The Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility enables you to do the following network tasks:
Manage your wireless networks and create network connection profiles
(Wireless Networks tab)
Connect to available networks (utility icon in notification area)
Get information about the network status, statistics, and signal and noise of your
network connection (Link Status tab)
Find out which broadcasting networks are in range and search for nonbroadcasting
networks (Site Monitor tab)
Run tests on the wireless network adapter (Diagnostics tab)
Get date and version information about the utility, and software, hardware, and location
details about your wireless network adapter (Information tab)
In the utility, you can open the Wireless Network Wizard to connect to a basic network
or create an ad hoc network, or you can open the Wireless Network Connection Settings
tool to connect to an advanced network.
To do any of the other tasks, click the tab that is associated with the described task.
To start using the utility, right-click the utility icon
in the notification area, and then click Open Utility.
If the icon is not available, open Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility in Control Panel.
For you to use the utility and the Wireless Network Wizard, the Let this tool manage your
wireless networks check box must be selected.
To do any of the following tasks or operations, right-click the utility icon,
and then click a menu item.
Open the on-line Dell Wireless WLAN Card User Guide (Help Files)
Open About Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility to view links to Dell
and Dell Customer Support websites and to view
the version and date of the utility (About)
Connect to any of the networks for which you have created a connection profile
and are within range (Connect To)
Open the utility (Open Utility)
Disable or enable the radio (Disable/Enable Radio)
To use the utility to manage your wireless networks, select the
Let this tool manage your wireless networks check box.
To add a network connection profile, click the Add arrow,
and then click either Use Wizard (basic network) or
Use Utility (advanced network).
To edit or remove a network connection profile, right-click the network name,
and then click either Edit or Remove.
To change the order in which profiles are listed under Preferred network connections,
click the network name, and then click either the up arrow or down arrow.
To connect to any listed network without changing its order in the list,
right-click the network name, and then click Connect.
To disable the radio, clear the Enable radio check box.
To enable the radio, select the Enable radio check box.
To hide the utility icon , clear
the Show utility icon check box.
To show the icon, select the Show utility icon check box.
To choose the type of network to access, click the Options arrow,
and then click Advanced.
To lock or unlock a preferred network connection profile, right-click the network name,
and then click Lock or Unlock, as appropriate.
NOTE:
You must have system or administrator rights to be able to lock or unlock a profile.
To save your wireless network connection profiles to a WPN file, click the
Options arrow, and then click Export
(see "Saving Preferred Network Connection Settings to a File"
in "Connecting to an Advanced Network Using the Broadcom Wireless Utility."
Network status, statistics, and signal and noise information about your
network connection is displayed on the Link Status tab.
NOTE:
Click anywhere in the Signal & noise history box to change the
type of history being displayed.
Successive clicks change the type from both signal and noise, to noise only,
to signal only, and back to both signal and noise.
To view the network name (SSID), speed, signal strength rating, connection status, and the client IP address of the network connection, move your mouse pointer over
the utility icon.
NOTE:
On computers running Windows XP, you also can view the SSID, speed, signal strength rating,
and connection status by moving your mouse pointer over the Windows
Wireless Network Connection icon
in the notification area.
Table 1. Signal Strength Indicated by the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility Icon
Icon Appearance
Indicated Received Signal Strength
The signal strength is very good or excellent.
The signal is good.
The signal strength is marginal.
See Troubleshooting for suggested action.
The signal strength is weak.
See Troubleshooting for suggested action.
No signal is being received.
See Troubleshooting for probable causes
and suggested action.
The radio is disabled or switched off.
See Troubleshooting for suggested action.
To save the activity log to a file, click the Options arrow, and then
click Start Log.
You can adjust the time interval between scans by clicking the Options arrow,
and then clicking either one of the preset values or clicking Customize
to specify a different time interval.
NOTE:
The network performance may be degraded while Site Monitor is displaying nonbroadcasting networks
to which you are not currently connected.
To view detailed network information for a single
nonbroadcasting network,
type the network name in the Look for box, and then
click Find.
To view detailed network information for multiple nonbroadcasting networks,
click Add, type the names of the networks in the box provided,
and then click OK.
To reset the site monitor to the broadcasting networks, click Clear.
On the Diagnostics tab, you can run a number of tests
to determine if your wireless network adapter is functioning properly.
Select the test(s) you want to run, and then click Run.
For information about an individual test, look under Information before
you click Run.
To see the test results, look under Information after you click Run.
NOTE:
The network connection is lost when you run the tests. When the test run is over, your network
connection is automatically reestablished.
Also, you can view a log of your wireless network events. To do so, click Log.
Examples of wireless network events that are logged include:
Initiation of user session
Connecting to a network
Disconnecting from current network
Authentication mode being used
Driver status
Supplicant status
New wireless device available
Initializing wireless state machine
Wireless utility is managing this adapter
Wireless utility is not managing this adapter
If your Dell Wireless WLAN Card fails any of the diagnostics tests,
go to http://support.dell.com/ for technical support.
The Wireless Network Connection Settings component is intended for use by advanced users
or network administrators.
You can use Wireless Network Connection Settings to create a connection profile
for an advanced infrastructure network, a basic infrastructure network, or an ad hoc network
(see "Connecting to an Advanced Network Using the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility").
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in the notification area, and then click Open Utility.
If the icon is not available, open Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility in Control Panel.
For you to use the utility and the Wireless Network Wizard, the Let this tool manage your
wireless networks check box must be selected.
, clear
the Show utility icon check box.
To show the icon, select the Show utility icon check box.
in the notification area.
