ZyXEL B-500 User Guide - Page 31

ZyAIR B-500 Wireless Access Point User's Guide Chapter 3 Wizard Setup This chapter provides information on the Wizard Setup screens in the web configurator. 3.1 Wizard Setup Overview The web configurator's setup wizard helps you configure your ZyAIR for wireless stations to access your wired LAN. 3.1.1 Channel A channel is the radio frequency(ies) used by IEEE 802.11b wireless devices. Channels available depend on your geographical area. You may have a choice of channels (for your region) so you should use a different channel than an adjacent AP (access point) to reduce interference. Interference occurs when radio signals from different access points overlap causing interference and degrading performance. Adjacent channels partially overlap however. To avoid interference due to overlap, your AP should be on a channel at least five channels away from a channel that an adjacent AP is using. For example, if your region has 11 channels and an adjacent AP is using channel 1, then you need to select a channel between 6 or 11. The ZyAIR's "Scan" function is especially designed to automatically scan for a channel with the least interference. 3.1.2 ESS ID An Extended Service Set (ESS) is a group of access points connected to a wired LAN on the same subnet. An ESS ID uniquely identifies each set. All access points and their associated wireless stations in the same set must have the same ESSID. 3.1.3 WEP Encryption WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encrypts data frames before transmitting over the wireless network. WEP encryption scrambles the data transmitted between the wireless stations and the access points to keep network communications private. It encrypts unicast and multicast communications in a network. Both the wireless stations and the access points must use the same WEP key for data encryption and decryption. . Wizard Setup 3-1