AirLive WL-5450AP - Manual (Page 21)

AirLive WL-5450AP User’s Manual
19
Authentication Type
To provide a certain level of security, the IEEE 802.11 standard has defined
two types of authentication methods, Open System and Shared Key. With
Open System authentication, a wireless PC can join any network and receive
any messages that are not encrypted. With Shared Key authentication, only
those PCs that possess the correct authentication key can join the network. By
default, IEEE 802.11 wireless devices operate in an Open System network.
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) data encryption is used when the wireless
devices are configured to operate in Shared Key authentication mode.
If the Access Point is using Open System, then the wireless adapter will need
to be set to the same authentication mode.
Shared Key is used when both the sender and the recipient share a secret
key.
Select Auto for the network adapter to select the Authentication mode
automatically depending on the Access Point Authentication mode.
Fragment Threshold Fragmentation mechanism is used for improving the efficiency when high
traffic flows along in the wireless network. If your 802.11g Wireless LAN PC
Card often transmit large files in wireless network, you can enter new
Fragment Threshold value to split the packet. The value can be set from
256 to 2346. The default value is 2346.
RTS Threshold RTS Threshold is a mechanism implemented to prevent the “Hidden Node”
problem. “Hidden Node” is a situation in which two stations are within range of
the same Access Point, but are not within range of each other. Therefore, they
are hidden nodes for each other. When a station starts data transmission with
the Access Point, it might not notice that the other station is already using the
wireless medium. When these two stations send data at the same time, they
might collide when arriving simultaneously at the Access Point. The collision
will most certainly result in a loss of messages for both stations.
Thus, the RTS Threshold mechanism provides a solution to prevent data
collisions. When you enable RTS Threshold on a suspect “hidden station”,
this station and its Access Point will use a Request to Send (RTS). The station
will send an RTS to the Access Point, informing that it is going to transmit the
data. Upon receipt, the Access Point will respond with a CTS message to all
station within its range to notify all other stations to defer transmission. It will
also confirm the requestor station that the Access Point has reserved it for the
time-frame of the requested transmission.
If the “Hidden Node” problem is an issue, please specify the packet size. The