Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 6: Installing Wireless Access Points in Windows
� Service set identifier (SSID): The SSID (sometimes called the network
name, network ID, or service area) can be any alphanumeric string,
including upper- and lowercase letters, up to 30 characters long. The
AP manufacturer may set a default SSID at the factory, but you should
change this setting. Assigning a unique SSID doesn’t add much security;
nonetheless, establishing an identifier that’s different from the factorysupplied
SSID makes it a little more difficult for intruders to access your
wireless network. And, if you have a nearby neighbor with a wireless AP
of the same type, you won’t get the two networks confused. When you
configure wireless stations, you need to use the same SSID or network
name that’s assigned to the AP. It’s also a good idea to turn off the SSID
broadcast, a feature whereby the AP announces itself to the wireless
world in general. Turning this off helps hide your AP from the bad guys
who might want to hang off your network. However, hiding your SSID by
no means absolutely hides your network (think of it as a mechanism for
keeping out casual intruders to your network — dedicated intruders
won’t be stopped by a hidden SSID).
� Router PIN: This is the PIN number used for rapid implementation of
network encryption and security using the WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)
system that many new APs include. See Chapter 9 for details.
� Channel: This is the radio channel over which the AP communicates.
If you plan to use more than one AP in your home, you should assign
a different channel (over which the AP communicates) for each AP to
avoid signal interference. If your network uses the IEEE 802.11g protocols,
eleven channels, which are set at 5 MHz intervals, are available in
the United States. However, because the radio signals used by the IEEE
802.11g standard are spread across a 22 MHz-wide spectrum, you can
only use as many as three channels (typically 1, 6, and 11) in a given
wireless network. If you have an 802.11n draft 2.0 AP, you will want to
have this set to Auto so that the AP and the wireless network card can
switch between channels and use the ones with the least interference.
You can use other channels besides 1, 6, and 11 in an 802.11g network,
but those three channels are the ones that are noninterfering. In other
words, you could set up three APs near each other that use these channels
and they wouldn’t cause any interference with each other.
If you’re setting up an 802.11a AP, or an 802.11n router that supports the
5 MHz frequency range, you have somewhere between 12 and 23 channels
from which to choose (depending upon which country you live in).
These channels don’t overlap (like the 2.4 GHz channels do), so you can
use them all without interference, while you can use only three without
interference in the 2.4 GHz band. If you operate only one AP, all that matters
is that all wireless devices on your network be set to the same channel.
If you operate several APs, give them as much frequency separation
as possible to reduce the likelihood of mutual interference.
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