Improving The Security Of A Wlan; Hiding The Name Of A Wlan - Huawei WS325 User Manual

WS325 300Mbps Wireless Router
User Guide

6.3 Improving the Security of a WLAN

The signals of a WLAN are transmitted in the air. Therefore, unauthorized persons can
receive the wireless signals easily. If the wireless signals are not encrypted, unauthorized
persons may use your WLAN or obtain the data transmitted on the WLAN. To ensure the
security of the data transmitted on the WLAN, the router provides multiple
security-related settings for the WLAN function. You can change these settings as
required to protect your WLAN from unauthorized access.

6.3.1 Hiding the Name of a WLAN

Function Overview
When accessing a WLAN, the user of a wireless client needs to enter the correct name of
the WLAN, that is, the service set identifier (SSID) of the WLAN. Generally, the
wireless signals transmitted from a wireless router carries the SSID. The wireless adapter
of a PC can find and display the SSID for selection and confirmation. Thus, manual
operations for selecting and configuring the WLAN can be simplified. The SSID,
however, is not encrypted. Therefore, anyone can find the WLAN, and then view the
SSID, and the security of the WLAN is reduced.
The router provides the function of hiding the SSID. After this function is enabled, the
wireless signals transmitted from the router do not carry the SSID. Thus, it is not possible
for unauthorized people to obtain the SSID from the wireless signals. In addition, the
user of a PC needs to enter the correct SSID manually to add the PC to the WLAN. Thus,
the security of the WLAN is increased.
The router also provides the multi-SSID function. You can configure multiple SSIDs,
and then enable one or multiple of them.
Through the multi-SSID function, multiple virtual access points of a WLAN can be
established. For a wireless client, each virtual access point can be used as a physical access
point. In addition, each virtual access point has its SSID.
Configuration Example
To use and hide SSID1 and disable the other SSIDs (so that the WLAN cannot be found
by others), do as follows:
Step 1
Log in to the Web-based configuration utility.
Step 2
In the navigation tree, choose Basic > WLAN.
The WLAN configuration page is displayed.
Step 3 Select SSID1 for SSID Index.
Issue 01 (2012-10-26)
6 Configuring Frequently Used Functions
6-3