Introduction; About The Ma401 802.11B Wireless Pc Card - NETGEAR MA401 Reference Manual

This chapter introduces the features, package contents, and appearance of the
NETGEAR MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card.

About the MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card

The MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card gives you ultimate mobility in your office
or while you are traveling. It frees you from traditional Ethernet wiring and helps
you create a wireless network for sharing your broadband cable or DSL Internet
access among multiple PCs in and around your home. It is designed for notebook
computers running Microsoft Windows. It is both 16-bit PCMCIA and 32-bit
CardBus compatible and works in any available PCMCIA or CardBus slot.
Its auto-sensing capability allows packet transfer at 11Mbps for maximum
throughput, or dynamic range shifting to the lower speeds due to distance or
operating limitations in an environment with a lot of electromagnetic interference.
It provides reliable, standards-based 802.11b LAN connectivity that is
protected with industry-standard security. It works with Windows® 95B,
98, ME, NT4, 2000, and XP operating systems.
Key Features and
The MA401 PC Card provides the following features:
• Reliable IEEE 802.11b standard-based wireless technology.
• Supports roaming between access points when configured in Infrastructure
mode.
• 11Mbps high rate speed. Wireless nodes negotiate to operate in the optimal
data transfer rate. In a noisy environment or when the distance between the
wireless nodes is far, the wireless nodes automatically fall back to operate at
the lower transfer rate of two or one Megabit per second.

Introduction1-1

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Chapter 1
Introduction