What You Need To Know About Wireless; Before You Start; The General Screen - ZyXEL Communications AMG1312-T Series User Manual

Chapter 7 Wireless LAN

7.1.2 What You Need to Know About Wireless

Wireless Basics
"Wireless" is essentially radio communication. In the same way that walkie-talkie radios send and
receive information over the airwaves, wireless networking devices exchange information with one
another. A wireless networking device is just like a radio that lets your computer exchange
information with radios attached to other computers. Like walkie-talkies, most wireless networking
devices operate at radio frequency bands that are open to the public and do not require a license to
use. However, wireless networking is different from that of most traditional radio communications in
that there a number of wireless networking standards available with different methods of data
encryption.
Finding Out More
See Section 7.10 on page 102

7.1.3 Before You Start

Before you start using these screens, ask yourself the following questions. See
page 88 if some of the terms used here are not familiar to you.
• What wireless standards do the other wireless devices in your network support (IEEE 802.11g,
for example)? What is the most appropriate standard to use?
• What security options do the other wireless devices in your network support (WPA-PSK, for
example)? What is the strongest security option supported by all the devices in your network?
• Do the other wireless devices in your network support WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup)? If so, you
can set up a well-secured network very easily.
Even if some of your devices support WPS and some do not, you can use WPS to set up your
network and then add the non-WPS devices manually, although this is somewhat more
complicated to do.
• What advanced options do you want to configure, if any? If you want to configure advanced
options such as Quality of Service, ensure that you know precisely what you want to do. If you do
not want to configure advanced options, leave them as they are.

7.2 The General Screen

Use this screen to enable the Wireless LAN, enter the SSID and select the wireless security mode.
Note: If you are configuring the AMG1312-T Series from a computer connected to the
wireless LAN and you change the AMG1312-T Series's SSID, channel or security
settings, you will lose your wireless connection when you press Apply to confirm.
You must then change the wireless settings of your computer to match the
AMG1312-T Series's new settings.
Click Network Setting > Wireless to open the General screen.
88
for advanced technical information on wireless networks.
Section 7.1.2 on
AMG1312-T Series User's Guide