System information

connector. This facilitates running your AP or client at the optimum power setting without exceeding
EIRP maximums for your area. A word of caution: setting the dbm to 0 will not provide 1mW output
power as you might expect, but will set the card to its default power setting. The default is normally
15dbm (generally between 30-35mW) for most cards. Also, not all cards are capable of running at 1W
(30 dbm). Check your cards specifications for default and maximum power. Maximum power may
depend on operating mode/frequency.
Cloaking
Cloaking is used to signify what some HAM operators might call a filter. In this case, the filter will
narrow the bandwidth used. The menu will allow you to set values of 1, 2, or 4. Divide the normal
frequency bandwidth by the number chosen. This will allow you to maximize frequency usage on a
tower in the 2.4GHz range by allowing each channel to use less bandwidth. Where before, 4 channels
in the 802.11b (2.4GHz) band could be used without overlap, now all available frequencies can be used
without significant adjacent channel interference. In the 5GHz range, this will provide you with more
non-overlapping channels. That is, at cloaking value 1, available frequencies may include 5745, 5765,
5785, etc. At cloaking value 2, values will include 5745, 5755, 5765, 5775, etc., and at cloaking value
4, this list will include 5745, 5750, 5755, 5760, 5765, etc.
When cloaking is used, your throughput at any given speed will be half or quarter the throughput (at
cloaking values of 2 or 4 respectively) with no cloaking (cloaking value 1). You can compensate by
forcing the system to only connect at higher transmit rates which will require better SNR. You may
also be able to slip between two interfering stations and get a better connection using cloaking which
may make up for its use via better throughput. The only way to know is experiment.
Antenna Select
Choose the antenna connector your antenna is connected to. In general, you'll choose antenna A, which
is usually the connector in the extreme corner of the card. Antenna B may be marked AUX (auxiliary).
Diversity is the newer spatial diversity antennas designed to improve sensitivity without increasing
power output. These antennas are recognizable from the dual connectors. Choosing Diversity will
make both antenna connectors active. A note about spacial diversity antennas: these antennas have two
connectors because inside they are two antennas. However, they are carefully impedance matched, and
the cables used to connect to these should be matched for best performance. Do not connect two
unmatched antennas to one card as performance will be degraded (and at least one antenna may output
more than the legal power).
Hide SSID
Selecting this box will tell the AP not to broadcast its ESSID. The 802.11 specification calls for the AP
to announce itself. However, private networks will often choose not to. A number of wireless network
operators mistakenly implement this as their only security. While this may help, it does not replace
proper security and authentication methods.