User's Guide

3e-531AP Wireless Access Point
Chapter 1: Introduction
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SSID
The Service Set ID (SSID) is a string used to de ne a common roam-
ing domain among multiple wireless access points. Different SSIDs on
gateways can enable overlapping wireless networks. The SSID can act as
a basic password without which the client cannot connect to the network.
However, this is easily overridden by allowing the wireless AP to broad-
cast the SSID, which means any client can associate with the AP. SSID
broadcasting can be disabled in the 3e-531AP setup menus.
AES and 3DES
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was selected by National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in October 2000 as an up-
grade from the previous DES standard. AES uses a 128-bit block cipher
algorithm and encryption technique for protecting computerized infor-
mation. It has the ability to use even larger 192-bit and 256-bit keys, if
necessary. AES is incorporated into all current and future models of 3e
Technologies International’s series of wireless APs/gateways.
3DES is also incorporated on the 3e-531AP. 3DES is modeled on the
older DES standard but encrypts data three times over. Triple-DES uses
more CPU resources than AES because of the triple encryption.
Dynamic Key Management
Addition of Security Server software (3e-030, sold separately), which
is con gured to dynamically assign secure key access, raises the secu-
rity capability to its highest level. The Security Server software operates
from a remote point on the WLAN and is accessed by pointing to its IP
Address in each of the 3e-531APs on the WLAN as part of the wireless
encryption con guration process.
Authentication
The
MAC address, short for
Media Access Control address,
is a hard-
ware address that uniquely identi es each node of a network. In IEEE 802
networks, the
Data Link Control (
DLC) layer of the
OSI Reference Model
is divided into two sub-layers: the
Logical Link Control (LLC) layer
and the
Media Access Control (MAC) layer.
The MAC layer interfaces directly with
the network media. Consequently, each type of network media requires a
unique MAC address.
Authentication is the process of proving a client identity. The 3e-
531AP gateways, if set up to use MC address  ltering, detect an attempt
to connect by a client and compare the client’s MAC address to those on
a prede ned MAC address  lter list. Only client addresses found on the
list are allowed to associate. MAC addresses are assigned and registered
to each of the wireless cards used by the portable computing devices dur-
ing initial setup and after physical installation of the gateways.