ZyXEL Communications 100-NH User Manual

Chapter 6 Wireless LAN

NWA1000 Series User’s Guide

• Use  the  MAC Filter screen to specify which wireless station is allowed or denied access to the 

NWA (see 

A Basic Service Set (BSS) exists when all communications between wireless clients or between a 
wireless client and a wired network client go through one access point (AP). Intra-BSS traffic is 
traffic between wireless clients in the BSS. 

An Extended Service Set (ESS) consists of a series of overlapping BSSs, each containing an access 
point, with each access point connected together by a wired network. This wired connection 
between APs is called a Distribution System (DS).

The NWA can run in four operating modes as follows:

• Root AP. The NWA is a wireless access point that allows wireless communication to other 

devices in the network.

• Repeater. The NWA acts as a wireless repeater and increase a root AP’s wireless coverage 

area. 

• Client. The NWA acts as a wireless client to access a wireless network.
• MBSSID. The Multiple Basic Service Set Identifier (MBSSID) mode allows you to use one 

access point to provide several BSSs simultaneously.

Refer to 

 for illustrations of these wireless applications.

The SSID (Service Set IDentifier) is the name that identifies the Service Set with which a wireless 
station is associated. Wireless stations associating to the access point (AP) must have the same 
SSID. In other words, it is the name of the wireless network that clients use to connect to it.

Normally, the NWA acts like a beacon and regularly broadcasts the SSID in the area. You can hide 
the SSID instead, in which case the NWA does not broadcast the SSID. In addition, you should 
change the default SSID to something that is difficult to guess.

This type of security is fairly weak, however, because there are ways for unauthorized wireless 
devices to get the SSID. In addition, unauthorized wireless devices can still see the information that 
is sent in the wireless network.