Wireless network settings
Devices on a wireless network share certain settings, such as the communication mode, a network name, and security settings. A complete set of network settings is called a wireless profile.
Wireless profile—a wireless profile is a set of network settings unique to a given wireless network. A wireless device may have wireless profiles for several wireless networks. In order to use a printer or other device, a computer must be set to the profile for the device’s wireless network. For example, a laptop that is used both at work and at home might have one profile for a wireless network at work and another profile for a wireless network at home. Printing devices, which typically do not move between work and home, do not support multiple profiles.
Communication mode—Infrastructure or ad hoc mode (see above).
Network name—a network name, or “Service Set Identifier (SSID),” identifies a particular wireless network. It is an alphanumeric, case-sensitive character string that provides basic access control to a wireless network. In order to operate on a network, a device must be set to the network's network name.
Network security
HP Deskjet 5800 and PSC 2500 series offer the latest advancements in wireless network security:
WEP—Wired Equivalent Privacy provides security by encrypting data sent over radio waves from one wireless device to another. WEP encodes data sent across the network, making it unintelligible to eavesdroppers. All devices on the network, including the printing device, must share the same WEP settings to communicate with each other.
WPA—Like WEP, WPA or Wi-Fi Protected Access (formerly known as Temporal Key Integrity Protocol or TKIP), provides security by encrypting data sent over radio waves from one wireless device to another. Unlike WEP, WPA automatically changes the encryption keys after a certain time interval (see Authentication below). This makes wireless networks less vulnerable to intrusion and provides a higher level of security. Devices must have the same WPA settings as the printer or all-in-one in order to communicate with it. Customers can use the printer or all-in-one's embedded Web server to configure it to use WPA (see the section on embedded Web servers).
Authentication—For wireless networks with authentication, devices use a shared key as a password and communicate only with devices that know the key. A device that does not know the key cannot access the network. Authentication is a function of WPA-enabled networks, and is optional for WEP-enabled networks. If authentication is not used, the network is referred to as an “Open System” and authentication is not required for devices to access the wireless network.
Wireless network installation
The following network information is needed to install a printer or all-in-one on a wireless network:
•The communication mode (for example, infrastructure)
•SSID (Service Set Identifier)
•Security settings (for example, WEP or WPA encryption)
The Setup Poster and installation software included with Deskjet 5800 and PSC 2500 series guide the user through the installation process.