Wireless Basics - THOMSON SpeedTouch 716v5 (WL) User Manual

Chapter 2
Local Network Setup

2.3.1 Wireless Basics

Introduction
802.11b/g
Wireless Fidelity
Access Point
Network Name or SSID
Radio channels
24
In this section some key wireless concepts are explained.
802.11b is an IEEE standard, operating at 2,4 GHz at a speed of up to 11 Mb/s.
802.11g, a newer IEEE standard also operating at 2,4 GHz, gives you up to 54 Mb/s
speed, more security and better performance.
The Wi-Fi certification ensures that your SpeedTouch™ will interoperate with any Wi-
Fi certified 802.11g and 802.11b compliant wireless device.
The SpeedTouch™ Wireless LAN Access Point (AP) behaves as a networking hub
allowing to wirelessly interconnect several devices to the local (W)LAN and to
provide access to the Internet.
The WLAN's 'radio' link is a shared medium. As no physical connection exists
between the SpeedTouch™ and wireless clients, a name must be given to allow
unique identification of your WLAN radio link. This is done by the Service Set ID
(SSID), also referred to as Network Name. Wireless clients must be part of this SSID
environment in order to be able to communicate with other clients on the (W)LAN -
including the SpeedTouch™.
The 802.11g standard allows several WLAN networks using different radio channels
to be co-located. The SpeedTouch™ supports multiple radio channels and is able to
select the best radio channel at each start-up.
You can choose to set the channels automatically or manually.
The different channels are overlapping. To avoid interference with another
access point, make sure that the separation (in terms of frequency) is as
high as possible. It's recommended to keep at least 3 channels between 2
different access points.
The SpeedTouch™ supports all channels allowed for wireless networking. However,
depending on local regulations, the number of channels actually allowed to be used
may be additionally restricted, as shown in the table below:
Regulatory Domain
China
Europe
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Thailand
USA
Allowed Radio Channels
1 to 13
1 to 13
5 to 8
1 to 14
10 to 13
1 to 14
1 to 11
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