Performing Pings; Extended Roaming Using Md5 Authentication - 3Com AirConnect User Manual

Performing Pings

Extended Roaming
Using MD5
Authentication
10 Select Special Functions from the Main Menu.
11 Select Use TFTP to Update All Access Points and press Enter, which generates the
following prompt:
"Are you sure (Y/N)?"
12 Type y. The Telnet session ends at this point. The AP resets when the file transfer
and flash programming complete.
13 Telnet to the AP using its IP address.
14 Type the case-sensitive password at the password prompt, which generates the
Main Menu.
15 Verify the accuracy of the version number in the System Summary window.
16 Press Ctrl+D to end the Telnet session.
A network node sends a ping packet to a wireless client or AP and waits for a
response. Use pings to evaluate signal strength between two stations. The other
station can exist on any AP interface. (This ping operates at the MAC level and not
at the Internet Control Message Protocol [ICMP] level.
No pings returned or fewer pings returned than sent can indicate a
communication problem between the AP and the non-network station.
To ping a station, follow the procedure below.
1 Select Show Wireless Clients from the Main Menu.
2 Select Regular from the Show Wireless Clients window. The Wireless Clients
window generates.
3 Press Tab to highlight the MAC address of the station to ping.
4 Press the [F1] key to select Ping [F1] This generates the Packet Ping Setup window.
5 Enter the number of Pings (1 to 539), the Packet Length in bytes (1 to 539), and
the Packet Data content in hex (0x00 to 0xFF).
6 Select Start [CR] to begin pinging.
The AP dynamically displays ping packets transmitted and received.
You can achieve authentication by using the MD5 algorithm with a shared key
configured into the AP and its wireless client. MD5 is a message-digest algorithm
that takes an arbitrarily long message and computes a fixed-length (16 bytes) digest
version of the original message. You can think of the message-digest as a unique
fingerprint of the original message computed using a mathematical formula or
algorithm. The message-digest is the authentication checksum of a message from
a mobile wireless client to an AP during the Home Agent registration process. The
MD5 algorithm prevents a wireless client from impersonating an authenticated
wireless client.
Performing Pings 77