Cisco Systems WRT54G manual The Wireless Tab - Advanced Wireless Settings

Wireless-G Broadband Router

The Wireless Tab - Advanced Wireless Settings

This tab is used to set up the Router’s advanced wireless functions. These settings should only be adjusted by an expert administrator as incorrect settings can reduce wireless performance.

Authentication Type. The default is set to Auto, which allows either Open System or Shared Key authentication to be used. With Open System authentication, the sender and the recipient do NOT use a WEP key for authentication. With Shared Key authentication, the sender and recipient use a WEP key for authentication.

Basic Rate. The Basic Rate setting is not actually one rate of transmission but a series of rates, advertising to the other wireless points in your network at what rates the Router can transmit. At the default setting, the Router will advertise that it will Automatically select the best rate for transmission. Other options of rates to advertise are 1-2Mbps, for use with older wireless technology, and All, when you wish to make all rates advertised. The Basic Rate is not the rate transmitted; that is the Transmission Rate.

Figure 6-18: Wireless Tab - Advanced Wireless Settings

Transmission Rate. The rate of data transmission should be set depending on the speed of your wireless network. You can select from a range of transmission speeds, or you can select Auto to have the Router automatically use the fastest possible data rate and enable the Auto-Fallback feature. Auto-Fallback will negotiate the best possible connection speed between the Router and a wireless client. The default value is Auto.

CTS Protection Mode. This should remain disabled unless having severe problems with your Wireless-G products not being able to transmit to the Router. This function boosts the Router’s ability to catch all 802.11b and Wireless-G transmissions but will severely decrease performance.

Frame Burst. Enabling this option should provide your network with greater performance, varying upon the manufacturer of your wireless products.

Beacon Interval. The default value is 100. Enter a value between 1 and 65,535 milliseconds. The Beacon Interval value indicates the frequency interval of the beacon. A beacon is a packet broadcast by the Router to synchronize the wireless network.

DTIM Interval. This value, between 1 and 16384, indicates the interval of the Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM). A DTIM field is a countdown field informing clients of the next window for listening to broadcast and multicast messages. When the Router has buffered broadcast or multicast messages for associated clients, it sends the next DTIM with a DTIM Interval value. Its clients hear the beacons and awaken to receive the broadcast and multicast messages. The default value is 1.

Chapter 6: Configuring the Wireless-G Broadband Router 24

The Wireless Tab - Advanced Wireless Settings