ZyXEL Communications NWA1100-N User Manual

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Chapter 1 Introducing the NWA
NWA1100-N User’s Guide
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1.2.1  Access Point 
The NWA is an ideal access solution for wireless Internet connection. A typical Internet access 
application for your NWA is shown as follows. Stations A, B and C can access the wired network 
through the NWAs.
Figure 1   
Access Point Application
1.2.2  Bridge / Repeater
The NWA can act as a wireless network bridge and establish wireless links with other APs. In the 
figure below, the two NWAs (A and B) are connected to independent wired networks and have a 
bridge connection (A can communicate with B) at the same time. A NWA in repeater mode (C in 
Figure 3) has no Ethernet connection. When the NWA is in bridge mode, you should enable 
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) to prevent bridge loops.
When the NWA is in Bridge / Repeater mode, security between APs (the Wireless Distribution 
System or WDS) is independent of the security between the wireless stations and the AP. If you do 
not enable WDS security, traffic between APs is not encrypted. When WDS security is enabled, both 
APs must use the same pre-shared key. See 
Once the security settings of peer sides match one another, the connection between devices is 
made.