Netgear MA521 MA521 Reference Manual - Page 19

Notebook PC with MA111 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter Internet Desktop PC with MA321 802.11b Wireless PCI Adapter Desktop PC with MA111 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter Cable/DSL Modem Notebook PC with MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card NETGEAR MR814 802.11b 3 Cable/DSL Wireless 4-port Router Notebook PC with MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card Macintosh with Ethernet connection Desktop PC with FA311 Ethernet Card To set up an Infrastructure network operating with standard protocols, do the following: • Set all wireless stations to connect in Infrastructure mode. • Set all stations to use the same network name (or SSID). • Set all wireless Access Points to use the same network name (or ESSID). • Set all stations to disable the WEP encryption key, or set all stations to use an identical WEP encryption key as used by the Access Point. • Set up wireless channels used by individual Access Points. (It is not necessary to set channels on the stations as the stations will automatically scan through all channels for the nearest Access Point.) Service Set Identification (SSID) The Service Set Identification (SSID) is a thirty-two alphanumeric character (maximum) string identifying the wireless local area network. Some vendors refer to the SSID as network name. For stations to communicate with each other, all stations must be configured with the same SSID. A wireless LAN consisting of nodes operating in Ad-Hoc configuration without an Access Point is called a Basic Service Set (BSS). All nodes in a BSS must use the same Basic Service Set ID (BSSID). In an infrastructure configuration with Access Points, multiple BSS can be configured to form an Extended Service Set (ESS). In this configuration, the Access Points are configured with the same Extended Service Set ID (ESSID). Wireless clients configured with the same ESSID can freely roam from one Access Point domain to another and still maintain seamless connection to the network. 18