Additional Wireless Terms; Wireless Security Overview; Mac Address Filter - ZyXEL Communications ZyXEL Prestige P-870HW-51a v2 User Manual

Chapter 7 Wireless LAN

7.9.2 Additional Wireless Terms

The following table describes some wireless network terms and acronyms used in
the ZyXEL Device's Web Configurator.
Table 26 Additional Wireless Terms
TERM
RTS/CTS Threshold
Preamble
Authentication
Fragmentation
Threshold

7.9.3 Wireless Security Overview

The following sections introduce different types of wireless security you can set up
in the wireless network.
7.9.3.1 SSID
Normally, the ZyXEL Device acts like a beacon and regularly broadcasts the SSID
in the area. You can hide the SSID instead, in which case the ZyXEL Device does
not broadcast the SSID. In addition, you should change the default SSID to
something that is difficult to guess.
This type of security is fairly weak, however, because there are ways for
unauthorized wireless devices to get the SSID. In addition, unauthorized wireless
devices can still see the information that is sent in the wireless network.

7.9.3.2 MAC Address Filter

Every device that can use a wireless network has a unique identification number,
called a MAC address.
96
DESCRIPTION
In a wireless network which covers a large area, wireless devices
are sometimes not aware of each other's presence. This may cause
them to send information to the AP at the same time and result in
information colliding and not getting through.
By setting this value lower than the default value, the wireless
devices must sometimes get permission to send information to the
ZyXEL Device. The lower the value, the more often the devices must
get permission.
If this value is greater than the fragmentation threshold value (see
below), then wireless devices never have to get permission to send
information to the ZyXEL Device.
A preamble affects the timing in your wireless network. There are
two preamble modes: long and short. If a device uses a different
preamble mode than the ZyXEL Device does, it cannot communicate
with the ZyXEL Device.
The process of verifying whether a wireless device is allowed to use
the wireless network.
A small fragmentation threshold is recommended for busy networks,
while a larger threshold provides faster performance if the network
is not very busy.
1
A MAC address is usually written using twelve hexadecimal
P-870HW-51a v2 User's Guide