Overview
The Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility enables you to do the following network tasks:
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.
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NOTE: The utility icon may not appear exactly as shown here. See "Table 1. Signal Strength Indicated by the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility Icon." |
Utility components comprise the utility icon in the notification area, the five utility tabs, and Wireless Network Connection Settings.
To do any of the following tasks or operations, right-click the utility icon, and then click a menu item.
The Wireless Networks tab has controls that enable you to do the following:
The Add menu allows you to use either the Wireless Network Wizard (see Connecting to a Basic Network or Creating an Ad Hoc Network Using the Wireless Network Wizard") or the utility (see "Connecting to an Advanced Network Using the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility") to add a network connection profile.
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.
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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."
To import a WPN file, click the Options arrow, and then click Import (see "Importing a Preferred Network Connection Profiles File" in "Connecting to an Advanced Network Using the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility."
Click Apply or OK after you change any of the settings for the change to take effect.
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Network status, statistics, and signal and noise information about your network connection is displayed on the Link Status tab.
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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. |
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The status of your network connection is also indicated by the appearance of the utility
icon .
The number and color
of the bars indicates the strength or weakness of the signal
(see Table 1. Signal Strength Indicated by the
Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility Icon
for details).
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.
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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 |
| Table 1. Signal Strength Indicated by the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility Icon | |
| Icon Appearance | Indicated Received Signal Strength |
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The signal strength is very good or excellent. |
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The signal is good. |
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The signal strength is marginal. See Troubleshooting for suggested action. |
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The signal strength is weak. See Troubleshooting for suggested action. |
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No signal is being received. See Troubleshooting for probable causes and suggested action. |
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The radio is disabled or switched off. See Troubleshooting for suggested action. |
On the Site Monitor tab, the Basic Site Monitor displays information about broadcasting networks that are within range of the wireless client.
To see information about a specific wireless network, click the network name.
To see the information elements for a listed network, right-click the network name, and then click Show Information Elements.
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NOTE: The network performance may be degraded while Site Monitor is displaying nonbroadcasting networks to which you are not currently connected. |
To see more detailed information for either a broadcasting or nonbroadcasting network, either double-click the network name, or click Advanced.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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If your Dell Wireless WLAN Card fails any of the diagnostics tests, go to http://support.dell.com/ for technical support.
The following information is displayed on the Information tab:
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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").
in the notification area.