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MSI Software AP/Gateway
User’s Guide
G56-UG00032
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Copyright Notice
The material in this document is the intellectual property of MICRO-STAR INTER- NATIONAL. We take every care in the preparation of this document, but no guarantee is given as to the correctness of its contents. Our products are under continual improve- ment and we reserve the right to make changes without notice.
Trademarks
Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
All brand names, icons, and trademarks used in this manual are the sole property of their respective owners.
Technical Support
Visit the MSI website for FAQ, technical guide, driver and software updates, and other information: http://www.msi.com.tw/.
Contact our technical staff at: support@msi.com.tw.
Revision History
Revision History Date
V 1.0 First Release December 2003
iii
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 1
1.1 MSI Software AP/Gateway ... 1
1.2 Networking Option ... 2
1.3 Host System Requirements ... 3
2. Installation ... 5
2.1 Installing the Utility ... 5
2.2 Using the Utility ... 6
2.3 More Settings ... 7
2.3.1 Under Software AP Mode ... 9
2.3.2 Under Software Gateway Mode ... 11
3. Configuration ... 9
3.1 Configuration Utility of Software AP ... 9
3.1.1 Launching the Configuration Utility ... 9
3.1.2 Typical Configuration ... 11
3.1.3 Customized Configuration ... 14
3.2 Configuration Utility of Software Gateway ... 17
3.2.1 Launching the Configuration Utility ... 17
3.2.2 Typical Configuration ... 19
3.2.3 Customized Configuration ... 22
1
Introduction
A new way to build your wireless network! The MSI Software AP/Gateway brings a variety of innovations to home network- ing and small business users that enhance ease-of-use, setup and cost effective.
With this powerful utility, your computer that installed with the MSI wireless LAN adapter can become an Access Point imme- diately in your office environment, providing a connection from your wireless network to an existing network backbone, and this allows your wireless clients to access to the Internet and other resources in your enterprise network. It's very ideal for mobile groups (e.g. auditors) who need short time cost-effective wire- less connectivity without the expense of deploying a hardware- based access point.
For the home users, the Software Gateway function is the useful and convenient utility that allows the users to build a home network a nd share computer resources easily.
>>> 1.1 MSI Software AP/Gateway
2 MSI
Wireless PCI Card
MSI
Wireless CardBus Card
MSI
Wireless USB Adapter
Generally, your MSI wireless LAN adapter installed in the PC can only act as a client function, which allows your PC to con- nect to an Access Point or wireless gateway, and then access to the Intranet and Internet. By taking advantage of MSI Software AP/Gateway, the client can immediately upgrade to a virtual access point/gateway, serving as an Access Point or Gateway in your network environment. This innovation technology makes wireless connectivity simple and cost effective to the users, and makes MSI wireless networking solution especially fits to the SOHO/home application.
>>> 1.2 Networking Option
3
>>> 1.3 Host System Requirements
To run the MSI Software AP, your host system will need the following items:
CPU: Intel Pentium 120 or higher.
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP.
Memory: At least 128MB RAM, 256MB is recommended.
At least 5MB available disk space for installing the software.
A computer installed with a MSI wireless LAN adapter.
A JavaScript-enabled web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer 6.0) to configure the network settings.
4
5
>>> 2.1 Installing the Utility
To use the MSI Software AP/Gateway, you must install the driver and utility for your MSI wireless LAN adapter (refer to the User’s Guide of your wireless LAN adapter). When you install the driver and utility successfully, you can see the MSI Wireless LAN icon appears in the status area.
Installation
MSI Wireless LAN icon
6
When you are going to use the Software Gateway and there are two or more network connections in the system, the following dialog window will appear asking you to select one network connection.
To enable the Software AP/Gateway, right-click the MSI Wire- less LAN icon and select the Switch to AP Mode or Switch to Gateway Mode option. The MSI Wireless LAN icon will change to Software AP Controller/Software Gateway Controller icon.
Software AP Controller icon Select the option
you want.
Right-click
Software Gateway Controller icon
>>> 2.2 Using the Utility
7 Under Software AP Mode
When you enter the Software AP mode, right-clicking the Soft- ware AP Controller icon will bring up a sub-menu containing more settings.
Language
Choose a language according to your operating system.
Switch to Station mode
Select to switch to the adapter’ s normal function and dis- able the Software AP mode.
Switch to Gateway mode
Select to switch to Software Gateway mode.
Launch AP configuration tool
Launch the Configuration Utility to configure the network settings.
Exit
Close the program.
2.3.1
>>> 2.3 More Settings
8 Language
Choose a language according to your operating system.
Switch to Station mode
Select to switch to the adapter’s normal function and dis- able the Software Gateway mode.
Switch to AP mode
Select to switch to Software AP mode.
Change Gateway Setting
If there are two or more network connections in the sys- tem, this option allows you to select one network connec- tion to proceed configuration under current mode.
Launch AP configuration tool
Launch the Configuration Utility to configure the network settings.
Exit
Close the program.
Under Software Gateway Mode
When you enter the Software Gateway mode, right-clicking the Software Gateway Controller icon will bring up a sub-menu containing more settings.
2.3.2
9
Configuration
Launching the Configuration Utility
When the Software AP is enabled, click the icon to launch the Configuration Utility (or right-click to select the Launch AP configuration tool option).
First, enter the user’s information in the Connect dialog box. By default, the User Name is admin and the Password is admin.
Then, click OK.
>>> 3.1 Configuration Utility of Software AP
3.1.1
Click
Click Check this option to
save the settings Enter the User Name and Password
1 0
The Home window of the Configuration Utility will appear as below, which provides two options to select: Typical Con- figuration and Customized Configuration.
Typical Configuration provides a step-by-step Setup Wizard to guide you through the basic settings of the access point. Gen- erally, after completing the three steps in this option, your Soft- ware AP can connect to the ISP and your client computer can access to the Internet without any problem.
SSID MSI
Channel 1
User Name admin
Password admin
Encryption Disable
DHCP client Enable
Customized Configuration allows you to customize the net- work settings of your Software AP for some specific purposes, such as changing password and other network settings.
Factory Default Settings of the Software AP
1 1 Typical Configuration
In the Home window, click Typical Configuration and the Setup Wizard appears from Step 1 to guide you through the configura- tion.
3.1.2
Step 1. Setting the SSID The Menu Bar
The Menu Bar
During the Setup Wizard, whenever you click HOME in the menu bar will make you return to the Home window; click Logout to exit the Configuration Utility.
Step 1. Setting the SSID
SSID (Service Set Identifier) is the name designated for a specific wireless local area network (WLAN). The factory default setting is MSI.
After entering your SSID, click Next to continue step 2.
1 2 Setting the Channel
Channel 1 is the default value. Please note that all devices on the network must share the same channel.
Step 2. Setting the Channel
Make your choice and click Next to continue step 3.
Step 2.
1 3
> Data Encryption
If Data Encryption is set to Required, the following items must be answered. If it is set to Not required, you may skip Step 3 and click Next to close the 1-2-3 Setup Wizard.
> Authentication Type
- Open System: communicates the key across the network.
- Shared Key: devices must have identical WEP settings to communicate.
Select your authentication type and continue on to the next item.
> Encryption Type
Select the level of encryption desired: 40-bit or 128-bit. If you want to enable the encryption, for 40-bit key, enter 10 hexadecimal digits; for 128-bit key, enter 26 hexadecimal digits.
> WEP Key
Enter your 10- or 26-digit WEP Key.
When completed, click Next to close the 1-2-3 Setup Wizard.
WEP Setting
Step 3. Setting the WEP Step 3.
Hexadecimal digits consist of the numbers 0-9 and the letters A-F.
1 4 Customized Configuration
If you want to customize your Software AP for specific pur- poses, you may perform the configuration here.
In the Home window, click Customized Configuration and the main window appears as below.
3.1.3
The Menu Bar
There is a menu bar in the top of the Customized Configuration window containing two options to exit the configuration window (HOME and Logout, as described in the previous section), and three additional options for advanced configuration: System, LAN, and Wireless. The three options allow you to configure the respective network settings and view the system status.
The Menu Bar
1 5 System
This window includes all the basic configuration tools such as options to set up password, re-load the factory default settings, and view system status.
> Password Setting
This option allows you to use other personal password to re- place the default password (admin). First, enter the old pass- word, and then enter the new password twice to confirm the password changed. Then, click Apply to save the settings.
> Factory Default
You may re-load the factory settings of your Software AP.
> System Status
This option contains detail information of your Software AP, including general information and respective network settings.
Tip: Once you have changed the settings in each option, click Apply to save the settings, or Cancel to abandon.
Clicking Help can bring up the help window.
LAN
LAN is short for Local Area Network. This is considered your internal network. In the LAN Setting window, you can configure the IP setting.
> IP Setting
The default setting of the IP address is obtained from your DHCP server. If there is no DHCP server in your network, uncheck the Enable DHCP client option and set up the IP address for your Software AP.
- DHCP Client: When set to Enable, your Software AP can obtain an IP address automatically from the DHCP server.
- IP Address: The IP address of the LAN interface.
- Subnet Mask: The subnet mask of the LAN interface.
- Default Gateway: The IP address of the router/gateway in your network.
1 6
* These settings are for advanced users or MIS staff only. If you do not know how to set these parameters, you are recommended to use the default value.
Wireless
In this window, you can configure all wireless related settings for your Software AP.
> SSID & Channel
This option is used to set the SSID (Network Name) and chan- nel for your Software AP. If you have changed the SSID or Channel settings, click Apply to save the settings.
> Radio Setting
This option allows you to configure the operation parameters of the Software AP’s radio settings*.
> Encryption
This option allows you to configure the setting of data encryp- tion. The WEP key must be set before the data encryption is enforced.
> Associated Client List
This option is to display information of stations that are cur- rently associating to your Software AP.
> Association Control
This option allows you to control which PC can connect to the wireless LAN. If you enabled this feature, only PCs with MAC address located in Association Control List can connect to the wireless LAN.
1 7
>>> 3.2 Configuration Utility of Software Gateway
3.2.1
Click
Click Check this option to
save the settings Enter the User Name and Password
Launching the Configuration Utility
When the Software Gateway is enabled, click the icon to launch the Configuration Utility (or right-click to select the Launch Gateway configuration tool option).
First, enter the user’s information in the Connect dialog box. By default, the User Name is admin and the Password is admin.
Then, click OK.
1 8
The Home window of the Configuration Utility will appear as below, which provides two options to select: Typical Con- figuration and Customized Configuration.
Typical Configuration provides a step-by-step Setup Wizard to guide you through the basic settings of the gateway. Gener- ally, after completing the three steps in this option, your Soft- ware AP can connect to the ISP and your client computer can access to the Internet without any problem.
SSID MSI
Channel 1
User Name admin
Password admin
Encryption Disable
DHCP client Enable
Customized Configuration allows you to customize the net- work settings of your Software Gateway for some specific pur- poses, such as changing password and other network settings.
Factory Default Settings of the Software AP
1 9 Typical Configuration
In the Home window, click Typical Configuration and the Setup Wizard appears from Step 1 to guide you through the configura- tion.
3.2.2
Step 1. Setting the SSID The Menu Bar
The Menu Bar
During the Setup Wizard, whenever you click HOME in the menu bar will make you return to the Home window; click Logout to exit the Configuration Utility.
Step 1. Setting the SSID
SSID (Service Set Identifier) is the name designated for a specific wireless local area network (WLAN). The factory default setting is MSI.
After entering your SSID, click Next to continue step 2.
2 0 Setting the Channel
Channel 1 is the default value. Please note that all devices on the network must share the same channel.
Step 2. Setting the Channel
Make your choice and click Next to continue step 3.
Step 2.
2 1
> Data Encryption
If Data Encryption is set to Required, the following items must be answered. If it is set to Not required, you may skip Step 3 and click Next to close the 1-2-3 Setup Wizard.
> Authentication Type
- Open System: communicates the key across the network.
- Shared Key: devices must have identical WEP settings to communicate.
Select your authentication type and continue on to the next item.
> Encryption Type
Select the level of encryption desired: 40-bit or 128-bit. If you want to enable the encryption, for 40-bit key, enter 10 hexadecimal digits; for 128-bit key, enter 26 hexadecimal digits.
> WEP Key
Enter your 10- or 26-digit WEP Key.
When completed, click Next to close the 1-2-3 Setup Wizard.
WEP Setting
Step 3. Setting the WEP Step 3.
Hexadecimal digits consist of the numbers 0-9 and the letters A-F.
2 2 Customized Configuration
If you want to customize your Software Gateway for specific purposes, you may perform the configuration here.
In the Home window, click Customized Configuration and the main window appears as below.
3.2.3
The Menu Bar
There is a menu bar in the top of the Customized Configuration window containing two options to exit the configuration window (HOME and Logout, as described in the previous section), and three additional options for advanced configuration: System and Wireless. The three options allow you to configure the respective network settings and view the system status.
The Menu Bar
2 3 System
This window includes all the basic configuration tools such as options to set up password, re-load the factory default settings, and view system status.
> Password Setting
This option allows you to use other personal password to re- place the default password (admin). First, enter the old pass- word, and then enter the new password twice to confirm the password changed. Then, click Apply to save the settings.
> Factory Default
You may re-load the factory settings of your Software Gateway.
> System Status
This option contains detail information of your Software Gate- way, including general information and respective network set- tings.
Tip: Once you have changed the settings in each option, click Apply to save the settings, or Cancel to abandon.
Clicking Help can bring up the help window.
* These settings are for advanced users or MIS staff only. If you do not know how to set these parameters, you are recommended to use the default value.
Wireless
In this window, you can configure all wireless related settings for your Software Gateway.
> SSID & Channel
This option is used to set the SSID (Network Name) and chan- nel for your Software Gateway. If you have changed the SSID or Channel settings, click Apply to save the settings.
> Radio Setting
This option allows you to configure the operation parameters of the Software Gateway’s radio settings*.
> Encryption
This option allows you to configure the setting of data encryp- tion. The WEP key must be set before the data encryption is enforced.
> Associated Client List
This option is to display information of stations that are cur- rently associating to your Software Gateway.