No Wires Needed
Parrot 1100 Access Point
User Manual
Version 2.1.0 – July 1999
User manual
Parrot 1100 Access Point
No Wires Needed
Jan Steenlaan 3-5
3723 BS Bilthoven
The Netherlands
www.nwn.com
Version 2.1.0 – July 1999
Trade marks
Copyright © No Wires Needed
The publisher reserves the right to revise this publication and to make
changes to any or all parts of this manual at any time, without obligation to
notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.
Swallow, Parrot, Pelican, AirLock, APCenter, ASBF and Connect are
trademarks of No Wires Needed. Other product and company names are
registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.
Copyright statement
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior writing of the publisher.
Printed in Amsterdam, July 1999
Warranty
NWN undertakes a Product Warranty of 12 months from the date of Invoice.
Within the warranty period NWN repairs a faulty device free of charge or
replaces it in case of irreparable damage.
Excluded from the warranty are malfunctions caused by operation outside the
intended usage; by misuse or abuse; by service modifications or repairs
performed by unauthorised persons or by other conditions not arising from
defects in Product materials or workmanship.
The costs associated with physically replacing the defective part and reinstalling are to be borne by the Buyer.
Statement of Year 2000 Compliance
Detailed information about our statement is published on our website.
http://www.nwn.com
FCC Radiation Exposure Statement
This equipment complies with FCC radiation exposure limits set forth for an
uncontrolled environment. This equipment should be installed and operated
with the minimum distance between your body and the antenna as shown in
the table below:
Low gain indoor antennas (≤6dBi)
4.5cm (1.8 inches)
High gain outdoor antennas (>6dBi)
30cm (12 inches)
Note: Detached antennas, whether installed indoors or out, should be installed ONLY
by experienced antenna installation professionals who are familiar with local building
and safety codes and, wherever applicable, are licensed by the appropriate government
regulatory authorities.
Failure to do so may void the No Wires Needed Product Warranty and may expose the
end user to legal and financial liabilities. No Wires Needed and its resellers or
distributors are not liable for injury, damage or violation of government regulations
associated with the installation of detached antennas.
1 Contents
1 Contents..............................................................................................8
2 Introduction..........................................................................................9
3 Installation.......................................................................................... 10
4 APCenter™ Features.........................................................................12
4.1 APCenter™ Main Window...........................................................13
4.2 Quick Start to Wireless Networking.............................................. 15
4.3 Managing WLANs.......................................................................16
4.4 Managing Access Points............................................................. 17
4.4.1 Network Settings Dialog......................................................19
4.4.2 Searching for Access Points................................................ 20
4.4.3 Manually programming IP addresses................................... 21
4.5 Managing Security......................................................................22
4.5.1 Access Control ....................................................................23
4.6 Updating Access Point Settings...................................................25
4.7 IEEE 802.11 WEP Security.........................................................26
4.8 AirLock™ Security Architecture...................................................26
4.9 More about Cells ........................................................................ 26
4.10 Compatibility...............................................................................27
5 Glossary ............................................................................................28
6 Technical specifications Parrot 1100...................................................29
6.1 Standards supported...................................................................29
6.2 Environmental ............................................................................29
6.3 Power specifications...................................................................29
6.4 Radio specifications....................................................................30
6.5 Specific features......................................................................... 30
6.6 Physical Dimensions ...................................................................30
2 Introduction
Thank you for purchasing your No Wires Needed Parrot 1100 Access Point.
This manual will assist you with the installation procedure.
The package you have received should contain the following items:
• User manual
• Parrot 1100 Access Point
• Power adapter
• Diskette containing APCenter™ Software
Note: if anything is missing, please contact your vendor
A wireless LAN is normally used in a predefined environment. In such a
network, Access Points are mounted at assigned places, each covering its
own area in which wireless nodes can operate. These Access Points are
connected to a wired network to communicate with each other and with
servers and clients on that network.
The Parrot 1100 Access Point can be connected to a 10 Mbps Ethernet
network through a RJ45 (UTP) connector.
3 Installation
1. Mount the Access Point firmly to the
wall on the position that is
determined during the site survey. A
drill model is supplied as a separate
sheet with this manual.
2. Make sure the antennas are in a vertical position (if not, rotate over 90
degrees).
3. Insert the power connector.
4. Attach the UTP Ethernet cable to
the Access Point.
5. Switch on the Access Point.
At the front of the Access Point you will
see three LEDs.
If all goes well, the rightmost LED (power) is green and the leftmost (WLAN)
and middle (wired network) LEDs flash whenever there is traffic on the
respective networks which is at least ten times per second for the wireless
LAN because of so-called ‘beacons’.
The Access Point automatically selects the medium attached. When no cable
network is detected, the network LED will turn red.
When the supplied power is too low or unstable the power LED will turn red.
The power LED will also turn red when the firmware of the Access Point has a
fault condition.
You can reset the Access Point’s
settings to factory defaults by pushing
a paperclip in the little hole next to the
power switch while switching the
Access Point on.
When you push a paperclip in the reset
hole while the Access Point is switched
on, only the lock set by APCenter™
(Par 4.5) is deactivated.
4 APCenter™ Features
APCenter™ provides a consistent view of the Wireless network. The systems
administrator can use APCenter™ to control a large number of Parrot 1100
Access Points from a single location. The Access Points are remotely updated
via the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
Among the supported features are:
• Adding and removing Access Points
• Restricting access to the Wireless network
• Managing data protection options such as IEEE 802.11 WEP and
AirLock™ Security.
• Assigning radio channels for optimal cell management
• Grouping the wireless network into multiple WLANs with individual access
control and security options
• Programming an Access Point with a specified IP address
• Setting the SNMP Write Community string
• Storing the Access Point configurations on disk
• Printing a summary of your configuration
• Verifying the status of all Access Points in the network
4.1 APCenter™ Main Window
The Main Window of APCenter™ may look like this. Before going into detail it
is good to have an idea of what kind of information to expect.
You may wish to skip to Quick Start to Wireless Networking.
The tree structure on the left of the window shows a list of WLANs (Wireless
LANs) and the Access Points that are part of each WLAN. The sample image
above shows a single Access Point with hardware address 00:10:91:00:00:84
that is assigned to the WLAN named “NWN OfficeNet”. The icons indicate the
status of the WLANs and their associated Access Points.
You can use clicking, double clicking, dragging etc. to view Access Point
properties or move an Access Point to another WLAN etc. See Managing
WLANs.
The name (or ESSID) of the WLAN is used for identifying the WLAN. Client
stations can roam freely over Access Points that have the same ESSID.
Therefore the security options for all Access Points with the same ESSID are
identical. Security options can be managed through the WLAN Security
property sheet. See the section on Managing Security.
The Access Point property sheet will mainly be used to select a radio channel
for each Access Point. See Managing Access Points below.
4.2 Quick Start to Wireless Networking
Configuring a Wireless Network for the very first time, involves the following
seven steps:
1. Physically connect the Access Points to the Ethernet LAN. Make sure
they are switched on. The No Wires Needed wireless network will be up
and running immediately. If you are content with the default settings of
the Access Points, you can stop right here. It is more likely however, that
you want to assign different radio frequencies to each Access Point, or
impose some restrictions on the use of your wireless network.
2. To be able to manage the Access Points via SNMP, every Access Point
needs a unique IP address. If you provide a DHCP or BOOTP service on
your LAN (and have sufficient free IP addresses available) this will be
taken care of automatically. If not, please read the section Manually
programming IP addresses.
3. Fire up APCenter™ and configure the Network Settings to reflect your
situation (Use the Edit/Network Settings… menu item). See the section
Network Settings Dialog for details.
4. Create at least one WLAN (Edit/Insert Wireless LAN) and select the
desired security configuration options.
5. Apply the built-in scanning function under Edit/Search Access Points to
collect information about the Access Points. See the section Searching
for Access Points for more information about the scanning function. Drag
the new Access Points to the WLAN of your choice.
6. Select the radio channels of the Access Points according to your cell
plan. See also More about Cells. Add descriptive information about each
Access Point for later reference.
7. Save the configuration information to disk, and commit the new
settings to the Access Points in your network. Using this button.
Note that the actual settings of the Access Points will not be
affected until the Commit to Network function is executed. If you quit
APCenter™, you will be asked to both save and commit.
See Updating Access Point Settings.
You can open the saved configuration file anytime you to make changes to
the network.
4.3 Managing WLANs
A WLAN or “Wireless Local Area Network” consists of a number of Access
Points that together provide seamless access to any wireless stations that are
in reach of any of the Access Points.
Create a WLAN Select the Edit/Insert Wireless LAN menu
item to insert a new WLAN into the list.
Type the name (ESSID) of the new
WLAN.
Destroy a WLAN Remove an empty WLAN by pressing
Delete or selecting the Edit/Clear menu
item.
Rename a WLAN Click on the label of the WLAN to change
its name (ESSID). Note that client stations
use the name to identify the WLAN.
You can move an Access Point from one WLAN to another by dragging it with
the mouse or by selecting Edit/Cut followed by Edit/Paste.
There are two WLANs that have a special meaning in APCenter™. These are
the Unused Access Points and Disabled Access Points special WLAN’s.
Unused
Access Points
APCenter™ does not manage the Unused
Access Points within the context of the current
document. In other words, these Access Points
are ignored. You can view some information
about them (e.g. radio channel), but not modify
any of their properties. APCenter™ does not
change the settings of these Access Points
when File/Commit to Network is selected. This is
useful when different people manage different
sets of Access Points.
Disabled
Access Points
Access Points that are moved to this folder will
be made inaccessible for any client station as
soon as they are updated.
4.4 Managing Access Points
Individual Access Points are identified by their hardware address (or MAC
address). To insert a new Access Point into the APCenter™ document by
hand, its hardware address must be known. You can search for Access Points
in your network automatically; see Searching for Access Points.
Insert an
Access Point
Select the Edit/Insert Access Point menu item to
insert a new Access Point into the selected
WLAN. APCenter™ will ask for the hardware
address of the Access Point.
Disable an
Access Point
Move an Access Point to the “Disabled” special
WLAN by pressing Delete or selecting the
Edit/Clear menu item. Access Points in this
special WLAN will not be accessible for any
client station. See Managing WLANs.
The Access Points are shown with one of the following icons.
On-line The Access Point is accessible on-line.
Off-line The Access Point is currently not accessible, or
the IP address is not known or incorrect.
Locked The Access Point is permanently locked. Its
properties cannot be changed.
Select the Access Point property sheet to view or modify the settings of the
selected Access Point. The main function is to be able to program the Access
Point’s radio channel to match the cell plan. See the section “More about
Cells” for details.
Read-only features shown include hardware address, brand and version, and
the regulatory domain.
Hardware address (MAC address)
Brand, type, and version
information.
The regulatory domain for which
the Access Point has been
configured (factory setting). Note
that it is illegal to use the Access
Point outside the designated
domain. See Regulatory Domains
for details.
The IP address and the hostname
of the Access Point.
The radio channel number. The
permissible channels depend on
the Regulatory Domain.
An optional description field for
easy reference.
4.4.1 Network Settings Dialog
Selecting the Edit/Network Settings… menu item (or clicking the
corresponding toolbar button) pops up the Network Settings dialog. Use this
dialog to inform APCenter™ about your network configuration. APCenter™
needs this information to be able to scan for Access Points.
Add your network addresses (subnets) by entering the correct information in
the Network address, mask and default gateway fields in the dialog, and
clicking the Set button for each network/subnet. To view the details of a
particular network, click on the Address field in the list. Click the Remove
button to delete a network from the list.
If the computer on which APCenter™ is running is connected to all your
networks directly, you can try Auto Add Local Networks to insert them in the
list. Note: if subnetting is used, the network addresses and masks generated
by this function may not be correct and should be adjusted manually.
4.4.2 Searching for Access Points
APCenter™ has an easy-to-use Access Point discovery function that
simplifies the administration of the Access Points in your network. You
normally apply the Search function in one of the following situations:
• New Access Points have been added to the network
• The IP address of one or more Access Points is no longer valid or known,
possibly because the DHCP or BOOTP server has assigned it a different
IP address. You may be informed of this fact because the Access Points
will be reported off-line by APCenter™.
Invoke the Search function by selecting the menu command Edit/Search
Access Points, or pressing the associated toolbar button. While APCenter™ is
scanning the network, you may continue work on the document. If necessary
you can abort a scan by clicking on the Abort Search button.
A progress indicator will be shown in the status bar.
4.4.3 Manually programming IP addresses
The preferred method of providing IP addresses for your Access Points is
applying a DHCP or BOOTP server in your network. If you do, the Access
Points will acquire an IP address automatically from this server.
If you do not have a DHCP server it is possible to set the IP address of your
Access Points from APCenter™.
1. Physically connect the Access Points and the computer on which you run
APCenter™ to the same Ethernet segment.
2. Make sure there is no DHCP or BOOTP server running.
3. Switch the Access Points on. The network LED should light up in red.
4. Configure the network you want your Access Points to be part of. See
Network Settings Dialog for details.
5. Enter the hardware addresses of the Access Points by hand using the
Edit/Insert Access Point menu command or clicking the appropriate
toolbar button.
6. For each Access Point select Edit/Set IP Address menu command and
enter the required IP address manually. As soon as you press apply, the
Access Point should acquire the designated IP address. Within a few
seconds the network LED on the Access Point should light up green.
Note that you may or may not be able to communicate with the Access
Point, depending on the validity of the IP address in the current Ethernet
segment.
4.5 Managing Security
Maintaining security in a wireless LAN environment is somewhat different from
a wired network, because the radio waves do not stop at your office walls.
Eavesdropping or unauthorised access from outside your building can be a
serious threat.
There are three types of actions involved:
• Protecting your data while it is transferred from one station to another.
Encryption techniques will be necessary in most environments (Data
Privacy).
• Control who can make use of the wireless network (Access Control).
• Protecting your network configuration against tampering from both inside
and outside your organisation (Secure Management).
Data Privacy A Parrot 1100 Access Point supports three different
data privacy algorithms: unencrypted data;
standardised IEEE 802.11 WEP (based on a 40 bit
shared key), and No Wires Needed AirLock™ (based
on automatically generated 128 bit session keys).
Access Control The IEEE 802.11 standard allows for Access Control
rules based on the client station’s hardware address,
and is fully implemented by the Parrot 1100. If
AirLock™ is enabled, the hardware address is also
verified using cryptographic techniques. See the section
on AirLock™ Security Architecture.
Secure
Management
The primary protection against tampering for any SNMP
agent is the Write Community String (WCS), which
functions as a password for network management
commands. The WCS is sent over your network in plain
text, making it vulnerable to eavesdropping from within
your organisation. The WCS is never sent over the
radio,however.
If you want you can lock your Access Points. After
being locked they can no longer be managed via
SNMP. Press the pinhole Reset switch on the backpanel of the Access Point to unlock the Access Point.
Select the required security options in the WLAN Security property sheet.
Use this button to lock the settings of the
Access Points (almost) permanently
Edit the Community String
field to modify the SNMP
Write Community String for
all Access Points in the
selected WLAN.
Select the data privacy
algorithm(s) you want to
support in the Access Points.
If AirLock™ is selected,
client stations not supporting
AirLock™ may still
communicate with the
Access Points through the
ASBF™ mechanism.
In some situations it may be
advisable to enforce
AirLock™ as the only
available mechanism.
See the section Access
Control for details.
.
4.5.1 Access Control
Within the IEEE 802.11 framework, Access Control is based on the hardware
address of the client stations. Per client you can select whether or not it will be
allowed access to your wireless network infrastructure. On the WLAN Security
tab, check the Use Access Control box to enable Access Control. If this box is
not checked, any client station can associate with your network.
Click the Access Control Settings… button on the WLAN Security tab to pop
up the Access Control Dialog. Press Add… to enter the client stations you
want to grant access.
A default rule determines whether unregistered stations can join. You can
move clients between Access Granted and Access Denied lists by clicking the
>> and << buttons or pressing the left and right arrow keys.
Press Apply to confirm your changes and close the dialog.
4.6 Updating Access Point Settings
After modifying the open APCenter™ document you should update the
Access Points in your network with the new settings. This is done for all
Access Points simultaneously by selecting the File/Commit to Network menu
command. Or clicking the associated toolbar button. During the update the
following Dialog is displayed:
Access Point that
is currently being
processed.
Progress indicator
Update result
counters. The
‘Skipped’ count
refers to Access
Points in the
‘Unused’ special
WLAN.
Specific error
messages.
Within 10 seconds after the Access Point has been successfully updated it will
disconnect all client stations that are joined with it, and restart with the new
settings. While restarting it will show red LEDs for a short period of time.
4.7 IEEE 802.11 WEP Security
The IEEE 802.11 standard includes a Shared Key data privacy mechanism,
called ‘Wired Equivalent Privacy’.
Features of WEP are:
• Data encryption using a 40 bit shared key
• No key distribution mechanism. The shared key (password) must be
distributed manually to all personnel and either be remembered or stored
somewhere on the hard disk.
• Simple authentication of clients based on hardware address.
4.8 AirLock™ Security Architecture
The No Wires Needed AirLock™ Security architecture provides superior
protection of your data combined with improved ease of use through secure
automated key management, while maintaining full compatibility with the IEEE
802.11 standard.
Some features of AirLock™ Security are:
• Data encryption using 128 bit random session keys
• Key management using a public / private key scheme. Keys are never
transmitted as plain text
• Strong authentication of the client stations based on challenge /
response.
• Automatic scale back function (ASBF™) maintains compliance to IEEE
802.11 shared key security for client stations that do not support
AirLock™ Security.
4.9 More about Cells
Each Access Point in the network forms the centre of a cell, or BSS. The Cells
should overlap slightly to guarantee seamless wireless connectivity
everywhere. Nearby Access Points should preferably send and receive on
different channels for maximum throughput.
Creating a cell plan for your site can be complicated, and is usually done by
experts employing special measuring equipment.
Furthermore, the radio channels you may use depend on both the capabilities
of the PC-Cards you are deploying, as well as the regulations in your area.
The following table may be of help:
Regulatory
Domain
Area Permissible
Channels
Swallow 1100
predefined
channels
FCC United States 1 – 11 1, 6, 11
DOC Canada 1 – 11 1, 6, 11
ETSI Europe except
Spain and France
1 – 13 1, 7, 13
SPAIN Spain 10 10
FRANCE France 10 10
MKK Japan 14 14
4.10 Compatibility
The APCenter™ utility version 1.1.0 is compatible with the No Wires Needed
Parrot 1100 Access Points only.
5 Glossary
AirLock™ Security No Wires Needed BV proprietary security
architecture. AirLock™ Security provides the
following functionality:
• 128 bit data encryption
•
secure Access Control based on a
private/public key algorithm
•
Integrated automated key distribution
algorithm
See the AirLock™ Security white-paper for
detailed information.
BSS “Basic Service Set”. De facto an alias for Access
Point.
Cell Area in which the radio signal of an Access Point
is sufficiently good to join with it.
ESS “Extended Service Set”. A group of Access
Points with identical settings among which a
client system can roam. An ESS forms the heart
of a WLAN.
No Wires Needed BV http://www.nwn.com
Parrot 1100 Access
Point
11/5.5/2.0/1.0 Mbps IEEE 802.11 Access Point
by No Wires Needed BV.
Shared Key Algorithm Encryption scheme for which both sender and
receiver need to know the (same) encryption
key.
SNMP “Simple Network Management Protocol”
Swallow 1100 PC Card 11/5.5/2.0/1.0 Mbps IEEE 802.11 Wireless PC
Card by No Wires Needed BV.
WLAN “Wireless LAN” The set of Access Points and
Wireless Clients that form a local area network.
Write Community String SNMP password
WEP “Wired Equivalent Protection”
Data privacy mechanism based on a 40 bit
shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE
802.11 standard
6 Technical specifications Parrot 1100
6.1 Standards supported
− Compliant with ETS 300 328 and ETS 300 826 (CE marked)
− IEEE 802.11 standard for Wireless LAN
− All major networking standards (including IP, IPX)
6.2 Environmental
Operating temperature (ambient):
− 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F)
Humidity:
− 95%
6.3 Power specifications
DC power supply
− In 230 VAC 50 Hz 150 mA
− Out 9 VDC 1.3 A
Parrot Access Point
− In 9 VDC 1 A
6.4 Radio specifications
Range:
− per cell indoors approx. 50 meters (150 ft) or more
− per cell outdoors up to 300 meters (1000 ft)
Transmit power:
− +18 dBm
Frequency range:
− 2.4-2.4835 GHz, direct sequence spread spectrum
Number of Channels:
− Europe: 13 (3 non-overlapping)
− US: 11 (3 non-overlapping)
− France: 4 (1 non-overlapping)
Antenna system:
− Dual antenna diversity system; 2dB gain
6.5 Specific features
Supported bit rates:
− 11 Mbps
− 5.5 Mbps
− 1 Mbps (IEEE 802.11 DSSS compliant devices, using ASBF™ )
− 2 Mbps (IEEE 802.11 DSSS compliant devices, using ASBF™ )
Data encryption:
− AirLock™ security, 128-bit key length
Utility Software:
− APCenter™ management tool
Key Management:
− Automatic Dynamic Key Allocation (ADKA) through public key
6.6 Physical Dimensions
180 x 220 x 40 mm
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