Wizard

Add Wireless Device Wizard

If you want to connect you wireless device to your access point, click on Add Wireless Device Wizard and the access point will guide you through a few steps to add a wireless device in your network.

Wireless Network Setup Wizard

If you want to setup your wireless network, click on Wireless Network Setup Wizard and the access point will guide you through a few steps to setup a wireless network and make it secure.

Wireless

The wireless section is used to configure the wireless settings for your access point. Note that changes made in this section may also need to be duplicated on wireless clients that you want to connect to your wireless network.

To protect your privacy, use the wireless security mode to configure the wireless security features. This device supports three wireless security modes including: WEP, WPA-Personal, and WPA-Enterprise. WEP is the original wireless encryption standard. WPA provides a higher level of security. WPA-Personal does not require an authentication server. The WPA-Enterprise option does require a RADIUS authentication server.

Wireless Network Name

When you are browsing for available wireless networks, this is the name that will appear in the list (unless Visibility Status is set to Invisible, see below). This name is also referred to as the SSID. For security purposes, it is highly recommended to change from the pre-configured network name.

Enable Auto Channel Scan

If you select this option, the access point automatically finds the channel with least interference and uses that channel for wireless networking. If you disable this option, the access point uses the channel that you specify with the following Wireless Channel option.

Wireless Channel

A wireless network uses specific channels in the wireless spectrum to handle communication between clients. Some channels in your area may have interference from other electronic devices. Choose the clearest channel to help optimize the performance and coverage of your wireless network.

802.11 Mode

If all of the wireless devices you want to connect with this access point can connect in the same transmission mode, you can improve performance slightly by choosing the appropriate "Only" mode. If you have some devices that use a different transmission mode, choose the appropriate "Mixed" mode.

Channel Width

The "Auto 20/40 MHz" option is usually best. The other options are available for special circumstances.

Transmission Rate

By default the fastest possible transmission rate will be selected. You have the option of selecting the speed if necessary.

Boardcast SSID

The Invisible option allows you to hide your wireless network. When this option is set to Visible, your wireless network name is broadcast to anyone within the range of your signal. If you're not using encryption then they could connect to your network. When Invisible mode is enabled, you must enter the Wireless Network Name (SSID) on the client manually to connect to the network.

Security Mode

Unless one of these encryption modes is selected, wireless transmissions to and from your wireless network can be easily intercepted and interpreted by unauthorized users.

WEP

A method of encrypting data for wireless communication intended to provide the same level of privacy as a wired network. WEP is not as secure as WPA encryption. To gain access to a WEP network, you must know the key. The key is a string of characters that you create. When using WEP, you must determine the level of encryption. The type of encryption determines the key length. 128-bit encryption requires a longer key than 64-bit encryption. Keys are defined by entering in a string in HEX (hexadecimal - using characters 0-9, A-F) or ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange - alphanumeric characters) format. ASCII format is provided so you can enter a string that is easier to remember. The ASCII string is converted to HEX for use over the network. Four keys can be defined so that you can change keys easily. A default key is selected for use on the network.

Example:

64-bit hexadecimal keys are exactly 10 characters in length. (12345678FA is a valid string of 10 characters for 64-bit encryption.)

128-bit hexadecimal keys are exactly 26 characters in length. (456FBCDF123400122225271730 is a valid string of 26 characters for 128-bit encryption.)

Note that, if you enter fewer characters in the WEP key than required, the remainder of the key is automatically padded with zeros.

WPA-Personal and WPA-Enterprise

Both of these options select some variant of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) -- security standards published by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The WPA Mode further refines the variant that the access point should employ.

WPA Mode: WPA is the older standard; select this option if the clients that will be used with the access point only support the older standard. WPA2 is the newer implementation of the stronger IEEE 802.11i security standard. With the "WPA2" option, the access point tries WPA2 first, but falls back to WPA if the client only supports WPA. With the "WPA2 Only" option, the access point associates only with clients that also support WPA2 security.

Cipher Type: The encryption algorithm used to secure the data communication. TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) provides per-packet key generation and is based on WEP. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a very secure block based encryption. With the "TKIP and AES" option, the access point negotiates the cipher type with the client, and uses AES when available.

Group Key Update Interval: The amount of time before the group key used for broadcast and multicast data is changed.

WPA-Personal

This option uses Wi-Fi Protected Access with a Pre-Shared Key (PSK).

Pre-Shared Key: The key is entered as a pass-phrase of up to 63 alphanumeric characters in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) format at both ends of the wireless connection. It cannot be shorter than eight characters, although for proper security it needs to be of ample length and should not be a commonly known phrase. This phrase is used to generate session keys that are unique for each wireless client.

Example:

Wireless Networking technology enables ubiquitous communication

Network Settings

If there is an existing router or DHCP server in the network already, the user should use the default setting of dynamic IP address. This way, the access point bridge will get a dynamic IP from the router or the DHCP server. The user can still use static IP option, but needs to make sure it matches the router or DHCP server’s IP address setting.

Access Point Settings

These are the settings of the LAN (Local Area Network) interface for the access point. The access point's local network (LAN) settings are configured based on the IP Address and Subnet Mask assigned in this section. The IP address is also used to access this Web-based management interface. It is recommended that you use the default settings if you do not have an existing network.

DHCP Server Settings

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. The DHCP section is where you configure the built-in DHCP Server to assign IP addresses to the computers and other devices on your local area network (LAN).

Enable DHCP Server

Once your access point is properly configured and this option is enabled, the DHCP Server will manage the IP addresses and other network configuration information for computers and other devices connected to your Local Area Network. There is no need for you to do this yourself.

The computers (and other devices) connected to your LAN also need to have their TCP/IP configuration set to "DHCP" or "Obtain an IP address automatically".

When you set Enable DHCP Server, the following options are displayed.

DHCP IP Address Range

These two IP values (from and to) define a range of IP addresses that the DHCP Server uses when assigning addresses to computers and devices on your Local Area Network. Any addresses that are outside of this range are not managed by the DHCP Server; these could, therefore, be used for manually configured devices or devices that cannot use DHCP to obtain network address details automatically.

It is possible for a computer or device that is manually configured to have an address that does reside within this range. In this case the address should be reserved (see DHCP Reservation below), so that the DHCP Server knows that this specific address can only be used by a specific computer or device.

Your access point, by default, is DHCP.

Example:

Suppose you configure the DHCP Server to manage addresses From 192.168.0.100 To 192.168.0.199. This means that 192.168.0.3 to 192.168.0.99 and 192.168.0.200 to 192.168.0.254 are NOT managed by the DHCP Server. Computers or devices that use addresses from these ranges are to be manually configured. Suppose you have a web server computer that has a manually configured address of 192.168.0.100. Because this falls within the "managed range" be sure to create a reservation for this address and match it to the relevant computer (see Static DHCP Client below).

DHCP Lease Time

The amount of time that a computer may have an IP address before it is required to renew the lease. The lease functions just as a lease on an apartment would. The initial lease designates the amount of time before the lease expires. If the tenant wishes to retain the address when the lease is expired then a new lease is established. If the lease expires and the address is no longer needed than another tenant may use the address.

Always Broadcast

If all the computers on the LAN successfully obtain their IP addresses from the access point's DHCP server as expected, this option can remain disabled. However, if one of the computers on the LAN fails to obtain an IP address from the access point's DHCP server, it may have an old DHCP client that incorrectly turns off the broadcast flag of DHCP packets. Enabling this option will cause the access point to always broadcast its responses to all clients, thereby working around the problem, at the cost of increased broadcast traffic on the LAN.

Add/Edit DHCP Reservation

This option lets you reserve IP addresses, and assign the same IP address to the network device with the specified MAC address any time it requests an IP address. This is almost the same as when a device has a static IP address except that the device must still request an IP address from the access point. The access point will provide the device the same IP address every time. DHCP Reservations are helpful for server computers on the local network that are hosting applications such as Web and FTP. Servers on your network should either use a static IP address or use this option.

Enable

Specifies whether the entry will be active or inactive.

Computer Name

You can assign a name for each computer that is given a reserved IP address. This may help you keep track of which computers are assigned this way. Example: Game Server.

IP Address:

The LAN address that you want to reserve.

MAC Address

To input the MAC address of your system, enter it in manually or connect to the access point's Web-Management interface from the system and click the Copy Your PC's MAC Address button.

A MAC address is usually located on a sticker on the bottom of a network device. The MAC address is comprised of twelve digits. Each pair of hexadecimal digits are usually separated by dashes or colons such as 00-0D-88-11-22-33 or 00:0D:88:11:22:33. If your network device is a computer and the network card is already located inside the computer, you can connect to the access point from the computer and click the Copy Your PC's MAC Address button to enter the MAC address.

As an alternative, you can locate a MAC address in a specific operating system by following the steps below:

Windows 98 Windows Me	Go to the Start menu, select Run, type in winipcfg, and hit Enter. A popup window will be displayed. Select the appropriate adapter from the pull-down menu and you will see the Adapter Address. This is the MAC address of the device.
Windows 2000 Windows XP	Go to your Start menu, select Programs, select Accessories, and select Command Prompt. At the command prompt type ipconfig /all and hit Enter. The physical address displayed for the adapter connecting to the access point is the MAC address.
Mac OS X	Go to the Apple Menu, select System Preferences, select Network, and select the Ethernet Adapter connecting to the access point. Select the Ethernet button and the Ethernet ID will be listed. This is the same as the MAC address.

Save/Update

Record the changes you have made into the following list.

Clear

Re-initialize this area of the screen, discarding any changes you have made.

DHCP Reservations List

This shows clients that you have specified to have reserved DHCP addresses. Click the Enable checkbox at the left to directly activate or de-activate the entry. An entry can be changed by clicking the Edit icon or can be deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit DHCP Reservation" section is activated for editing.

Attached Devices

In this section you can see what LAN devices are currently leasing IP addresses.