User's Manual

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The WMF function of the AP converts multicast traffic into unicast traffic and forwards the traffic to
the multicast traffic destination in the wireless network. This helps save wireless resources, ensure
reliable transmission, and reduce delays.
Maximum Clients
This parameter specifies the maximum number of clients that can connect to the wireless network
corresponding to an SSID. If the number is reached, the wireless network rejects new connection
requests from clients. This limit helps balance load among the SSIDs of the AP.
Security Mode
A wireless network uses radio, which is open to the public, as its data transmission medium. If the
wireless network is not protected by necessary measures, any client can connect to the network to
use the resources of the network or access unprotected data over the network. To ensure
communication security, transmission links of wireless networks must be encrypted for protection.
The AP supports various security modes for network encryption, including None, WEP, WPA-PSK,
WPA2-PSK, Mixed WPA/WPA2-PSK, WPA, and WPA2.
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None
It indicates that any wireless client can connect to the wireless network. This option is not
recommended because it affects network security.
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WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) uses a static key to encrypt all exchanged data, and ensures that a
wireless LAN has the same level of security as a wired LAN. Data encrypted based on WEP can be
easily cracked. In addition, WEP supports a maximum wireless network throughput of only 54 Mbps.
Therefore, this security mode is not recommended.
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WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, and Mixed WPA/WPA2-PSK
Mixed WPA/WPA2-PSK indicates that wireless clients can connect to a wireless network using
either WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK.
In these security modes, an AP adopts a preshared key for authentication, and generates another
key for data encryption. This prevents the vulnerability caused by static WEP keys, and makes the
security modes suitable for ensuring security of home wireless networks. Nevertheless, because the
initial pre-shared key for authentication is manually set and all clients use the same key to connect
to the same AP, the key may be disclosed unexpectedly. This makes the security modes not suitable
for scenarios where high security is required.
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WPA and WPA2
To address the key management weakness of WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK, the WiFi Alliance puts
forward WPA and WPA2, which use 802.1x to authenticate clients and generate data encryption–
oriented root keys. WPA and WPA2 use the root keys to replace the preshared keys that set
manually, but adopt the same encryption process as WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK.
WPA and WPA2 uses 802.1x to authenticate clients and the login information of a client is managed
by the client. This effectively reduce the probability of information leakage. In addition, each time a
client connects to the AP that adopts the WPA or WPA2 security mode, the RADIUS server
generates a data encryption key and assigns it to the client. This makes it difficult for attackers to
obtain the key. These features of WPA and WPA2 help significantly increase network security,
making WPA and WPA2 the preferred security modes of wireless networks that require high security.