Linksys WAG54G User Guide - Page 30

Wireless-G ADSL Gateway The Wireless Tab Basic Wireless Settings (See Figure 5-13.) This screen allows you to choose your wireless network mode and wireless security. Wireless Network • Wireless Network Mode. If you have 802.11g and 802.11b devices in your network, then keep the default setting, Mixed. If you have only 802.11g devices, select 802.11g. If you have only 802.11b devices, select 802.11b. If you want to disable wireless networking, select Disabled. • Wireless Network Name (SSID). Enter the name for your wireless network into the field. The SSID is the network name shared among all devices in a wireless network. The SSID must be identical for all devices in the wireless network. It is case-sensitive and must not exceed 32 alphanumeric characters, which may be any keyboard character. Linksys recommends that you change the default SSID (linksys) to a unique name of your choice. • Wireless Channel. Select the appropriate channel from the list provided to correspond with your network settings, between 1 and 11 (in North America). All devices in your wireless network must use the same channel in order to function correctly. Linksys wireless clients will automatically detect the wireless channel of the Gateway. Wireless Security • Wireless SSID Broadcast. When wireless clients survey the local area for wireless networks to associate with, they will detect the SSID broadcast by the Gateway. To broadcast the Gateway's SSID, keep the default setting, Enabled. If you do not want to broadcast the Gateway's SSID, then select Disabled. • WEP Encryption Level. An acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy, WEP is an encryption method used to protect your wireless data communications. WEP uses 64-bit or 128-bit keys to provide access control to your network and encryption security for every data transmission. To decode data transmissions, all devices in a network must use an identical WEP key. Higher encryption levels offer higher levels of security, but due to the complexity of the encryption, they may decrease network performance. To enable WEP, select 64 bits (10 hex digits) (see Figure 5-13) or 128 bits (26 hex digits) (see Figure 5-14). To disable WEP encryption, keep the default setting, No Encryption. • Passphrase for keys. Instead of manually entering WEP keys, you can enter a passphrase. This passphrase is used to generate one or more WEP keys. It is case-sensitive and should not be longer than 16 alphanumeric characters. (This Passphrase function is compatible with Linksys wireless products only and cannot be used Chapter 5: Configuring the Gateway The Wireless Tab Figure 5-13: 64-Bit WEP Encryption Figure 5-14: 128-Bit WEP Encryption 23