ZyXEL NWD310N Users Manual

Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

5 Right-click Local Area Connection and then click Properties.

" During this procedure, click Continue whenever Windows displays a screen

saying that it needs your permission to continue.

Figure 67 Windows Vista: Network and Sharing Center

6 Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.

Figure 68 Windows Vista: Local Area Connection Properties

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

7 The Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties window opens (the General

tab).

• If you have a dynamic IP address click Obtain an IP address automatically.

• If you have a static IP address click Use the following IP address and fill in the IP address, Subnet mask, and Default gateway fields.

• Click Advanced.

Figure 69 Windows Vista: Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties

8 If you do not know your gateway's IP address, remove any previously installed

gateways in the IP Settings tab and click OK.

Do one or more of the following if you want to configure additional IP addresses:

•In the IP Settings tab, in IP addresses, click Add.

•In TCP/IP Address, type an IP address in IP address and a subnet mask in Subnet mask, and then click Add.

• Repeat the above two steps for each IP address you want to add.

• Configure additional default gateways in the IP Settings tab by clicking Add in Default gateways.

•In TCP/IP Gateway Address, type the IP address of the default gateway in Gateway. To manually configure a default metric (the number of transmission hops), clear the Automatic metric check box and type a metric in Metric.

• Click Add.

• Repeat the previous three steps for each default gateway you want to add.

• Click OK when finished.

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

Figure 70 Windows Vista: Advanced TCP/IP Properties

9 In the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties window, (the General tab):

• Click Obtain DNS server address automatically if you do not know your DNS server IP address(es).

• If you know your DNS server IP address(es), click Use the following DNS server addresses, and type them in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields.

If you have previously configured DNS servers, click Advanced and then the DNS tab to order them.

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

Figure 71 Windows Vista: Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties

10 Click OK to close the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties window. 11 Click Close to close the Local Area Connection Properties window. 12 Close the Network Connections window. 13 Turn on your NWD310N and restart your computer (if prompted).

Verifying Settings

1 Click Start, All Programs, Accessories and then Command Prompt. 2 In the Command Prompt window, type "ipconfig" and then press [ENTER]. You can

also open Network Connections, right-click a network connection, click Status and then click the Support tab.

Macintosh OS 8/9

1 Click the Apple menu, Control Panel and double-click TCP/IP to open the TCP/IP

Control Panel.

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

Figure 72 Macintosh OS 8/9: Apple Menu

2 Select Ethernet built-in from the Connect via list.

Figure 73 Macintosh OS 8/9: TCP/IP

3 For dynamically assigned settings, select Using DHCP Server from the Configure: list. 4 For statically assigned settings, do the following:

•From the Configure box, select Manually.

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

• Type your IP address in the IP Address box.

• Type your subnet mask in the Subnet mask box.

• Type the IP address of your NWD310N in the Router address box.

5 Close the TCP/IP Control Panel. 6 Click Save if prompted, to save changes to your configuration. 7 Turn on your NWD310N and restart your computer (if prompted).

Verifying Settings

Check your TCP/IP properties in the TCP/IP Control Panel window.

Macintosh OS X

1 Click the Apple menu, and click System Preferences to open the System Preferences

window.

Figure 74 Macintosh OS X: Apple Menu

2 Click Network in the icon bar.

• Select Automatic from the Location list.

• Select Built-in Ethernet from the Show list.

• Click the TCP/IP tab.

3 For dynamically assigned settings, select Using DHCP from the Configure list.

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Figure 75 Macintosh OS X: Network

Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

4 For statically assigned settings, do the following:

•From the Configure box, select Manually.

• Type your IP address in the IP Address box.

• Type your subnet mask in the Subnet mask box.

• Type the IP address of your NWD310N in the Router address box.

5 Click Apply Now and close the window. 6 Turn on your NWD310N and restart your computer (if prompted).

Verifying Settings

Check your TCP/IP properties in the Network window.

Linux

This section shows you how to configure your computer’s TCP/IP settings in Red Hat Linux

9.0. Procedure, screens and file location may vary depending on your Linux distribution and release version.

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

" Make sure you are logged in as the root administrator.

Using the K Desktop Environment (KDE)

Follow the steps below to configure your computer IP address using the KDE.

1 Click the Red Hat button (located on the bottom left corner), select System Setting and

click Network.

Figure 76 Red Hat 9.0: KDE: Network Configuration: Devices

2 Double-click on the profile of the network card you wish to configure. The Ethernet

Device General screen displays as shown.

Figure 77 Red Hat 9.0: KDE: Ethernet Device: General

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

• If you have a dynamic IP address, click Automatically obtain IP address settings with and select dhcp from the drop down list.

• If you have a static IP address, click Statically set IP Addresses and fill in the Address, Subnet mask, and Default Gateway Address fields.

3 Click OK to save the changes and close the Ethernet Device General screen. 4 If you know your DNS server IP address(es), click the DNS tab in the Network

Configuration screen. Enter the DNS server information in the fields provided.

Figure 78 Red Hat 9.0: KDE: Network Configuration: DNS

5 Click the Devices tab. 6 Click the Activate button to apply the changes. The following screen displays. Click Yes

to save the changes in all screens.

Figure 79 Red Hat 9.0: KDE: Network Configuration: Activate

7 After the network card restart process is complete, make sure the Status is Active in the

Network Configuration screen.

Using Configuration Files

Follow the steps below to edit the network configuration files and set your computer IP address.

1 Assuming that you have only one network card on the computer, locate the

eth0

configuration file (where eth0 is the name of the Ethernet card). Open the

configuration file with any plain text editor.

• If you have a dynamic IP address, enter following figure shows an example.

ifconfig-

dhcp in the BOOTPROTO= field. The

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

Figure 80 Red Hat 9.0: Dynamic IP Address Setting in ifconfig-eth0

DEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=yes

BOOTPROTO=dhcp

USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes TYPE=Ethernet

• If you have a static IP address, enter static in the BOOTPROTO= field. Type

IPADDR= followed by the IP address (in dotted decimal notation) and type NETMASK=

followed by the subnet mask. The following example shows an example where the static IP address is 192.168.1.10 and the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0.

Figure 81 Red Hat 9.0: Static IP Address Setting in ifconfig-eth0

DEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=yes

BOOTPROTO=static IPADDR=192.168.1.10 NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no PEERDNS=yes TYPE=Ethernet

2 If you know your DNS server IP address(es), enter the DNS server information in the

resolv.conf file in the /etc directory. The following figure shows an example where

two DNS server IP addresses are specified.

Figure 82 Red Hat 9.0: DNS Settings in resolv.conf

nameserver 172.23.5.1 nameserver 172.23.5.2

3 After you edit and save the configuration files, you must restart the network card. Enter

./network restart in the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory. The following figure

shows an example.

Figure 83 Red Hat 9.0: Restart Ethernet Card

[root@localhost init.d]# network restart

Shutting down interface eth0: [OK] Shutting down loopback interface: [OK] Setting network parameters: [OK] Bringing up loopback interface: [OK] Bringing up interface eth0: [OK]

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Verifying Settings

Enter ifconfig in a terminal screen to check your TCP/IP properties.

Figure 84 Red Hat 9.0: Checking TCP/IP Properties

[root@localhost]# ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:BA:72:5B:44 inet addr:172.23.19.129 Bcast:172.23.19.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:717 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 RX bytes:730412 (713.2 Kb) TX bytes:1570 (1.5 Kb) Interrupt:10 Base address:0x1000 [root@localhost]#

Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

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Appendix A Setting up Your Computer’s IP Address

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APPENDIX B

Wireless LANs

Wireless LAN Topologies

This section discusses ad-hoc and infrastructure wireless LAN topologies.

Ad-hoc Wireless LAN Configuration

The simplest WLAN configuration is an independent (Ad-hoc) WLAN that connects a set of computers with wireless adapters (A, B, C). Any time two or more wireless adapters are within range of each other, they can set up an independent network, which is commonly referred to as an ad-hoc network or Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS). The following diagram shows an example of notebook computers using wireless adapters to form an ad-hoc wireless LAN.

Figure 85 Peer-to-Peer Communication in an Ad-hoc Network

BSS

A Basic Service Set (BSS) exists when all communications between wireless clients or between a wireless client and a wired network client go through one access point (AP).

Intra-BSS traffic is traffic between wireless clients in the BSS. When Intra-BSS is enabled, wireless client A and B can access the wired network and communicate with each other. When Intra-BSS is disabled, wireless client A and B can still access the wired network but cannot communicate with each other.

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Appendix B Wireless LANs

Figure 86 Basic Service Set

ESS

An Extended Service Set (ESS) consists of a series of overlapping BSSs, each containing an access point, with each access point connected together by a wired network. This wired connection between APs is called a Distribution System (DS).

This type of wireless LAN topology is called an Infrastructure WLAN. The Access Points not only provide communication with the wired network but also mediate wireless network traffic in the immediate neighborhood.

An ESSID (ESS IDentification) uniquely identifies each ESS. All access points and their associated wireless clients within the same ESS must have the same ESSID in order to communicate.

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Figure 87 Infrastructure WLAN

Appendix B Wireless LANs

Channel

A channel is the radio frequency(ies) used by wireless devices to transmit and receive data. Channels available depend on your geographical area. You may have a choice of channels (for your region) so you should use a channel different from an adjacent AP (access point) to reduce interference. Interference occurs when radio signals from different access points overlap causing interference and degrading performance.

Adjacent channels partially overlap however. To avoid interference due to overlap, your AP should be on a channel at least five channels away from a channel that an adjacent AP is using. For example, if your region has 11 channels and an adjacent AP is using channel 1, then you need to select a channel between 6 or 11.

RTS/CTS

A hidden node occurs when two stations are within range of the same access point, but are not within range of each other. The following figure illustrates a hidden node. Both stations (STA) are within range of the access point (AP) or wireless gateway, but out-of-range of each other, so they cannot "hear" each other, that is they do not know if the channel is currently being used. Therefore, they are considered hidden from each other.

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Appendix B Wireless LANs

Figure 88 RTS/CTS

When station A sends data to the AP, it might not know that the station B is already using the channel. If these two stations send data at the same time, collisions may occur when both sets of data arrive at the AP at the same time, resulting in a loss of messages for both stations.

RTS/CTS is designed to prevent collisions due to hidden nodes. An RTS/CTS defines the biggest size data frame you can send before an RTS (Request To Send)/CTS (Clear to Send) handshake is invoked.

When a data frame exceeds the RTS/CTS value you set (between 0 to 2432 bytes), the station that wants to transmit this frame must first send an RTS (Request To Send) message to the AP for permission to send it. The AP then responds with a CTS (Clear to Send) message to all other stations within its range to notify them to defer their transmission. It also reserves and confirms with the requesting station the time frame for the requested transmission.

Stations can send frames smaller than the specified RTS/CTS directly to the AP without the RTS (Request To Send)/CTS (Clear to Send) handshake.

You should only configure RTS/CTS if the possibility of hidden nodes exists on your network and the "cost" of resending large frames is more than the extra network overhead involved in the RTS (Request To Send)/CTS (Clear to Send) handshake.

If the RTS/CTS value is greater than the Fragmentation Threshold value (see next), then the RTS (Request To Send)/CTS (Clear to Send) handshake will never occur as data frames will be fragmented before they reach RTS/CTS size.

" Enabling the RTS Threshold causes redundant network overhead that could

negatively affect the throughput performance instead of providing a remedy.

Fragmentation Threshold

A Fragmentation Threshold is the maximum data fragment size (between 256 and 2432 bytes) that can be sent in the wireless network before the AP will fragment the packet into smaller data frames.

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A large Fragmentation Threshold is recommended for networks not prone to interference while you should set a smaller threshold for busy networks or networks that are prone to interference.

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If the Fragmentation Threshold value is smaller than the RTS/CTS value (see previously) you set then the RTS (Request To Send)/CTS (Clear to Send) handshake will never occur as data frames will be fragmented before they reach RTS/CTS size.

Preamble Type

Preamble is used to signal that data is coming to the receiver. Short and long refer to the length of the synchronization field in a packet.

Short preamble increases performance as less time sending preamble means more time for sending data. All IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless adapters support long preamble, but not all support short preamble.

Use long preamble if you are unsure what preamble mode other wireless devices on the network support, and to provide more reliable communications in busy wireless networks.

Use short preamble if you are sure all wireless devices on the network support it, and to provide more efficient communications.

Use the dynamic setting to automatically use short preamble when all wireless devices on the network support it, otherwise the NWD310N uses long preamble.

Appendix B Wireless LANs

" The wireless devices MUST use the same preamble mode in order to

communicate.

IEEE 802.11g Wireless LAN

IEEE 802.11g is fully compatible with the IEEE 802.11b standard. This means an IEEE

802.11b adapter can interface directly with an IEEE 802.11g access point (and vice versa) at 11 Mbps or lower depending on range. IEEE 802.11g has several intermediate rate steps between the maximum and minimum data rates. The IEEE 802.11g data rate and modulation are as follows:

Table 22 IEEE 802.11g

DATA RATE (MBPS) MODULATION

1 DBPSK (Differential Binary Phase Shift Keyed)

2 DQPSK (Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying)

5.5 / 11 CCK (Complementary Code Keying)

6/9/12/18/24/36/48/54 OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)

Wireless Security Overview

Wireless security is vital to your network to protect wireless communication between wireless clients, access points and the wired network.

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Appendix B Wireless LANs

Wireless security methods available on the NWD310N are data encryption, wireless client authentication, restricting access by device MAC address and hiding the NWD310N identity.

The following figure shows the relative effectiveness of these wireless security methods available on your NWD310N.

Table 23 Wireless Security Levels

SECURITY LEVEL

Least S e c u r e

Most Secure

SECURITY TYPE

Unique SSID (Default)

Unique SSID with Hide SSID Enabled

MAC Address Filtering

WEP Encryption

IEEE802.1x EAP with RADIUS Server Authentication

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

WPA2

" You must enable the same wireless security settings on the NWD310N and on

all wireless clients that you want to associate with it.

IEEE 802.1x

In June 2001, the IEEE 802.1x standard was designed to extend the features of IEEE 802.11 to support extended authentication as well as providing additional accounting and control features. It is supported by Windows XP and a number of network devices. Some advantages of IEEE 802.1x are:

• User based identification that allows for roaming.

• Support for RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service, RFC 2138, 2139) for centralized user profile and accounting management on a network RADIUS server.

• Support for EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol, RFC 2486) that allows additional authentication methods to be deployed with no changes to the access point or the wireless clients.

RADIUS

RADIUS is based on a client-server model that supports authentication, authorization and accounting. The access point is the client and the server is the RADIUS server. The RADIUS server handles the following tasks:

• Authentication Determines the identity of the users.

• Authorization

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Determines the network services available to authenticated users once they are connected to the network.

• Accounting Keeps track of the client’s network activity.

RADIUS is a simple package exchange in which your AP acts as a message relay between the wireless client and the network RADIUS server.

Types of RADIUS Messages

The following types of RADIUS messages are exchanged between the access point and the RADIUS server for user authentication:

• Access-Request Sent by an access point requesting authentication.

• Access-Reject Sent by a RADIUS server rejecting access.

• Access-Accept Sent by a RADIUS server allowing access.

• Access-Challenge Sent by a RADIUS server requesting more information in order to allow access. The

access point sends a proper response from the user and then sends another Access-Request message.

Appendix B Wireless LANs

The following types of RADIUS messages are exchanged between the access point and the RADIUS server for user accounting:

• Accounting-Request Sent by the access point requesting accounting.

• Accounting-Response Sent by the RADIUS server to indicate that it has started or stopped accounting.

In order to ensure network security, the access point and the RADIUS server use a shared secret key, which is a password, they both know. The key is not sent over the network. In addition to the shared key, password information exchanged is also encrypted to protect the network from unauthorized access.

Types of EAP Authentication

This section discusses some popular authentication types: EAP-MD5, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, PEAP and LEAP. Your wireless LAN device may not support all authentication types.

EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) is an authentication protocol that runs on top of the IEEE 802.1x transport mechanism in order to support multiple types of user authentication. By using EAP to interact with an EAP-compatible RADIUS server, an access point helps a wireless station and a RADIUS server perform authentication.

The type of authentication you use depends on the RADIUS server and an intermediary AP(s) that supports IEEE 802.1x. .

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