Devolo DLAN 200 AV Wireless N User Manual page 31

30 Network configuration
devolo dLAN 200 AV Wireless N
search for a suitable channel is carried out immediate-
ly. If no stations are connected, the device automatical-
ly selects a channel every 15 minutes.
The SSID specifies the name of your wireless network.
You can see this name when logging onto the WLAN
and thereby identify the correct subnet. If you enable
the Hide SSID option, your wireless network remains
hidden. In this case, potential network users must
know the exact SSID and enter it manually to be able
to set up a connection.
Some WLAN adapters have difficulty con-
necting to such hidden wireless networks. If
the connection to a hidden SSID poses prob-
lems, first try to set up the connection with a
visible SSID and only then try to hide it.
Without encryption, not only are all data transmitted
from client computers to the dLAN 200 AV Wireless N
in your wireless network without protection, but there
is also no password prompt to establish the connec-
tion. If no other security measures were set up, such as
a WLAN filter (see Chapter 4.5.2 WLAN filters), third
parties can gain access to your network at any time
and, for example, share your Internet connection. Usu-
ally this happens without you noticing it.
To secure the data transmission in your wireless net-
work there are two security standards available.
b
The older and weaker WEP standard can protect
communication with the help of a key having
either 10 or 26 characters. To do so, enter a
series of hexadecimal characters with the corre-
sponding number of characters into the Key field.
b
The state-of-the-art WPA and WPA2 (Wi-Fi Pro-
tected Access) methods allow individualised keys
consisting of letters and numbers with a length
of up to 63 characters. You can simply enter this
using the keyboard, without having to convert it
into hexadecimal format first (as with WEP).
Under Mode, you can limit access of clients to the
dLAN 200 AV Wireless N to the method you have
selected.
Save all modified settings before leaving this configu-
ration area again.
You should always encrypt the connec-
tions in your WLAN. Otherwise anyone
within range could penetrate into your
home network and, for example, share
your Internet connection. Always select
the better WPA2 encryption method if
possible. Use WEP only if one of your
wireless terminal devices does not op-
erate with a better standard.