AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries User’s Guide

91

C

HAPTER

7

Wireless LAN

7.1

Overview

This chapter describes how to perform tasks related to setting up and optimizing your wireless

network, including the following.

•

Turning the wireless connection on or off.

•

Configuring a name, wireless channel and security for the network.

•

Using WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) to configure your wireless network.

•

Setting up multiple wireless networks.

•

Using a MAC (Media Access Control) address filter to restrict access to the wireless network.

•

Performing other performance-related wireless tasks.

7.1.1

What You Can Do in the Wireless LAN Screens

This section describes the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries’s

Network Setting > Wireless

screens.

Use these screens to set up your AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries’s wireless connection.

•

Use the

General

screen to enable the Wireless LAN, enter the SSID and select the wireless

security mode (

Section 7.2 on page 92

).

•

Use the

More AP

screen (see

Section 7.3 on page 98

) to set up multiple wireless networks on

your AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries.

•

Use the

MAC Authentication

screen to allow or deny wireless clients based on their MAC

addresses from connecting to the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries (

Section 7.4 on page 100

).

•

Use the

WPS

screen (see

Section 7.5 on page 101

) to enable or disable WPS, generate a security

PIN (Personal Identification Number) and see information about the AMG1302/AMG1202-

TSeries’s WPS status.

•

Use the

WDS

screen (see

Section 7.6 on page 103

) to set up a Wireless Distribution System, in

which the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries acts as a bridge with other ZyXEL access points.

•

Use the

WMM

screen

to enable WiFi MultiMedia (WMM) to ensure quality of service in wireless

networks for multimedia applications (

Section 7.7 on page 104

).

•

Use the

Scheduling

screen (see

Section 7.8 on page 105

) to configure the dates/times to enable

or disable the wireless LAN.

•

Use the

Advanced

screen to configure wireless advanced features (

Section 7.9 on page 106

).

You don’t necessarily need to use all these screens to set up your wireless connection. For example,

you may just want to set up a network name, a wireless radio channel and security in the

General

screen.

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92

7.1.2

What You Need to Know About Wireless

Wireless Basics

“Wireless” is essentially radio communication. In the same way that walkie-talkie radios send and

receive information over the airwaves, wireless networking devices exchange information with one

another. A wireless networking device is just like a radio that lets your computer exchange

information with radios attached to other computers. Like walkie-talkies, most wireless networking

devices operate at radio frequency bands that are open to the public and do not require a license to

use. However, wireless networking is different from that of most traditional radio communications in

that there a number of wireless networking standards available with different methods of data

encryption.

Finding Out More

See

Section 7.10 on page 107

for advanced technical information on wireless networks.

7.1.3

Before You Start

Before you start using these screens, ask yourself the following questions. See

Section 7.1.2 on

page 92

if some of the terms used here are not familiar to you.

•

What wireless standards do the other wireless devices in your network support (IEEE 802.11g,

for example)? What is the most appropriate standard to use?

•

What security options do the other wireless devices in your network support (WPA-PSK, for

example)? What is the strongest security option supported by all the devices in your network?

•

Do the other wireless devices in your network support WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)? If so, you

can set up a well-secured network very easily.

Even if some of your devices support WPS and some do not, you can use WPS to set up your

network and then add the non-WPS devices manually, although this is somewhat more

complicated to do.

•

What advanced options do you want to configure, if any? If you want to configure advanced

options such as Quality of Service, ensure that you know precisely what you want to do. If you do

not want to configure advanced options, leave them as they are.

7.2

The General Screen

Use this screen to enable the Wireless LAN, enter the SSID and select the wireless security mode.

Note: If you are configuring the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries from a computer connected

to the wireless LAN and you change the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries’s SSID,

channel or security settings, you will lose your wireless connection when you press

Apply

to confirm. You must then change the wireless settings of your computer to

match the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries’s new settings.

Click

Network

Setting

>

Wireless

to open the

General

screen.

Chapter 7 Wireless LAN

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93

Figure 26

Network Setting > Wireless > General

The following table describes the labels in this screen.

Table 16

Network Setting > Wireless > General

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

Wireless Network Setup

Wireless

Select

Enable Wireless LAN

to activate wireless LAN.

Wireless Network Settings

Wireless

Network Name

(SSID)

The SSID (Service Set IDentity) identifies the service set with which a wireless device is

associated. Wireless devices associating to the access point (AP) must have the same

SSID.

Enter a descriptive name (up to 32 English keyboard characters) for the wireless LAN.

Hide SSID

Select this check box to hide the SSID in the outgoing beacon frame so a station cannot

obtain the SSID through scanning using a site survey tool.

Client Isolation

Select this to keep the wireless clients in this SSID from communicating with each other

through the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries.

MBSSID/LAN

Isolation

Select this to keep the wireless clients in this SSID from communicating with clients in

other SSIDs or wired LAN devices through the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries.

Select both

Client Isolation

and

MBSSID/LAN Isolation

to allow this SSID’s wireless

clients to only connect to the Internet through the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries.

Channel

Selection

Set the operating channel manually by selecting a channel from the

Channel Selection

list or use

Auto

to have it automatically determine a channel to use.

Operating

Channel

This field displays the channel the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries is currently using.

Security Level

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7.2.1

No Security

Select

No Security

to allow wireless stations to communicate with the access points without any

data encryption or authentication.

Note: If you do not enable any wireless security on your AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries,

your network is accessible to any wireless networking device that is within range.

Figure 27

Wireless > General: No Security

7.2.2

Basic (WEP Encryption)

WEP encryption scrambles the data transmitted between the wireless stations and the access points

(AP) to keep network communications private. Both the wireless stations and the access points

must use the same WEP key.

Note: WEP is extremely insecure. Its encryption can be broken by an attacker, using

widely-available software. It is strongly recommended that you use a more

effective security mechanism. Use the strongest security mechanism that all the

wireless devices in your network support. For example, use WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK

if all your wireless devices support it, or use WPA or WPA2 if your wireless devices

support it and you have a RADIUS server. If your wireless devices support nothing

stronger than WEP, use the highest encryption level available.

Your AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries allows you to configure one 64-bit or 128-bit WEP key.

Security Mode

Select

Basic (WEP)

or

More Secure (WPA(2)-PSK, WPA(2))

to add security on this

wireless network. The wireless clients which want to associate to this network must have

same wireless security settings as the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries. When you select to use

a security, additional options appears in this screen.

Or you can select

No Security

to allow any client to associate this network without any

data encryption or authentication.

See the following sections for more details about this field.

Apply

Click this to save your changes.

Cancel

Click this to restore your previously saved settings.

Table 16

Network Setting > Wireless > General

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

Chapter 7 Wireless LAN

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In order to configure and enable WEP encryption, click

Network

Setting

>

Wireless

to display the

General

screen, then select

Basic

as the security level.

Figure 28

Wireless > General: Basic (WEP)

The following table describes the wireless LAN security labels in this screen.

7.2.3

More Secure (WPA(2)-PSK)

The WPA-PSK security mode provides both improved data encryption and user authentication over

WEP. Using a Pre-Shared Key (PSK), both the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries and the connecting

client share a common password in order to validate the connection. This type of encryption, while

robust, is not as strong as WPA, WPA2 or even WPA2-PSK. The WPA2-PSK security mode is a

newer, more robust version of the WPA encryption standard. It offers slightly better security,

although the use of PSK makes it less robust than it could be.

Table 17

Wireless > General: Basic (WEP)

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

Security Level

Select

Basic

to enable WEP data encryption.

Generate

password

automatically

Select this option to have the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries automatically generate a

password. The password field will not be configurable when you select this option.

Password

The password (WEP key) are used to encrypt data. Both the AMG1302/AMG1202-TSeries

and the wireless stations must use the same password (WEP key) for data transmission.

If you chose

64-bit

WEP, then enter any 5 ASCII characters or 10 hexadecimal characters

("0-9", "A-F").

If you chose

128-bit

WEP, then enter 13 ASCII characters or 26 hexadecimal characters

("0-9", "A-F").

WEP Encryption

Select

64-bits

or

128-bits

.

This dictates the length of the security key that the network is going to use.