Cisco Aironet 340, 350, and CB20A Wireless LAN Client Adapters Installation and Configuration Guide for Windows, OL-1394-05

Using the Profile Manager

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This chapter explains how to use ACU's profile manager feature to create and manage profiles for your client adapter.

The following topics are covered in this chapter:

•Overview of Profile Manager

•Opening Profile Manager

•Creating a New Profile

•Including a Profile in Auto Profile Selection

•Selecting the Active Profile

•Modifying a Profile

•Importing and Exporting Profiles

•Granting or Denying Access to Non-Administrative Users

Overview of Profile Manager

ACU's profile manager feature allows you to create and manage up to 16 profiles (or saved configurations) for your client adapter. These profiles enable you to use your client adapter in different locations, each of which requires different configuration settings. For example, you may want to set up profiles for using your client adapter at the office, at home, and in public areas such as airports. Once the profiles are created, you can easily switch between them without having to reconfigure your client adapter each time you enter a new location.

Profiles are stored in the part of the registry reserved for the client adapter driver and, therefore, are tied to radio type. Consequently, if you set up profiles for a 340 series PC card and later upgrade to a 350 series PC card, all of the profiles will be lost. Similarly, all profiles are lost if you uninstall the client adapter's software components. To prevent your profiles from becoming lost, Cisco recommends that you back up your profiles using the profile manager's import/export feature. See the "Importing and Exporting Profiles" section for details.

Opening Profile Manager

To open ACU's profile manager, double-click the Aironet Client Utility (ACU) icon on your desktop or double-click My Computer > Control Panel > Aironet Client Utility to open ACU. Then click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Figure 4-1 Profile Manager Screen

Profile manager allows you to perform the following tasks related to the management of profiles:

•Create a new profile, see below

•Include a profile in auto profile selection, page 4

•Select the active profile, page 6

•Edit a profile, page 7

•Set a profile to default values, page 8

•Rename a profile, page 8

•Delete a profile, page 8

•Import a profile, page 9

•Export a profile, page 9

Follow the instructions on the page indicated for the task you want to perform.

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Note If your system administrator used an administrative tool to deactivate certain parameters, these parameters are grayed out on the Profile Manager screen and cannot be selected.

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Creating a New Profile

Follow the steps below to create a new profile.

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Step 1 Click Add on the Profile Manager screen. A cursor appears in the Profile Management edit box.

Step 2 Enter the name for your new profile (for example, Office, Home, etc.).

Step 3 Press Enter. The Properties screens appear with the name of your new profile in parentheses.

Step 4 Perform one of the following:

•If you want this profile to use the default values, click OK. The profile is added to the list of profiles on the Profile Manager screen.

•If you want to change any of the configuration parameter settings, follow the instructions in Chapter 5, . The profile is added to the list of profiles on the Profile Manager screen.

Step 5 Click OK or Apply to save your profile.

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Note The profiles for PC-Cardbus cards are tied to the slot in which the card is inserted. Therefore, you must always insert your PC-Cardbus card into the same slot, create profiles for both slots, or export the profiles from one slot and import them for the other slot.

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Including a Profile in Auto Profile Selection

After you have created profiles for your client adapter, you can choose to include them in the profile manager's auto profile selection feature. Then when auto profile selection is enabled, the client adapter automatically selects a profile from the list of profiles that were included in auto profile selection and uses it to establish a connection to the network.

Follow the steps below to include any of your profiles in auto profile selection and to establish the order in which the profiles will be selected for use.

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Step 1 Open ACU; click the Select Profile icon or select Select Profile from the Commands drop-down menu. The Select Profile screen appears (see Figure 4-2).

Figure 4-2 Select Profile Screen

Step 2 Click the Manage button next to the Use Auto Profile Selection option. The Auto Profile Selection Management screen appears (see Figure 4-3).

Figure 4-3 Auto Profile Selection Management Screen

Step 3 All the profiles that you created are listed in the Available Profiles box. Highlight each one that you want to include in auto profile selection and click the Add button. The profiles move to the Auto Selected Profiles box.

The following rules apply to auto profile selection:

• You must include at least two profiles in the Auto Selected Profiles Box.

• The profiles must specify an SSID; otherwise, they cannot be selected in the Available Profiles
box.

• Profiles cannot specify multiple SSIDs; otherwise, they cannot be selected in the Available
Profiles box.

• Each profile that is included in auto profile selection must have a unique SSID. For example,
if Profile A and Profile B both have "ABCD" as their SSID, only Profile A or Profile B can be
included in auto profile selection.

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Note If you ever want to remove a profile from auto profile selection, highlight the profile in the Auto Selected Profiles box and click the Remove button. The profile moves to the Available Profiles box.

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Step 4 The first profile in the Auto Selected Profiles box has the highest priority while the last profile has the lowest priority. To change the order (and priority) of your auto-selectable profiles, highlight the profile that you want to move and click the High Priority or Low Priority arrow to move the profile up or down, respectively.

When auto profile selection is enabled, the client adapter scans for an available network. The profile with the highest priority and the same SSID as one of the found networks is the one that is used to connect to the network. If the connection fails, the client adapter tries the next highest priority profile that matches the SSID and so on.

Step 5 Click OK to save your changes.

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Selecting the Active Profile

Follow the steps below to specify the profile that the client adapter is to use.

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Note Because EAP-TLS, PEAP, and EAP-SIM authentication are enabled in the operating system and not in ACU, you cannot switch between these authentication types simply by switching profiles in ACU. You can create a profile in ACU that uses host-based EAP, but you must enable the specific authentication type in Windows (provided Windows is using the Microsoft 802.1X supplicant). In addition, Windows can be set for only one authentication type at a time; therefore, if you have more than one profile in ACU that uses host-based EAP and you want to use another authentication type, you must change authentication types in Windows after switching profiles in ACU.

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Note You can use ACM instead of ACU's Profile Manager to select the active profile. Refer to Chapter 8 for instructions.

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Step 1 Open ACU; click the Select Profile icon or select Select Profile from the Commands drop-down menu. The Select Profile screen appears (see Figure 4-2).

Step 2 Select one of the following options:

•Use Selected Profile—This option enables you to select one profile for the client adapter to use. If you choose this option, you also must select the desired profile from the drop-down box.

If the client adapter cannot associate to an access point or loses association while using the selected profile, the adapter does not attempt to associate using another profile. To associate, you must select a different profile or select Use Auto Profile Selection.

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Note If no profiles have been set for your client adapter, the Use Selected Profile drop-down box is disabled but displays "Driver Advanced Tab Settings."

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•Use Auto Profile Selection—This option causes the client adapter's driver to automatically select a profile from the list of profiles that were set up to be included in auto profile selection.

If the client adapter loses association for more than 10 seconds (or for more than the time specified by the LEAP authentication timeout value on the LEAP Settings screen if LEAP is enabled), the driver switches automatically to another profile that is included in auto profile selection. The adapter will not switch profiles as long as it remains associated or reassociates within 10 seconds (or within the time specified by the LEAP authentication timeout value). To force the client adapter to associate to a different access point, you must select a new profile using the Use Selected Profile option.

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Note This option is available only if two or more profiles are included in auto profile selection.

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Note Login scripts are not reliable if you use auto profile selection with LEAP. If you LEAP authenticate and achieve full network connectivity before or at the same time as you log into the computer, the login scripts will run. However, if you LEAP authenticate and achieve full network connectivity after you log into the computer, the login scripts will not run.

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•Use Another Application to Configure My Wireless Settings—This option enables an application other than ACU to configure the client adapter. Examples of such applications include Windows XP and Boingo.

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Note You must select this option if you are configuring your card through Windows XP but want to use ACU's diagnostic tools. Refer to Appendix E, for information on configuring your client adapter through Windows XP.

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Step 3 Click OK or Apply to save your selection. The client adapter starts using a profile based on the option selected above.

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Modifying a Profile

This section provides instructions for modifying an existing profile. Follow the steps in the corresponding section below to edit, set to default values, rename, or delete a profile.

Editing a Profile

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Step 1 Open ACU; click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Step 2 From the Profile Management drop-down box, select the profile that you want to edit.

Step 3 Click Edit. The Properties screens appear with the name of the profile in parentheses.

Step 4 Follow the instructions in Chapter 5 to change any of the configuration parameters for this profile.

Step 5 Click OK or Apply to save your configuration changes.

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Setting a Profile to Default Values

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Step 1 Open ACU; click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Step 2 From the Profile Management drop-down box, select the profile that you want to set to default values.

Step 3 Click Use Defaults.

Step 4 When prompted, click Yes to confirm your decision.

Step 5 Click OK or Apply to save your change. The profile is saved with default values.

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Renaming a Profile

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Step 1 Open ACU; click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Step 2 From the Profile Management drop-down box, select the profile that you want to rename.

Step 3 Click Rename. The Profile Management edit box becomes enabled.

Step 4 Enter a new name for the profile.

Step 5 Click OK or Apply to save your change. The profile is renamed and added to the list of profiles.

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Deleting a Profile

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Step 1 Open ACU; click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Step 2 From the Profile Management drop-down box, select the profile that you want to delete.

Step 3 Click Delete.

Step 4 When prompted, click Yes to confirm your decision.

Step 5 Click OK or Apply to save your change. The profile is deleted.

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Importing and Exporting Profiles

This section provides instructions for importing and exporting profiles. You may want to use the import/export feature for the following reasons:

•To back up profiles before changing client adapter types or uninstalling client adapter software components

•To export profiles for a PC-Cardbus card in one Cardbus slot and export them for use with a second Cardbus slot

•To set up your computer with a profile from another computer

•To export one of your profiles and use it to set up additional computers

Follow the steps in the corresponding section below to import or export profiles.

Importing a Profile

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Step 1 If the profile that you want to import is on a floppy disk, insert the disk into your computer's floppy drive.

Step 2 Open ACU; click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Step 3 Click Import. The Import Profile screen appears.

Step 4 Find the directory where the profile is located.

Step 5 Click the profile so it appears in the File name box at the bottom of the Import Profile screen.

Step 6 Click Open. The imported profile appears in the list of profiles on the Profile Manager screen.

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Exporting a Profile

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Step 1 Insert a blank floppy disk into your computer's floppy drive, if you wish to export a profile to a floppy disk.

Step 2 Open ACU; click the Profile Manager icon or select Profile Manager from the Commands drop-down menu. The Profile Manager screen appears (see Figure 4-1).

Step 3 From the Profile Management drop-down box, select the profile that you want to export.

Step 4 Click Export. The Save Profile As screen appears. The default filename is ProfileName.pro, where ProfileName is the name of the selected profile, and the default directory is the directory in which ACU was installed.

Step 5 If you want to change the profile name, enter a new name in the File name edit box.

Step 6 Select a different directory (for example, your computer's floppy disk drive or a location on the network) from the Save in drop-down box.

Step 7 Click Save. The profile is exported to the specified location.

Step 8 Follow the instructions in the "Importing a Profile" section to import the profile on another computer.

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Granting or Denying Access to Non-Administrative Users

If you used the Install Wizard to perform a custom installation, you were able to specify the value of the Allow Non-Administrator Users to Save Settings to the Registry parameter. When this parameter is set to Yes, it enables users without administrative rights to modify profiles in ACU and save them to the registry on computers running Windows NT, 2000, or XP. (This option is not available for Windows 98, 98 SE, and Me because these versions of Windows do not support different classes of users.) When this parameter is set to No, access to non-administrative users is denied.

ACU has a similar parameter that you can use to change the selection you made during installation, provided you have administrative rights. Follow the steps below if you want to change the current setting of this parameter.

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Step 1 Open ACU.

Step 2 Click the Preferences icon or select Preferences from the Options drop-down menu. The Aironet Client Utility Preferences screen appears (see Figure 4-4).

Figure 4-4 Aironet Client Utility Preferences Screen

Step 3 Perform one of the following:

•Check the Allow Non-Administrator Users to Save Profiles to the Registry check box if you want to allow regular-class users to modify and save profiles.

•Uncheck the Allow Non-Administrator Users to Save Profiles to the Registry check box if you want to prevent regular-class users from modifying and saving profiles.

Step 4 Click OK to save your changes.

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