able to comply to the world-wide standard for 802.11b/g ).

	Start the installation of the software shipped with the WLAN PC-card.. Next. Define the location for the installation of the software, best to accept the default location. Next,
	The installation procedure for the Belkin PC-Card requests to insert the PC-Card as part of the software setup. Once the PC-vard is inserted, it should display a message "Found PCMCIA Device"
	The prcedure to install the software for the PC-card is completed. Since the new PCMCIA device was found, the "Hardware Setup Wizard" will start. continue with "Next".
	the Wizard continues searching ......
	On Windows XP, you may get the warning, that the driver for the network card has not passed Windows Logo testing. Ignore the message by selecting "Continue Anyway"
	The installation continue by copying files. on some version of Windows, you may get prompted to insert the Windows SETUP CD-ROM (to allow Windows to install network components). The installation should finish. On some version of Windows, you may be prompted to restart the system (Windows98), other version will tell you that the new Network hardware is ready to be used (XP ):

It will now be required to configure the Wireless network connection.

Locate the configuration software
for the WLAN card, it will most
probably an icon in your taskbar.

use it to display the current settings.

Locate the configuration of the
network (in this case via
"Advanced" )

If the Access-point was configure to broadcast the network identification, SSID,
then it should be displayed (in my example: "belkin54g") :

If the Access-Point is configured without security (no WEP), then you should be ready,
go back to the setup icon and select to "Connect":

The setup software should indicate, that you have now a WLAN connection.

All other steps of the network card setup are identical to configuring an Ethernet network adapter,
please view the network pages related to your operating system.

Example: Windows XP:

	Properties of "Network Neighborhood" / "My Network Places"
	"Status" of the WLAN connection
	The tab "Support" will show you the TCP/IP settings, in this case the IP-address was assigned via automatic IP Address assignment. if you use manually assigned IP-addresses, display the Properties of the WLAN connection and assign the IP-address.

This was an easy setup, because the Access-Point was broadcasting the SSID and is not
using encryption (WEP), but your WLAN is not secure, it is open for anybody to connect.

In the next steps, you need to make the WLAN secure.