3Com WL-455 - Manuals

4 1 I NTRODUCTION The 3Com® Wireless LAN Access Point 7250 supports 802.11g and 802.11b wireless users. With their flexibility and unfettered access, wireless LANs are changing the way people work. Now with 3Com’s enterprise-class wireless access points, you can build a cost-effective, reliable, sec...

5 P ERFORMANCE AND R ELIABILITY 3Com wireless access point performance features ensure reliable and seamless connections for users wherever they roam. Automatic channel selection automatically finds the least loaded channel for interference-free communication. Auto network connect and dynamic rate s...

6 • Implementing a complete wireless LAN solution, including bridges, gateways, access points and clients; Wi-Fi certification guarantees compatibility among vendors. • Providing access to hot spots in public spaces, such as coffee shops or university cafeterias. N ETWORK C ONFIGURATION AND P LANNIN...

8 T ERMINOLOGY Access Point —An internetworking device that seamlessly connects wired and wireless networks. Ad Hoc —An ad hoc wireless LAN is a group of computers, each with LAN adapters, connected as an independent wireless LAN. Backbone —The core infrastructure of a network. The portion of the ne...

10 2 I NSTALLING THE A CCESS P OINT This equipment must be installed in compliance with local and national building codes, regulatory restrictions, and FCC rules. For the safety of people and equipment, this product must be installed by a professional technician/installer. I NSTALLATION R EQUIREMENT...

12 D ECIDING W HERE TO P LACE E QUIPMENT AND P ERFORMING A S ITE S URVEY The access point is ideally designed for vertical installation on a wall surface, but can also be flat-surface mounted in an elevated location where it will not be disturbed. Ceiling installation is not recommended. Whether you...

13 For optimal performance, ensure the access point operates in temperature ranges between 0° C to 40° C (32° F to 104° F). When used with external antennas, the access point operating temperature range must be 15° C to 40° C (59° F to 104° F). B EFORE Y OU B EGIN Record the access point MAC address...

14 C ONNECTING THE S TANDARD A NTENNAS The Access Point 7250 is supplied with standard detachable antennas. These should be attached before the access point is installed. If using alternate antennas, see “Selecting and Connecting a Different Antenna Model” on page 20. 1 Carefully unpack the standard...

15 There are three ways to supply power to the access point: • Use the AC adapter included with the Access Point 7250 • Use a 3Com Integrated Power-over-Ethernet power supply. In this case, you need to supply a second Ethernet cable to connect to the wired LAN. • Connect the access point directly to...

17 U SING A P OWER -O VER -E THERNET LAN P ORT If your LAN equipment complies with the IEEE 802.3af power-over-Ethernet standard, you can connect the access point directly to a LAN port. For example, the illustration above right shows a connection through a 3Com Ethernet Power Supply to a 3Com Super...

18 M OUNTING ON A W ALL The access point comes equipped with all the necessary hardware for mounting on a wall, including a mounting plate. For a secure installation, the mounting plate should be placed perpendicular to the floor, with the arrow pointed up, as indicated on the mounting plate, with t...

19 Alternatively, you can simply attach the Ethernet cable to the side of the unit, allowing it to trail along the wall. • If you have routed the Ethernet cable through the center opening, secure the cable on the hook located on the mounting plate as shown in the illustration below. 2 Connect the Et...

20 S ELECTING AND C ONNECTING A D IFFERENT A NTENNA M ODEL The standard detachable antennas supplied with the Access Point 7250 are suitable for a broad variety of environments. If you require a different type of antenna for the Access Point 7250, several options are available by model number from t...

23 I NSTALLING S OFTWARE U TILITIES The installation CD includes documentation and software utilities to help you set up and administer the wireless components of your network. To view product documentation, select View the Documentation from the CD Startup Menu and then select the item you wish to ...

24 3 S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION The access point can be configured using a Web browser that has Java support (Internet Explorer 5.0 or newer). Using the Web management interface, you can configure the access point and view statistics to monitor network activity. The 3Com Wireless Infrastructure Device M...

25 exclamation points (!). You can refresh this display by clicking Refresh . You should refresh the display, for example, after you change a device IP address. 2 In the Wireless Network Tree, select the device you want to configure.If more than one wireless LAN device appears in the tree and you ar...

26 U SING THE P RE -IP C ONFIGURATION W IZARD You can only configure devices that are on the same subnet as your computer. To configure a device on a different subnet, you must first assign it an IP address on the same subnet as your computer. After you launch the configuration, you can change setti...

28 A DVANCED S ETUP The Advanced Setup pages allow you to configure features that are not available in the basic setup. On the Home page, click Advanced Setup to open the Advanced Setup menu. After making selections and entering data on each page, click Apply to save the changes. The following secti...

29 example, www.3Com.com). Your internet service provider should provide the IP address of one or more domain name servers. Enter those addresses in Primary DNS Address and Secondary DNS Address fields. S ECURE W EB S ERVER C ONNECTION This option controls whether Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technolog...

30 See below for recommended steps in configuring RADIUS Authentication. In the RADIUS Authentication section, enter the required parameters for a primary and secondary RADIUS authentication server. In the RADIUS Accounting section, click the Enable radio button, then enter required parameters for a...

32 • Access Point 802.1x Authentication to Network —802.1x can also be enabled on the ethernet port of the switch that the access point’s ethernet cable is plugged into. Having 802.1x enabled on the switch prevents any device that is not able to successfully authenticate from being able to use the e...

33 F ILTER C ONTROL The Filter Control page allows you to control client communication within the wireless network. You may enable one or more types of supported filtering; however, some filter choices may supersede others. Configure the options as described below. When you are finished, click Apply...

34 Tunnel_Private_group_ID (81) = VLAN ID specified in Hexadecimal format. VLAN Switch ports must be tagged ports that match the VLAN ID on the Access Point. Associated client VLAN IDs will appear in the Syslog file in ASCII Decimal format. When VLAN filtering is enabled, the access point queries th...

35 client-to-client communications between clients associated with different AP’s on the local subnet. For instance an airport may have several AP’s to service several "hot spots" within the airport. However the client-to-client blocking feature of the AP will only block communications to ot...

36 first be enabled and the Network Management Station must submit a valid community string for authentication. Select SNMP Enable and enter data into the fields as described below. When you are finished, click Apply. • Location —Specifies the access point location. • Contact —Sets the system locati...

37 you save access point settings in an external file or copy them from an external file to the access point. You can save an entire configuration for use as a backup to a single access point, or you can save a basic configuration, which can then be used in common by several access points in a netwo...

38 • Alert: action must be taken immediately • Critical: critical conditions • Error: error conditions • Warning: warning conditions • Notice: normal but significant condition • Informational: informational messages • Debug: debug-level messages To set up a server for event logs : Select System Log ...

39 R ADIO I NTERFACE The access point radio interface detects the number of radios installed and their type (802.11g Radio or 802.11b Radio). The Radio Settings and Security options for the radio interface are described in the following sections. R ADIO S ETTINGS When you are finished configuring it...

40 • Fragment Length (256-2346) —The Fragment Length can be set between 256 and 2,346. If the packet size is smaller than the preset fragment size, the packet will not be segmented. Fragmentation of the PDUs (Package Data Unit) can increase the reliability of transmissions because it increases the p...

41 S ECURITY The Security page allows you to set up lower-layer client authentication and data encryption parameters as described below. When you are finished configuring items on this page, click Apply. C ONFIGURING A UTHENTICATION Three types of authentication can be configured: • Open System (the...

42 C ONFIGURING E NCRYPTION There are two types of data encryption available: • WPA—Wi-Fi Protected Access. • WEP—Wired Equivalent Privacy. The access point and the wireless devices must have the same encryption settings to communicate. You can choose to allow only clients using WPA encryption, or y...

43 WPA Note: The WPA key management must match the settings on the Authentication Page. When using 802.1x, the access point uses session keys provided during the 802.1x EAP key exchange as the “seed key” for WPA. This is more secure than PSK, since each client starts with a unique session key for al...

45 d Cipher Mode is set to WEP. e WEP Configuration has at least one valid WEP key. f Click on Apply . 11 The Access Point is now configured for RADIUS Authentication. H OW TO SETUP THE ACCESS POINT FOR WPA WITH 802.1 X S ESSION KEYS 1 Using the Wireless Infrastructure Device Manger access the confi...

47 WPA C ONFIGURATION FOR W INDOWS XP The following table shows how to configure the access point to support the various authentication and encryption options available for Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration. The following notes apply to configuring the access point for WPA under Windows XP: • A...

49 4 T ROUBLESHOOTING If you have difficulty with the 3Com Wireless LAN access point, first check the following items in the configuration: • Radio Settings page: Ensure that the SSID is the same on clients and the access point. • Security page: Ensure that Encryption is the same on clients and the ...

52 A T ECHNICAL S UPPORT O BTAINING S UPPORT FOR YOUR P RODUCT R EGISTER Y OUR P RODUCT TO G AIN S ERVICE B ENEFITS To take advantage of warranty and other service benefits, you must first register your product at http://eSupport.3com.com/ . 3Com eSupport services are based on accounts that you crea...

53 A CCESS S OFTWARE D OWNLOADS Software Updates are the bug fix / maintenance releases for the version of software initially purchased with the product. In order to access these Software Updates you must first register your product on the 3Com web site at http://eSupport.3com.com/ First time users ...

54 Country Telephone Number Country Telephone Number Asia, Pacific Rim Telephone Technical Support and Repair Australia Hong Kong India Indonesia Japan Malaysia New Zealand Pakistan 1 800 678 515 800 933 486 +61 2 9424 5179 or 000800 650 1111 001 803 61009 00531 616 439 or 03 5977 7991 1800 801 777 ...

55 Latin America: Telephone Technical Support and Repair. You can obtain support in this region using the following URLs: Latin America. Spanish speakers, enter the URL: http://lat.3com.com/lat/support/form.html Portuguese speakers, enter the URL: http://lat.3com.com/br/support/form.html English spe...

R EGULATORY C OMPLIANCE I NFORMATION 3Com Wireless LAN Access Point 7250 (Model WL-455) FCC Radio-Frequency Exposure Notice This device generates and radiates radio-frequency energy. In order to comply with FCC radio-frequency radiation exposure guidelines for an uncontrolled environment, this equip...

To prevent radio interference to the licensed service, this device is intended to be operated indoors and away from windows to provide maximum shielding. Equipment (or its transmit antenna) that is installed outdoors is subject to licensing.The installer of this radio equipment must ensure that the ...

Safety Compliance Notice This device has been tested and certified according to the following safety standards and is intended for use only in Information Technology Equipment which has been tested and certified to these or other equivalent standards:• UL Standard 60950, 3rd Edition / CSA C22.2 No. ...

Numbers 3Com 3CDaemon Server Tool - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -223Com Network Supervisor - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -223Com Passphrase encryption - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -433Com Wireless Infrastructure Device Manager ...

Dynamic Security Link 128-Bit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -40 E encryption 3Com Passphrase - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -43configuring - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -41shared key - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ...