Cisco WRT54GX4 User Manual - Page 7

Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 Chapter 1: Introduction Welcome Thank you for choosing the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400. The Router will allow you to network wirelessly better than ever, sharing Internet access, files and fun, easily and securely. How does the Router do all of this? A router is a device that allows access to an Internet connection over a network. When you use the Router, this access can be shared over the four switched ports or via the wireless network. The Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 combines smart antenna technology with standards-based Wireless-G (802.11g) networking. By overlaying the signals of two Wireless-G compatible radios, the "Multiple In, Multiple Out" (MIMO) technology effectively doubles the data rate. Unlike ordinary wireless networking technologies that are confused by signal reflections, MIMO actually uses these reflections to increase the range and reduce "dead spots" in the wireless coverage area. The robust signal travels farther, maintaining wireless connections up to 3 times farther than standard Wireless-G. With SRX, the farther away you are, the more speed advantage you get, and SRX400 works great with standard Wireless-G and -B equipment, and other flavors of Linksys SRX. But when both ends of the wireless link are SRX400, the router can increase the throughput even more by using twice as much radio band, yielding speeds up to 10 times as fast as standard Wireless-G. But unlike other speed-enhanced technologies, SRX400 can dynamically enable this double-speed mode for SRX400 devices, while still connecting to non-SRX400 wireless devices at their respective fastest speeds. And SRX400 is a "good neighbor", always checking for other wireless devices in the area before gobbling up the radio band. In addition, the Router can encode all wireless transmissions with industrial-strength WPA encryption to help protect your data and privacy. The whole network is protected by a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall and NAT technology. All of these security features, as well as full configurability, are accessed through the easy-touse, browser-based utility. But what does all of this mean? Networks are useful tools for sharing computer resources. You can access one printer from different computers and access data located on another computer's hard drive. Networks are even used for playing multiplayer video games. So, networks are not only useful in homes and offices, they can also be fun. mbps: one million bits per second; a unit of measurement for data transmission browser: an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. lan (Local Area Network): The computers and networking products that make up the network in your home or office 802.11b: an IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps and an operating frequency of 2.4GHz. 802.11g: an IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 54Mbps, an operating frequency of 2.4GHz, and backward compatibility with 802.11b devices. Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Welcome