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Page 141 / 300 Scroll up to view Page 136 - 140
P-663HN-51 User’s Guide
141
C
HAPTER
18
Wireless LAN
18.1
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.
•
Using a MAC (Media Access Control) address filter to restrict access to the
wireless network.
See
Section 18.10 on page 160
for advanced technical information on wireless
networks.
18.1.1
What You Can Do in this Chapter
This chapter describes the ZyXEL Device’s
Network > Wireless LAN
screens.
Use these screens to set up your ZyXEL Device’s wireless connection.
• The
Basic
screen lets you turn the wireless connection on or off and make other
basic configuration changes (
Section 18.4 on page 144
).
•
Use the
Security
screen (
Section 18.5 on page 147
) to configure wireless
security using WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) or manually.
• The
MAC Filter
screen lets you configure the MAC filter to allow or block access
to the ZyXEL Device based on the MAC addresses of the wireless stations
(
Section 18.6 on page 152
).
•
Use the
Wireless Bridge
screen (
Section 18.7 on page 154
) to configure
wireless connections between the ZyXEL Device and other APs.
• The
Advanced Setup
screen lets you change the wireless mode and make
other advanced wireless configuration changes (
Section 18.8 on page 155
).
•
Use the
WPS Station
screen (
Section 18.9 on page 159
) to view information
about the wireless stations connected to the ZyXEL Device.
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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 some security in the
General
screen.
18.2
What You Need to Know
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.
Wireless Network Construction
Wireless networks consist of wireless clients, access points and bridges.
•
A wireless client is a radio connected to a user’s computer.
•
An access point is a radio with a wired connection to a network, which can
connect with numerous wireless clients and let them access the network.
•
A bridge is a radio that relays communications between access points and
wireless clients, extending a network’s range.
Traditionally, a wireless network operates in one of two ways.
•
An “infrastructure” type of network has one or more access points and one or
more wireless clients.
The wireless clients connect to the access points.
•
An “ad-hoc” type of network is one in which there is no access point. Wireless
clients connect to one another in order to exchange information.
Network Names
Each network must have a name, referred to as the SSID - “Service Set
IDentifier”. The “service set” is the network, so the “service set identifier” is the
network’s name. This helps you identify your wireless network when wireless
networks’ coverage areas overlap and you have a variety of networks to choose
from.
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143
Radio Channels
In the radio spectrum, there are certain frequency bands allocated for unlicensed,
civilian use. For the purposes of wireless networking, these bands are divided into
numerous channels. This allows a variety of networks to exist in the same place
without interfering with one another. When you create a network, you must select
a channel to use.
Since the available unlicensed spectrum varies from one country to another, the
number of available channels also varies.
Wireless Security
By their nature, radio communications are simple to intercept. For wireless data
networks, this means that anyone within range of a wireless network without
security can not only read the data passing over the airwaves, but also join the
network. Once an unauthorized person has access to the network s/he can either
steal information or introduce malware (malicious software) intended to
compromise the network. For these reasons, a variety of security systems have
been developed to ensure that only authorized people can use a wireless data
network, or understand the data carried on it.
These security standards do two things. First, they authenticate. This means that
only people presenting the right credentials (often a username and password, or a
“key” phrase) can access the network. Second, they encrypt. This means that the
information sent over the air is encoded. Only people with the code key can
understand the information, and only people who have been authenticated are
given the code key.
These security standards vary in effectiveness. Some can be broken, such as the
old Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP). Using WEP is better than using no security at
all, but it will not keep a determined attacker out. Other security standards are
secure in themselves but can be broken if a user does not use them properly. For
example, the WPA-PSK security standard is perfectly secure if you use a long key
which is difficult for an attacker’s software to guess - for example, a twenty-letter
long string of apparently random numbers and letters - but it is not very secure if
you use a short key which is very easy to guess - for example, a three-letter word
from the dictionary.
Because of the damage that can be done by a malicious attacker, it’s not just
people who have sensitive information on their network who should use security.
Everybody who uses any wireless network should ensure that effective security is
in place.
A good way to come up with effective security keys, passwords and so on is to use
obscure information that you personally will easily remember, and to enter it in a
way that appears random and does not include real words. For example, if your
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Chapter 18 Wireless LAN
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144
mother owns a 1970 Dodge Challenger and her favorite movie is Vanishing Point
(which you know was made in 1971) you could use “70dodchal71vanpoi” as your
security key.
Signal Problems
Because wireless networks are radio networks, their signals are subject to
limitations of distance, interference and absorption.
Problems with distance occur when the two radios are too far apart. Problems with
interference occur when other radio waves interrupt the data signal. Interference
may come from other radio transmissions, such as military or air traffic control
communications, or from machines that are coincidental emitters such as electric
motors or microwaves. Problems with absorption occur when physical objects
(such as thick walls) are between the two radios, muffling the signal.
18.3
Before You Begin
Before you start using these screens, ask yourself the following questions. See
Section 18.2 on page 142
if some of the terms used here do not make sense to
you.
•
What wireless standards do the other wireless devices support (IEEE 802.11g,
for example)? What is the most appropriate standard to use?
•
What security options do the other wireless devices support (WPA-PSK, for
example)? What is the best one to use?
•
Do the other wireless devices 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, ensure that you know precisely what you want to
do. If you do not want to configure advanced options, leave them alone.
18.4
Wireless Basic
Click
Wireless
to open the
Basic
screen.
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Note: If you have a wireless connection to the ZyXEL Device and you change the
ZyXEL Device’s SSID or country settings, you will lose your wireless connection
when you click
Save/Apply
. You must then change your wireless client’s
settings to match the ZyXEL Device’s new settings.
Figure 70
Wireless > Basic
The following table describes the labels in this screen.
Table 53
Wireless > Basic
LABEL
DESCRIPTION
Enable
Wireless
Select this to turn on the wireless LAN.
Hide Access
Point
Select this to hide the SSID in the outgoing beacon frame so a station
cannot obtain the SSID through scanning using a site survey tool.
Clients
Isolation
Select this to stop wireless clients from communicating directly with each
other through the ZyXEL Device’s wireless interface. This is also known as
layer-2 isolation.
Disable WMM
Advertise
WMM (Wifi MultiMedia) automatically prioritizes services according to the
ToS value in the IP header of packets. Turn off WMM advertising if your
wireless clients are not able to associate with an AP using WMM.

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