User guide

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Chapter 7
Managing Auto-Scan Lists
An auto-scan list is an ordered list of networks that you have configured. You can
create one or more auto-scan lists and order them based on your preferences for
using them. If you connect to a network using an auto-scan list, rather than to an
individual network, OAC scans sequentially through the listed networks for the first
available network.
Using an auto-scan list means that you do not have to specify a new network
connection each time that you move from one location to another. This is a
convenient feature, especially when you move your client machine regularly to
different locations and different networks. As an example, an auto-scan list could
include your home network, your office network, and a favorite hotspot. A second
auto-scan list could contain multiple corporate and customer networks that you
visit regularly, along with the airport hotspots that you frequent when traveling
from one customer to another.
An auto-scan list contains as many networks as you like. When OAC uses an
auto-scan list, it attempts to connect to the first SSID in the list, then the next one,
and so on. OAC remembers this connection so that, if you disconnect and
reconnect, OAC selects the last auto-scan connection automatically. An exception to
this rule is that OAC goes through the auto-scan list from the beginning each time if
the SSIDs are being broadcast.
Having your office wireless network in the same auto-scan as a hotspot network
across the street might increase the likelihood of accidentally connecting to the
hotspot network. Refer to the Tools > Options > Preemptive Networks option to
help control the list of wireless networks to which you connect.
NOTE: Each of the networks in an auto-scan list must be configured in the
Networks dialog. See “Adding or Modifying Network Properties” on page 58.