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Chapter 5 Wireless

5.4

Wireless Advanced Settings

Click

ADVANCED SETTINGS

to configure the advanced settings of your wireless LAN.

5.4.1

Authentication

Three different methods can be used to authenticate wireless stations to the network:

Open

System

,

Shared Key

, and

Auto

. The following figure illustrates the steps involved.

Figure 25

WEP Authentication Steps

Open system authentication involves an unencrypted two-message procedure. A wireless

station sends an open system authentication request to the AP, which will then automatically

accept and connect the wireless station to the network. In effect, open system is not

authentication at all as any station can gain access to the network.

Shared key authentication involves a four-message procedure. A wireless station sends a

shared key authentication request to the AP, which will then reply with a challenge text

message. The wireless station must then use the AP’s default WEP key to encrypt the

challenge text and return it to the AP, which attempts to decrypt the message using the AP’s

default WEP key. If the decrypted message matches the challenge text, the wireless station is

authenticated.

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Chapter 5 Wireless

52

When your P-330W's authentication method is set to open system, it will only accept open

system authentication requests. The same is true for shared key authentication. However,

when it is set to auto authentication, the P-330W will accept either type of authentication

request and the P-330W will fall back to use open authentication if the shared key does not

match.

5.4.2

Preamble Type

A preamble is used to synchronize the transmission timing in your wireless network. There are

two preamble modes:

Long

and

Short

.

Short preamble takes less time to process and minimizes overhead, so it should be used in a

good wireless network environment when all wireless clients support it.

Select

Long

if you have a ‘noisy’ network or are unsure of what preamble mode your wireless

clients support as all IEEE 802.11b compliant wireless adapters must support long preamble.

However, not all wireless adapters support short preamble. Use long preamble if you are

unsure what preamble mode the wireless adapters support, to ensure interpretability between

the P-330W and the wireless stations and to provide more reliable communication in ‘noisy’

networks..

Figure 26

Wireless: Advanced Settings

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

Note:

The P-330W and the wireless stations MUST

use the

same preamble mode in order to communicate.

Table 18

Wireless: Advanced Settings

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

Authentication

Type

Select Auto, Open System or Shared Key from the menu..

Preamble Type

Select a preamble type from the drop-down list menu. Choices are Long or Short.

The default setting is Long.

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Chapter 5 Wireless

5.5

Site Survey

Click

Site Survey

to scan the wireless network. If any Access Point or IBSS is found, you

could choose to connect it when P330’s wireless mode is set to Client mode.

Figure 27

Wireless: Site Survey

5.6

Wireless Security Overview

Wireless security is vital to your network to protect wireless communication between wireless

stations, access points and the wired network.

The figure below shows the possible wireless security levels. EAP (Extensible Authentication

Protocol) is used for authentication and utilizes dynamic WEP key exchange. It requires

interaction with a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server either on the

WAN or your LAN to provide authentication service for wireless stations.

Broadcast SSID

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

the SSID through passive scanning using a site survey tool.

IAPP

Used in a multiple AP environment where 802.1x is used for authentication.

Save

Click

Save

to save your changes back to the P-330W.

Reset

Click

Reset

to reload the previous configuration for this screen.

Table 18

Wireless: Advanced Settings

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

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Chapter 5 Wireless

54

Figure 28

P-330W Wireless Security Levels

If you do not enable any wireless security on your P-330W, your network is accessible to any

wireless networking device that is within range.

Select

NONE

for

Encryption

to allow wireless stations to communicate with the access

points without any data encryption.

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Chapter 5 Wireless

Figure 29

Wireless Security Setup: No Security

The following table describes the labels in this screen.

Table 19

Wireless Security Setup: No Security

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

Encryption

Choose

None

from the drop-down list box.

Use 802.1x

Authentication

Mark this check box to enable 802.1x security using an external RADIUS server.

Data will not be encrypted, however wireless clients will be required to authenticate

before they are allowed to pass traffic to the network.

Both the client and the

RADIUS server will need to support the same EAP protocols.

Save

Click

Save

to save your changes back to the P-330W.

Reset

Click

Reset

to reload the previous configuration for this screen.