Linksys WAP55AG User Guide - Page 31

Dual-Band Wireless A + G Access Point The Wireless Tab - Advanced Wireless Settings This screen contains the advanced wireless settings. In most cases, these settings do not need to be changed. Wireless-A Settings Authentication Type. The default is set to Open System (Default) authentication, when the sender and the recipient do NOT use a WEP key for authentication. With Shared Key authentication, the sender and recipient use a WEP key for authentication. Transmission Rate. The rate of data transmission should be set depending on the speed of your wireless network. You can select from a range of transmission speeds, or you can select Auto (Default) to have the Access Point automatically use the fastest possible data rate and enable the Auto-Fallback feature. Auto-Fallback will negotiate the best possible connection speed between the Access Point and a wireless client. The default value is Auto (Default). Transmission Power. (Transmit Power Control (TPC)) The greater the transmission power used, the larger the area a wireless network covers. To minimize the likelihood of eavesdropping by unauthorized wireless users, do not use more transmission power than necessary to cover the range needed by your wireless network. Try using the Access Point at different levels of transmission power, and determine how much power is needed to reach the wireless client, such as a PC or access point, that is farthest from the Access Point. Then select the appropriate level, Full (Default), Half, Quarter, Eighth, or Min, from the drop-down menu. The default is Full (Default). Frame Burst Mode. Enabling this option should provide your network with greater performance, depending on the manufacturer of your wireless products. If you are not sure how to use this option, keep the default, Enabled (Default). Beacon Interval. The default value is 100. The Beacon Interval value indicates the frequency interval of the beacon. A beacon is a packet broadcast by the Access Point to synchronize the wireless network. DTIM Interval. This value indicates the interval of the Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM). A DTIM field is a countdown field informing clients of the next window for listening to broadcast and multicast messages. When the Access Point has buffered broadcast or multicast messages for associated clients, it sends the next DTIM with a DTIM Interval value. Its clients hear the beacons and awaken to receive the broadcast and multicast messages. The default value is 1. Fragmentation Threshold. This value specifies the maximum size for a packet before data is fragmented into multiple packets. If you experience a high packet error rate, you may slightly increase the Fragmentation Threshold. Setting the Fragmentation Threshold too low may result in poor network performance. Only minor reduction of the default value is recommended. In most cases, it should remain at its default value of 2346. Figure 6-9: Advanced Wireless beacon interval: data transmitted on your wireless network that keeps the network synchronized. packet: a unit of data sent over a network dtim: a message included in data packets that can increase wireless efficiency. fragmentation: breaking a packet into smaller units when transmitting over a network medium that cannot support the original size of the packet. Chapter 6: Configuring the Dual-Band Wireless A + G Access Point 25 The Wireless Tab - Advanced Wireless Settings