WLAN principles

WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) is a radio technology that makes wireless networks and wireless internet access possible. WLAN, which is defined by the IEEE 802.11 standards family, can be configured in the following mode:

Infrastructure network

The main difference between wireless infrastructure networks and wireless ad hoc networks is that the PCs in a wireless infrastructure network can access the Internet via an access point.

Pay attention to security when setting up an infrastructure network, because a connection to the internet is a potential weak point in the network infrastructure.

Encryption

WLAN encryption is an important security setting and you must ensure that no unauthorized user can log on and use the network resources. The WLAN stick supports the WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security mechanism,

where a key that is used to encrypt the data is defined in the access point or router. This key must be entered in the clients' settings and must match the defined key.

Encryption with WEP is obsolete and can be decrypted in a short time.

Frequency range

If several WLANs are operated within a small radius, mutual interference can occur because both WLANs work in the same frequency range or the distance between the channels is too small.

This can affect the connection quality in terms of reliability and data transfer rate.

If there are persistent disturbances, select a different channel to prevent frequency sharing.