Wireless Settings

Note: If you used SecureEasySetup to configure your wireless security settings, changing the Network Name or other security settings for your router will cause your connected wireless clients to loose connectivity with the router.

In this section you can enable the wireless security features. USRobotics strongly recommends that you enable some form of wireless security so that unauthorised clients are not able to access your network.

Note: All the wireless devices you want to connect to the network must have the same wireless security settings including the pass phrase or key that you use to secure your wireless network.

To enable the wireless functions on your router, verify that Allow wireless connections is checked.

Network Name (SSID)

Wireless clients use the Network name (SSID) to connect to your router.

The default Network name of the router is USR5464. If you want to use multiple Wireless Ndx routers independently, you must configure a unique Network name for each router.

Note: If you are using multiple Wireless Ndx routers and you want them to use independently, each router will need a unique Network name.

Select if you want wireless devices to be able to detect your router when they perform a site scan.

If you deselect Broadcast network name, wireless devices will not be able to detect your wireless network during a site scan. Devices will have to manually enter the Network Name (SSID) of your router to connect.

 

Access Point Isolation

If the router will be used in a public place where you do not want any wireless clients to be able to share files or printers between themselves, select Access point isolation. With this selected, all of the wireless clients will only be able to access the Internet. An example of a situation where you would want to enable this feature is in a public hotspot, such as a coffee shop or hotel. This feature is disabled by default.

 

Bridge Mode

Bridge Mode is used to connect two isolated networks wirelessly. If this feature is enabled, wireless clients will not be able to connect to the router. Bridging is used if you are trying to connect two networks or two groups of wired clients, each with its own router or wireless access point, that cannot be conveniently connected using Ethernet cabling. An example of this type of situation would be two homes that want to share network resources without running cabling through their yards.

By default, this mode is turned off and the router is in Access Point mode where it accepts wireless connections.

If you enable Bridge mode and WDS Restrictions in the wireless router, a bridge will be created to another wireless router or access point and no wireless clients will be able to connect to the wireless network. This is generally used when you want to connect two networks that are in different buildings. Each wireless router or access point will have to have the MAC address of the other device entered in the WDS Restrictions table.

With Bridge mode, you will only be able to use the following forms of encryption methods: WPA (PSK), WEP open, WEP shared, or None. For your encryption type, you can choose either TKIP or AES, but not TKIP and AES.

Note: In Bridge mode, the Wireless Ndx Router does not support Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM).



Note: Click Save to apply all your new settings and reboot the router after you have completed all your changes.

 

 

WDS Restrictions

USRobotics routers and Access Points are capable of using a feature known as WDS (Wireless Distribution System) which allows the wireless router or access point to connect directly to another wireless router or access point, while still allowing wireless clients to connect to the network.

If you select Enable WDS restrictions, you will need to enter the MAC addresses of the wireless routers or access points that will connect to this router and click the Add button.

To delete an existing WDS mapping, click the Delete button next to the MAC Address.

WDS allows you to use multiple access points or wireless routers to connect several separate networks together. By connecting an access point or wireless router to each network and enabling the WDS feature, the wireless clients in the immediate area will be able to connect to the wireless network while a bridge would also be created to another access point or wireless router that is further away. The wireless router and the wireless product that you will be creating a bridge with will need to have the same channel selected, the same Network Name (SSID), same wireless security settings, as well as the MAC address of the other device entered in the WDS Restrictions table. Enabling the WDS Restrictions option allows you to enter the MAC addresses of the access points or wireless routers that will be capable of connecting to each point of the wireless network that you have created. This will then limit exactly who has access to the wireless network.

One thing to note about this type of wireless network is that the throughput may be reduced for the bridging portion. Therefore, bridged routers or access points that also allow wireless clients to connect to the network should not be used for high-volume traffic. Some examples of the type of situations where you might want this type of network would be for security cameras, to provide network access to certain parts of a building that might not be able to be connected using wires, or to provide short-term network access to a conference area.

If you enable Bridge mode and WDS Restrictions in the wireless router, a bridge will be created to another wireless router or access point and no wireless clients will be able to connect to the wireless network. This is generally used when you want to connect two networks that are in different buildings. Each wireless router or access point will have to have the MAC address of the other device entered in the WDS Restrictions table.

The router’s WDS connections do not support: WPA2 (PSK) or any of the RADIUS security methods, nor TKIP and AES encryption.

If your router is set with one of the following security methods and encryption types, all WDS connections to the router should use WPA-PSK (TKIP):

If your router is set with one of the following security methods and encryption types, all WDS connections to the router should use WPA (PSK) with AES:

In both of these cases, the Pass phrase (which is also commonly called a Network key, key, or Personal shared key) you entered for the wireless security on your router will be also used as the Personal Shared Key (PSK) for WDS connections. However, all wireless clients connecting to the router should continue to use the same security method and encryption type that you configured on your router.

 

Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM)

This feature is disabled by default. If you want to enable this feature, select the checkbox next to Enable WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia). The other devices that you are connecting to in order to use this feature must also support WMM and have it enabled.

This feature enables the Quality of Service (QoS) function that is used for multimedia applications, such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and video. This allows the network packets of the multimedia application to have priority over regular data network packets, allowing multimedia applications to run smoother and with fewer errors.

If you enable WMM, you can then select Enable no-acknowledgement. No-Acknowledgement refers to the acknowledge policy used at the MAC level. Enabling no-acknowledgement can result in more efficient throughput but higher error rates in a noisy Radio Frequency (RF) environment.

With WMM enabled, you can also select Enable APSD (Automatic Power Save Delivery). APSD manages radio usage for battery-powered devices to allow longer battery life in certain conditions. APSD allows a longer beacon interval until an application requiring a short packet exchange interval starts. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an example of application requiring a short packet exchange interval. APSD affects radio usage and battery life only if the wireless client also supports APSD.

Note: 802.11n mode does not support WMM, and the Acceleration option MAXg (125 Mbps) is incompatible with WMM. You must change the 802.11n mode to Off and set the Acceleration option to 54g+ (Xpress™) to enable WMM.

Transmission

The fields in this area are for more advanced wireless features that most people do not need to change. If you do want to change any of these settings, write down the default settings before you make any changes in case you experience any problems and need to change these settings back.

Control and Extension Channels

Control and the secondary extension channels are only applicable if your router is operating at 40 MHz bandwidth and the 802.11n mode is configured as Automatic.

For US channels:

Control Channel
Sideband
Extension Channel
1 - 7
Lower
Channel number + 4
5 - 11
Upper
Channel number - 4

For European channels:

Control Channel
Sideband
Extension Channel
1 - 9
Lower
Channel number + 4
5 - 13
Upper
Channel number - 4

Example: If your control channel is set to 1, the extension channel will be transmitted on channel 5. The total bandwidth of the signals on channel 1 and 5 equals 40 MHz.

Example: If your control channel is set to 11, the extension channel will be transmitted on channel 7. The total bandwidth of the signals on channel 11 and 7 equals 40 MHz.

Note: Click Save to apply all your new settings and reboot the router after you have completed all your changes.