WLAN Management

Access Point Firmware Upgrade

WiFi Manager enables IT teams to configure thousands of access points at one click. Wireless LAN administrators can choose any of the configuration templates available in WiFi Manager; fill appropriate values and push configurations to select access points simultaneously. For ease of use WLAN administrators can group access points, based on vendor/model/firmware/channel etc., and push configurations to select group. WLAN administrators can also import configurations from an existing access point. WiFi Manager configuration management capabilities include:

• AP express (basic) configuration
• AP radio configuration
• AP ACL configuration
• AP security configuration
• AP services configuration

AP express configuration

Express configuration includes the minimum basic configurations that are required to make an AP live. Parameters that can be configured using the basic configuration template include:

• SSID – service set identifier for the access point
• Allow broadcast SSID – enable/disable AP to broadcast the SSID
• Allow auto channel select –enable/disable AP to auto select the channel
• Channel – specify the channel at which the AP operates (applicable only if allow autochannel select is NO)
• Name – name of the access point
• System Location – sysLocation value of the accesspoinOt
• System Contact – sysContact value of the access point
• Use DHCP – enable/disable DHCP mode in AP
• LAN IP –IP address of the AP (applicable only if Use DHCP is NO)
• Subnet Mask – mask value
• Gateway IP – IP address of the gateway
• DNS server IP – IP address of the DNS server

Radio configuration

Depending on whether the AP is 802.11a or b/g the radio configurations will vary. WiFi Manager provides separate radio configuration templates for each of the modes. Parameters that can be configured using the radio configuration template include:

• Enable radio
• Allow auto channel select
• Radio channel
• SSID
• Allow broadcast SSID
• Radio preamble
• Data rate
• Fragmentation Threshold Enable Disable
• Fragmentation Threshold Value
• RTS Threshold Enable Disable
• RTS Threshold Value
• Max RTS/CTS Retries
• Max Data Retries
• Beacon Period
• Data Beacon Rate
• Receive Antenna Left Right Diversity
• Transmit Antenna

Access control configuration

WLAN administrators can deny or allow network access to wireless clients by configuring the ACL settings in the access points. Using WiFi Manager, the following two types of configurations can be set in ACL.

• Block – prevents access to specified MAC addresses and allows others
• Pass through – allows only the specified MAC addresses and blocks others

Security configuration

WiFi Manager helps administrators to configure SSIDs for various security modes including:

• WEP – Encrypts data. You have to provide WEP keys
• 802.1x – Enables user authentication. You need atleast one RADIUS server
• WPA – 802.1x + TKIP + dynamic key distributionWPA PSK – Uses pre-shared key instead of RADIUS
• Mixed mode – Allows both WPA as well as non-WPA clients

Services configuration

Management services such as SNMP, HTTP, Telnet, and NTP running in access points can be configured using WiFi Manager. Parameters that can be configured include:

• SNMP: Enable/Disable, Read/Read-Write Community, Trap Destination/ Community, Enable Trap Notifications
• HTTP: Enable/Disable, HTTP Port
• Telnet: Enable/Disable, Telnet Port
• NTP: Enable/Disable, NTP Server Address

WLAN Management

Access Point Firmware Upgrade