Wireless-N ADSL2+ Modem Router DGN2000 Reference Manual

Configuring Your Wireless Network and Security Settings

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v1.0, July 2008

Table 2-1 on page 2-7

describes the information that is displayed in the Wireless Settings

screen.

3.

Choose a suitable descriptive name for the wireless network name (SSID). In the

SSID

field,

enter a value of up to 32 alphanumeric characters. The default SSID is

NETGEAR

.

Figure 2-2

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Configuring Your Wireless Network and Security Settings

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4.

Select the region in which the wireless interface will operate.

5.

Set the channel if necessary. The default channel is 11.

This field determines which operating frequency will be used. It should not be necessary to

change the wireless channel unless you notice interference problems with another nearby

wireless router or access point. Select a channel that is not being used by any other wireless

networks within several hundred feet of your modem router. For more information about the

wireless channel frequencies, see the online document that you can access from

“Preparing

Your Network” in Appendix B

.

6.

For initial configuration and test, leave the Wireless Card Access List set to allow everyone

access by making sure that

Turn Access Control On

is not selected in the Wireless Station

Access List. In addition, leave the encryption strength set to

None

.

7.

Click

Save

to save your settings or click

Apply

to allow your changes to take effect

immediately.

8.

Configure and test your computers for wireless connectivity.

Program the wireless adapter of your computers to have the same SSID and channel that you

specified in the router. Check that they have a wireless link and can obtain an IP address by

DHCP from the modem router.

Once your computers have basic wireless connectivity to the modem router, you can configure the

advanced wireless security functions of the firewall.

Note:

The SSID of any wireless access adapters must match the SSID you specify in

the modem router. If they do not match, you will not get a wireless connection.

Note:

Up to 270Mbps mode uses two channels, but in this mode only the first chan-

nel is listed in the channel pulldown menu. The associated channels in this

mode are: 1+5, 2+6, 3+7, 4+8, 5+9, 6+10, and 7+11. When you select another

wireless network mode, the channel pulldown displays all available channels:

1 through 13. However, available wireless channels depend on the selected

wireless region.

Wireless-N ADSL2+ Modem Router DGN2000 Reference Manual

Configuring Your Wireless Network and Security Settings

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v1.0, July 2008

Table 2-1.

Wireless Settings

Settings

Description

Wireless LAN

The pulldown menu just below Wireless Settings allows for

the selection of one of four wireless LANs (WLANs) with the

following default names:

• NETGEAR

• NETGEAR2

• NETGEAR3

• NETGEAR4

You can change the default name of the selected WLAN in

the Name (SSID) field.

Note: The region, channel, and mode can be set only for the

primary wireless LAN (NETGEAR). In addition, access

control can be turned on only for the primary wireless LAN.

Wireless

Network

Name (SSID)

The SSID is also known as the wireless network name.

Enter a 32-character (maximum) name in this field. This

field is case-sensitive. The default SSID is

NETGEAR

, but

NETGEAR strongly recommends that you change your

network name to a different value.

In a setting in which there is more than one wireless

network, different wireless network names provide a means

for separating the traffic. Any device you that want to let

participate in a wireless network must use the SSID.

Region

The location where the firewall is used. Select your region

from the drop-down list. It might not be legal to operate the

modem router in a region other than the regions shown

here.

Note: The region can be set only for the primary wireless

LAN (NETGEAR) but applies to all wireless LANs.

Channel

The wireless channel used by the gateway: 1 through 13.

The available channels depend on Region setting. Do not

change the wireless channel unless you experience

interference (shown by lost connections or slow data

transfers). If this happens, you might need to experiment

with different channels to see which is the best. For Up to

130Mbps mode, the default channel is 11; for

Up to 270Mbps mode, the default channel is 7.

The total number of channels varies by region. The mode

that you select also determines how many channels are

displayed in the channel pulldown menu.

Note: The channel can be set only for the primary wireless

LAN (NETGEAR).

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Wireless

Network

(continued)

Mode

Note: The mode can be set

only for the primary wireless

LAN (NETGEAR).

•

Up to 270Mbps

means that all 802.11g, 802.11b, and

faster Draft-N wireless stations can be used. This mode

expands the channel bandwidth from 20 MHz to 40 MHz

to achieve the 270 Mbps rate. The router selects channel

expansion on a frame-by-frame basis to avoid

interference with the data transmissions of other access

points or wireless stations. Up to 270Mbps mode uses two

channels, but in this mode only the first channel is listed in

the channel pulldown menu. The associated channels in

this mode are: 1+5, 2+6, 3+7, 4+8, 5+9, 6+10, and 7+11.

Up to 270Mbps mode is the fastest mode and is

compatible with older wireless stations.

•

Up to 130Mbps

allows wireless stations that support

speeds up to 130 Mbps. In this case, the router transmits

two streams with different data concurrently on the same

channel. This mode restricts channel bandwidth to

minimize interference with the data transmissions of other

access points and wireless stations. It is the default

setting.

•

g & b

allows older 802.11g and 802.11b wireless stations

to access this device. You might want to select this mode

if you have a wireless station that is using WEP security

and does not support WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK.

•

g only

allows only 802.11g wireless stations to access

this device.

•

b only

allows only 802.11b wireless stations to access

this device. However, note that in b only mode, 802.11g

wireless stations can connect if they can operate in

802.11b mode.

Wireless Access

Point

Enable

Selected by default, this setting enables the wireless radio,

which allows the modem router to work as a wireless

access point.

Turning off the wireless radio can be helpful for

configuration, network tuning, or troubleshooting.

The Wireless LED on the front of the modem router displays

the current status of the wireless access point to let you

know if it is disabled or enabled. The wireless access point

must be enabled to allow wireless stations to access the

Internet.

Table 2-1.

Wireless Settings (continued)

Settings

Description

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Configuring Your Wireless Network and Security Settings

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v1.0, July 2008

Wireless Access

Point

(continued)

Allow Broadcast of Name

(SSID)

.

Selected by default, the modem router broadcasts its SSID,

allowing wireless stations that have a null (blank) SSID to

adopt the correct SSID. If you disable broadcast of the

SSID, only devices with the correct SSID can connect. This

nullifies the wireless network discovery feature of some

products such as Windows XP, but the data is still fully

exposed to a determined snoop using specialized test

equipment like wireless sniffers. For this reason NETGEAR

recommends that you also enable wireless security.

Wireless Isolation

This feature is disabled by default. If it is enabled, wireless

stations cannot communicate with each other or with

stations on the wired network.

Wireless Station

Access List

Turn Access Control On

Access control is disabled by default so that any computer

configured with the correct wireless network name or SSID

can access to your wireless network. For increased

security, you can restrict access to the wireless network to

only specific computers based on their MAC addresses.

See

“Restricting access by MAC address

.”

Security Options

Disable

Wireless security is not used.

WEP

In WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) mode you can select

64-bit or 128-bit data encryption. This mode has been

superseded by WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK, which should be

selected if possible. See

“Configuring WEP

.”

WPA-PSK

WPA Pre-Shared-Key (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared

Key) uses a pre-shared key to perform the authentication

and generate the initial data encryption keys. Then, it

dynamically varies the encryption key.

WPA-PSK uses TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) data

encryption, implements most of the IEEE 802.11i standard,

and is designed to work with all wireless network interface

cards, but not all wireless access points. See

“Configuring

Mixed WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK Security

.”

Table 2-1.

Wireless Settings (continued)

Settings

Description