SSID Summary

 

Quick Setup

Click this to go to the Quick Setup Wireless Wizard to configure a wireless network.

Dynamic Channel Selection

Select one or multiple APs and click this button to use DCS (Dynamic Channel Selection) to allow the AP to automatically find a less-used channel in an environment where there are many APs and there may be interference.

Add

Click this to configure a new wireless network.

You can configure up to 4 SSID profiles.

Edit

Double-click an entry or select it and click Edit to open a screen where you can modify the entry’s settings.

Activate/Inactivate

To turn on an entry, select it and click Activate. To turn off an entry, select it and click Inactivate.

#

This is the wireless network’s index number in this list.

Status

This displays whether or not the wireless network is activated.

SSID

This shows the name of the wireless network.

Security Mode

This shows the security used for this wireless network. No security allows any wireless client to associate with this network without authentication.

Band Mode

This shows the wireless band which this wireless network uses. 2.4 GHz is the frequency used by IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ax wireless clients. 5 GHz is the frequency used by IEEE 802.11ax/ac/a/n wireless clients.

Outgoing Interface

This is the outgoing interface that the wireless network uses to transmit packets.

Apply

Click Apply to save your changes back to the Zyxel Device.

Reset

Click Reset to return the screen to its last-saved settings.

Activate

To turn on an entry, select Activate. To turn off an entry, select it and click Inactivate.

SSID

Enter the SSID name for this profile. This is the name visible on the network to wireless clients. Enter up to 32 characters, spaces and underscores are allowed.

Band Mode

This shows the wireless band which this wireless network uses. 2.4 GHz is the frequency used by IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ax wireless clients. 5 GHz is the frequency used by IEEE 802.11ax/ac/a/n wireless clients.

QoS

Select a Quality of Service (QoS) access category to associate with this SSID. Access categories minimize the delay of data packets across a wireless network. Certain categories, such as video or voice, are given a higher priority due to the time sensitive nature of their data packets.

QoS access categories are as follows:

disable: Turns off QoS for this SSID. All data packets are treated equally and not tagged with access categories.

WMM: Enables automatic tagging of data packets. The Zyxel Device assigns access categories to the SSID by examining data as it passes through it and making a best guess effort. If something looks like video traffic, for instance, it is tagged as such.

WMM_VOICE: All wireless traffic to the SSID is tagged as voice data. This is recommended if an SSID is used for activities like placing and receiving VoIP phone calls.

WMM_VIDEO: All wireless traffic to the SSID is tagged as video data. This is recommended for activities like video conferencing.

WMM_BEST_EFFORT: All wireless traffic to the SSID is tagged as “best effort,” meaning the data travels the best route it can without displacing higher priority traffic. This is good for activities that do not require the best bandwidth throughput, such as surfing the Internet.

WMM_BACKGROUND: All wireless traffic to the SSID is tagged as low priority or “background traffic”, meaning all other access categories take precedence over this one. If traffic from an SSID does not have strict throughput requirements, then this access category is recommended. For example, an SSID that only has network printers connected to it.

Outgoing Interface

Select the outgoing interface that the wireless network uses to transmit packets.

Authentication Settings

 

Security Mode

Select a security mode from the list: open, wep, wpa2, or wpa2-mix.

Enterprise

Select this to enable 802.1x secure authentication with a RADIUS server.

This field is available only when you select the RADIUS Server Type to Internal.

Select an authentication method if you have created any on the Configuration > Object > Auth. Method screen.

Enter the interval (in seconds) between authentication requests. Enter a 0 for unlimited requests.

Personal

Select this option to use a Pre-Shared Key with WPA encryption.

Enter a pre-shared key of between 8 and 63 case-sensitive ASCII characters (including spaces and symbols) or 64 hexadecimal characters.

Cipher Type

Select an encryption cipher type from the list.

Idle Timeout

Enter the idle interval (in seconds) that a client can be idle before authentication is discontinued.

Group Key Update Timer

Enter the interval (in seconds) at which the AP updates the group WPA encryption key.

Pre-Authentication

This field is available only when you set Security Mode to wpa2 or wpa2-mix and enable 802.1x authentication.

Enable or Disable pre-authentication to allow the AP to send authentication information to other APs on the network, allowing connected wireless clients to switch APs without having to re-authenticate their network connection.

Management Frame Protection

This field is available only when you select wpa2 in the Security Mode field and set Cipher Type to aes.

Data frames in 802.11 WLANs can be encrypted and authenticated with WEP, WPA or WPA2. But 802.11 management frames, such as beacon/probe response, association request, association response, de-authentication and disassociation are always unauthenticated and unencrypted. IEEE 802.11w Protected Management Frames allows APs to use the existing security mechanisms (encryption and authentication methods defined in IEEE 802.11i WPA/WPA2) to protect management frames. This helps prevent wireless DoS attacks.

Select the check box to enable management frame protection (MFP) to add security to 802.11 management frames.

Select Optional if you do not require the wireless clients to support MFP. Management frames will be encrypted if the clients support MFP.

Select Required and wireless clients must support MFP in order to join the Zyxel Device’s wireless network.

Hidden SSID

Select this if you want to “hide” your SSID from wireless clients. This tells any wireless clients in the vicinity of the AP using this SSID profile not to display its SSID name as a potential connection. Not all wireless clients respect this flag and display it anyway.

When a SSID is “hidden” and a wireless client cannot see it, the only way you can connect to the SSID is by manually entering the SSID name in your wireless connection setup screen(s) (these vary by client, client connectivity software, and operating system).

Enable Intra-BSS Traffic Blocking

Select this option to prevent crossover traffic from within the same SSID on the Zyxel Device.

Enable U-APSD

Select this option to enable Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery (U-APSD), which is also known as WMM-Power Save. This helps increase battery life for battery-powered wireless clients connected to the Zyxel Device using this SSID profile.

Enable ARP Proxy

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a protocol for mapping an IP address to a MAC address. An ARP broadcast is sent to all devices on the same Ethernet network to request the MAC address of a target IP address.

Select this option to allow the Zyxel Device to answer ARP requests for an IP address on behalf of a client associated with this SSID. This can reduce broadcast traffic and improve network performance.

Schedule SSID

Select this option and set whether the SSID is enabled or disabled on each day of the week. You also need to select the hour and minute (in 24-hour format) to specify the time period of each day during which the SSID is enabled/enabled.

Radius Settings

 

Radius Server Type

Select Internal to use the Zyxel Device’s internal authentication database, or External to use an external RADIUS server for authentication.

Proxy by controller directly

Select this to allow the Zyxel Device to answer authentication requests on behalf of an external RADIUS server.

MAC Filter

 

Filter Action

Select allow to permit the wireless client with the MAC addresses in this profile to connect to the network through the associated SSID; select deny to block the wireless clients with the specified MAC addresses.

Add

Click this to add a MAC address to the profile’s list.

Edit

Click this to edit the selected MAC address in the profile’s list.

Remove

Click this to remove the selected MAC address from the profile’s list.

#

This field is a sequential value, and it is not associated with a specific user.

MAC

This field specifies a MAC address associated with this profile. You can click the MAC address to make it editable.

Description

This field displays a description for the MAC address associated with this profile. You can click the description to make it editable. Enter up to 60 characters, spaces and underscores allowed.

OK

Click OK to save your changes back to the Zyxel Device.

Cancel

Click Cancel to exit this screen without saving your changes.

Hide / Show Advanced Settings

Click this to hide or show the Advanced Settings in this window.

Band Mode

Select the wireless band which this wireless network uses. 2.4 GHz is the frequency used by IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless clients. 5 GHz is the frequency used by IEEE 802.11ac/a/n wireless clients.

2.4GHz General Settings

 

Select how to let wireless clients connect to the AP.

Select the wireless channel bandwidth you want the AP to use.

A standard 20 MHz channel offers transfer speeds of up to 144Mbps (2.4GHz) or 217Mbps (5GHZ) whereas a 40MHz channel uses two standard channels and offers speeds of up to 300Mbps (2.4GHz) or 450Mbps (5GHZ).

40 MHz (channel bonding or dual channel) bonds two adjacent radio channels to increase throughput. Because not all devices support all channels, select 20/40MHz to allow the AP to adjust the channel bandwidth automatically.

Select 20MHz if you want to lessen radio interference with other wireless devices in your neighborhood or the wireless clients do not support channel bonding.

Select the wireless channel which this radio profile should use.

It is recommended that you choose the channel least in use by other APs in the region where this profile will be implemented. This will reduce the amount of interference between wireless clients and the AP to which this profile is assigned.

Select DCS to have the AP automatically select the radio channel upon which it broadcasts by scanning the area around it and determining what channels are currently being used by other devices.

Select Manual and specify the channels the AP uses.

Enter the maximum output power of the Zyxel Device. If there is a high density of APs in an area, decrease the output power of the Zyxel Device to reduce interference with other APs. Reducing the output power also reduces the Zyxel Device’s effective broadcast radius.

This field is available when you set Channel Selection to DCS.

Select this to have the AP wait until all connected clients have disconnected before switching channels.

If you disable this then the AP switches channels immediately regardless of any client connections. In this instance, clients that are connected to the AP when it switches channels are dropped.

This field is available only when you set 802.11 Band to 5G, Channel Selection to DCS and 5 GHz Channel Selection Method to auto.

Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) is a channel WiFi allocation scheme that allows APs to use channels in the 5 Ghz band normally reserved for radar. Before using a DFS channel, an AP must ensure there is no radar present by performing a Channel Availability Check (CAC). This check takes 1-10 minutes, depending on the country in which the AP is located.

Select this if you don’t want to wait for the Zyxel Device to perform a CAC before using a channel by forcing the Zyxel Device to only use the non-DFS channels.

Clear this to allow the Zyxel Device to use the DFS channels for more channel options.

This field is available when you set Channel Selection to DCS.

Select auto to have the AP search for available channels automatically in the 2.4 GHz band. The available channels vary depending on what you select in the 2.4 GHz Channel Deployment field.

Select manual and specify the channels the AP uses in the 2.4 GHz band.

This field is available only when you set Channel Selection to DCS and set 2.4 GHz Channel Selection Method to manual.

Select the check boxes of the channels that you want the AP to use.

This field is available only when you set Channel Selection to DCS and set 2.4 GHz Channel Selection Method to auto.

Select Three-Channel Deployment to limit channel switching to channels 1,6, and 11, the three channels that are sufficiently attenuated to have almost no impact on one another. In other words, this allows you to minimize channel interference by limiting channel-hopping to these three “safe” channels.

Select Four-Channel Deployment to limit channel switching to four channels. Depending on the country domain, if the only allowable channels are 1-11 then the Zyxel Device uses channels 1, 4, 7, 11 in this configuration; otherwise, the Zyxel Device uses channels 1, 5, 9, 13 in this configuration. Four channel deployment expands your pool of possible channels while keeping the channel interference to a minimum.

Select this option to have the Zyxel Device survey the other APs within its broadcast radius at the end of the specified time interval.

This field is available when you set Channel Selection to DCS.

Enter a number of minutes. This regulates how often the AP surveys the other APs within its broadcast radius. If the channel on which it is currently broadcasting suddenly comes into use by another AP, the AP will then dynamically select the next available clean channel or a channel with lower interference.

Select this option to have the Zyxel Device survey the other APs within its broadcast radius at a specific time on selected days of the week.

Specify the time of the day (in 24-hour format) to have the Zyxel Device use DCS to automatically scan and find a less-used channel.

Select each day of the week to have the Zyxel Device use DCS to automatically scan and find a less-used channel.

Advanced Settings

 

This field is available only when the channel width is 20/40MHz or 20/40/80MHz.

Set the guard interval for this radio profile to either Short or Long.

The guard interval is the gap introduced between data transmission from users in order to reduce interference. Reducing the interval increases data transfer rates but also increases interference. Increasing the interval reduces data transfer rates but also reduces interference.

Select this to enable A-MPDU aggregation.

Message Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) aggregation collects Ethernet frames along with their 802.11n headers and wraps them in a 802.11n MAC header. This method is useful for increasing bandwidth throughput in environments that are prone to high error rates.

Enter the maximum frame size to be aggregated.

Enter the maximum number of frames to be aggregated each time.

Select this to enable A-MSDU aggregation.

Mac Service Data Unit (MSDU) aggregation collects Ethernet frames without any of their 802.11n headers and wraps the header-less payload in a single 802.11n MAC header. This method is useful for increasing bandwidth throughput. It is also more efficient than A-MPDU except in environments that are prone to high error rates.

Enter the maximum frame size to be aggregated.

Use RTS/CTS to reduce data collisions on the wireless network if you have wireless clients that are associated with the same AP but out of range of one another. When enabled, a wireless client sends an RTS (Request To Send) and then waits for a CTS (Clear To Send) before it transmits. This stops wireless clients from transmitting packets at the same time (and causing data collisions).

A wireless client sends an RTS for all packets larger than the number (of bytes) that you enter here. Set the RTS/CTS equal to or higher than the fragmentation threshold to turn RTS/CTS off.

When a wirelessly networked device sends a beacon, it includes with it a beacon interval. This specifies the time period before the device sends the beacon again. The interval tells receiving devices on the network how long they can wait in low-power mode before waking up to handle the beacon. A high value helps save current consumption of the access point.

Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) is the time period after which broadcast and multicast packets are transmitted to mobile clients in the Active Power Management mode. A high DTIM value can cause clients to lose connectivity with the network. This value can be set from 1 to 255.

Select the check box to use the signal threshold to ensure wireless clients receive good throughput. This allows only wireless clients with a strong signal to connect to the AP.

Clear the check box to not require wireless clients to have a minimum signal strength to connect to the AP.

Set a minimum client signal strength. A wireless client is allowed to connect to the AP only when its signal strength is stronger than the specified threshold.

-20 dBm is the strongest signal you can require and -76 is the weakest.

Set a minimum kick-off signal strength. When a wireless client’s signal strength is lower than the specified threshold, the Zyxel Device disconnects the wireless client from the AP.

-20 dBm is the strongest signal you can require and -90 is the weakest.

Select this option to allow a wireless client to try to associate with the AP again after it is disconnected due to weak signal strength.

Set the maximum number of times a wireless client can attempt to re-connect to the AP.

Only select this if you want to deny 802.11b/g/n clients access to the radio.

Multicast Settings

Use this section to set a transmission mode and maximum rate for multicast traffic.

Set how the AP handles multicast traffic.

Select Multicast to Unicast to broadcast wireless multicast traffic to all of the wireless clients as unicast traffic. Unicast traffic dynamically changes the data rate based on the application’s bandwidth requirements. The retransmit mechanism of unicast traffic provides more reliable transmission of the multicast traffic, although it also produces duplicate packets.

Select Fixed Multicast Rate to send wireless multicast traffic at a single data rate. You must know the multicast application’s bandwidth requirements and set it in the following field.

If you set the multicast transmission mode to fixed multicast rate, set the data rate for multicast traffic here. For example, to deploy 4 Mbps video, select a fixed multicast rate higher than 4 Mbps.

5GHz General Settings

 

802.11 Band

Select how to let wireless clients connect to the AP.

Select the channel bandwidth you want to use for your wireless network.

Select 20 MHz if you want to lessen radio interference with other wireless devices in your neighborhood.

Select 20/40 MHz to allow the Zyxel Device to choose the channel bandwidth (20 or 40 MHz) that has least interference.

Select 20/40/80 MHz to allow the Zyxel Device to choose the channel bandwidth (20 or 40 or 80 MHz) that has least interference. This option is available only when you select 11ac or 11ax in the 802.11 Mode field.

Select the wireless channel which this radio profile should use.

It is recommended that you choose the channel least in use by other APs in the region where this profile will be implemented. This will reduce the amount of interference between wireless clients and the AP to which this profile is assigned.

Select DCS to have the AP automatically select the radio channel upon which it broadcasts by scanning the area around it and determining what channels are currently being used by other devices.

Select Manual and specify the channels the AP uses.

Enter the maximum output power of the Zyxel Device. If there is a high density of APs in an area, decrease the output power of the Zyxel Device to reduce interference with other APs. Reducing the output power also reduces the Zyxel Device’s effective broadcast radius.

OK

Click OK to save your changes back to the Zyxel Device.

Cancel

Click Cancel to exit this screen without saving your changes.