Split Your Traffic; How To Control Access To Your Network - Linksys EA2750 User Manual

Upgrade your wireless clients
If you have network adapters that support only legacy wireless network standards such as 802.11b,
you should consider upgrading them with Wireless-N (802.11n) network adapters. Wireless-B
(802.11b) devices can slow your entire wireless network. For the best performance, all of your
wireless devices should support Wireless-N. You can then select Wireless-N Only as your Network
Mode below.
Note—If you select Wireless-N Only, you may need to temporarily change your network settings to
Mixed to provide access to guests without Wireless-N networking.

Split your traffic

The best way to improve your multimedia wireless performance is to split your wireless traffic
between your router's bands (ranges of radio frequencies). Your router supports the 2.4 GHz band
and the 5 GHz band, and handles the two bands as two separate wireless networks to manage the
traffic.
The most common way to split wireless traffic is to use the 2.4 GHz band for basic Internet tasks
such as web browsing, email, and downloads, and use the 5 GHz band for streaming multimedia.
Although the 2.4 GHz band may be more crowded with wireless traffic from your neighbors, it's fine
for basic Internet traffic that is not time-sensitive such as email. Even though you are connected to
your own wireless network, you are still sharing air time with nearby networks. The 5 GHz band is
much less crowded than the 2.4 GHz band, so it's ideal for streaming multimedia. The 5 GHz band has
more available channels, so it is more likely that you will have your own, interference-free channel for
your wireless network.
By default, your dual-band router uses the same network name on both the 2.4 GHz band and the 5
GHz band. The easiest way to segment your traffic is to rename one of your wireless networks. With a
separate, descriptive name, it will be easy to connect to the right network.

How to control access to your network

By default, setup enables industry-standard WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) security.
If you choose not to use the built-in security features of your router, you can still control access to
your wireless network using MAC filtering. Every network device has a unique, 12-digit MAC (Media
Access Control) address. Using MAC filtering, you can allow only known MAC addresses, and
therefore known devices, onto your network. You can also exclude specific MAC addresses, denying
them access to your network.
Tip—MAC filtering is not strong security. The best way to secure your network is to use the router's
WPA2 security setting.
Example: Because each MAC filtering configuration is unique, this simplified example shows how to
set up MAC filtering to allow only one device access to the network.
Tip---- - It is easier to select Allow to permit only known devices than to try to Deny (exclude) unknown
devices.
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