NETGEAR WNAP210 - ProSafe Wireless-N - Wireless Access Point Reference Manual page 40

ProSafe Wireless-N Access Point WNAP210 Reference Manual
• Wireless Network Name (SSID). This is the name of your wireless network. It is set to
the default name of NETGEAR_11a for 802.11a/n devices and NETGEAR_11ng for
802.11b/g/n devices.
• Broadcast Wireless Network Name (SSID). If you disable broadcast of the SSID, only
devices that have the correct SSID can connect. This nullifies the wireless network
"discovery" feature of some products such as Windows XP, but the data is still fully
exposed to a determined snoop using specialized test equipment like wireless sniffers. The
default is Yes.
• Channel/Frequency. From the drop-down list, select the channel you wish to use on your
wireless LAN. The wireless channel in use will be from 1 to 11 for the United States and
Canada, 1 to 13 for Europe and Australia. The default is Auto.
It should not be necessary to change the wireless channel unless you experience
interference (shown by lost connections or slow data transfers). Should this happen, you
might need to experiment with different channels to see which is the best. Alternatively,
you can select the Auto channel option for the AP to intelligently pick the channel with
the least interference. See the article "Wireless Networking Basics" available on the
NETGEAR website. (A link to this article and other articles of interest can be found in
Appendix B, "Related
points in mind:
– Access points use a fixed channel. You can select the channel used. This allows you to
choose a channel that provides the least interference and best performance. In the
United States and Canada, 11 channels are available.
– If you are using multiple access points, it is better if adjacent access points use
different channels to reduce interference. The recommended channel spacing between
adjacent access points is 5 channels (for example, use channels 1 and 6, or 6 and 11).
– Wireless stations usually scan all channels, looking for an access point. If more than
one access point can be used, the one with the strongest signal is used. This can
happen only when the various access points are using the same SSID.
• MCS Index/Data Rate. From the drop-down list, select the available transmit data rate of
the wireless network. Also, depending on the band selected, the set of rates will vary.
(When auto channel is enabled in the 802.11ng mode, then the default channel width mode
is 20 MHz. In this case, you can not modify this parameter unless you change to a static
channel.) The possible supported data rates are:
2-18
Documents"). When selecting or changing channels, bear these
v1.0 March 2009
Installation and Configuration