Configure Access Point

[Liora Putcha]

Thephysical setup for a wireless access point is pretty simple: You take it out of the box, put it on a shelf or on top of a bookcase near a network jack and a power outlet, plug in the power cable, and plug in the network cable.

The software configuration for an access point is a little more involved, but still not very complicated. It's usually done via a Web interface. To get to the configuration page for the access point, you need to know the access point's IP address. Then, you just type that address into the address bar of a browser from any computer on the network.

Multifunction access points usually provide DHCP and NAT services for the networks and double as the network's gateway router. As a result, they typically have a private IP address that's at the beginning of one of the Internet's private IP address ranges, such as 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1. Consult the documentation that came with the access point to find out more.

When you access the configuration page of your wireless access point on the Internet, you have the following configuration options that are related to the wireless access point functions of the device. Although these options are specific to this particular device, most access points have similar configuration options.

You can configure most multifunction access points to operate as a DHCP server. For small networks, it's common for the access point to also be the DHCP server for the entire network. In that case, you need to configure the access point's DHCP server. To enable DHCP, you select the Enable option and then specify the other configuration options to use for the DHCP server.

Larger networks that have more demanding DHCP requirements are likely to have a separate DHCP server running on another computer. In that case, you can defer to the existing server by disabling the DHCP server in the access point.

I'm trying to configure a D6300 as an AP on our wired office LAN so as to give colleagues the ability to print via wi-fi. I am assuming that once connected to the D6300 wi-fi they will be assigned an IP address from our existing DHCP pool which, in turn, will allow them to print wirelessly?

Thanks for coming back Ether, and for asking the question. It's a valid one and you're right - I managed to set-up the router in AP mode and the penny suddenly dropped that it would be possible to connect to our LAN (and be assigned a LAN IP address) if one managed to get hold of the wi-fi password - so I just configured standard wi-fi access (with WPA2 PSK-AES encryption) which assigned the default 192.168.0.x address range. Any other insights you have are much appreciated and thanks again for taking the time to come back and offer assistance.

This chapter describes how to configure basic settings on the wireless device for the first time. The contents of this chapter are similar to the instructions in the quick start guide that shipped with the wireless device. You can configure all the settings described in this chapter using the CLI, but it might be simplest to browse to the wireless device web-browser interface to complete the initial configuration and then use the CLI to enter additional settings for a more detailed configuration.

Before you install the wireless device, make sure you are using a computer connected to the same network as the wireless device, and obtain the following information from your network administrator:

If you want to reset the access point to its default settings and a static IP address, use the write erase or erase /all nvram command. If you want to erase everything including the static IP address, in addition to the above commands, use the erase and erase boot static-ipaddr static-ipmask command.

Step 6 After the access point/bridge reboots, you can reconfigure the access point by using the Web-browser interface if you previously assigned a static IP address, or the CLI if you did not.

The access point is configured with the factory default values including the IP address (set to receive an IP address using DHCP). To obtain the access point/bridge's new IP address, you can use the show interface bvi1 CLI command.

The 1300 series access point/bridge assumes a radio network role of a root access point. To configure it as a bridge, you must manually place it in install mode in order to align the antennas and establish a link. To establish the link you must have two access point/bridges configured in the install mode. In the install mode, one access point/bridge must be configured as a root bridge and the other a non-root bridge. To facilitate the configuration, an automatic option is available when the access point/bridge is in the install mode. After the wireless link is established and the bridge antennas are aligned, you take both access point/bridges out of install mode and place them on your LAN as root and non-root bridges.

Step 7 When connected, press enter or type en to access the command prompt. Pressing enter takes you to the user exec mode. entering en prompts you for a password, then takes you to the privileged exec mode. The default password is Cisco and is case-sensitive.

Step 8 When connected, press enter or type en to access the command prompt. Pressing enter takes you to the user exec mode. Entering en prompts you for a password, then takes you to the privileged exec mode. The default password is Cisco and is case-sensitive.

If you need to configure the access point/bridge locally (without connecting the access point/bridge to a wired LAN), you can connect a PC to the Ethernet port on the long-reach power injector using a Category 5 Ethernet cable. You can use a local connection to the power injector's Ethernet port much as you would use a serial port connection.

Step 1 Make sure that the PC you intend to use is configured to obtain an IP address automatically, or manually assign it an IP address within the same subnet as the access point/bridge IP address. For example, if you assigned the access point/bridge an IP address of 10.0.0.1, assign the PC an IP address of 10.0.0.20.

Step 2 With the power cable disconnected from the power injector, connect your PC to the power injector using a Category 5 Ethernet cable. You can use either a crossover cable or a straight-through cable.

Step 5 Follow the steps in the "Assigning Basic Settings" section. If you make a mistake and need to start over, follow the steps in the "Resetting the Device to Default Settings" procedure.

Note When you connect your PC to the access point/bridge or reconnect your PC to the wired LAN, you might need to release and renew the IP address on the PC. On most PCs, you can perform a release and renew by rebooting your PC or by entering ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew commands in a command prompt window. Consult your PC operating instructions for detailed instructions.

Beginning with Cisco IOS Release 12.3(8)JA, access point radios are disabled and no default SSID is assigned. This was done in order to prevent unauthorized users to access a customer's wireless network through an access point having a default SSID and no security settings. You must create an SSID before you can enable the access point radio interfaces.

Step 4 Enter the case-sensitive password Cisco and press Enter. Your page may differ depending on the access point model you are using. The Express Setup screen appears. Figure 4-1 and Figure 4-2 shows the Express Setup page for the 1100 series access points. Your pages may differ depending on the access point model you are using.

Your wireless device is now running but probably requires additional configuring to conform to your network operational and security requirements. Consult the chapters in this manual for the information you need to complete the configuration.

After you assign basic settings to the wireless device, you must configure security settings to prevent unauthorized access to your network. Because it is a radio device, the wireless device can communicate beyond the physical boundaries of your worksite.

Just as you use the Express Setup page to assign basic settings, you can use the Express Security page to create unique SSIDs and assign one of four security types to them. Figure 4-5 shows a typical Express Security page.

SSIDs that you create appear in the SSID table at the bottom of the page. You can create up to 16 SSIDs on the wireless device. On dual-radio wireless devices, the SSIDs that you create are enabled on both radio interfaces.

If you use VLANs on your wireless LAN and assign SSIDs to VLANs, you can create multiple SSIDs using any of the four security settings on the Express Security page. However, if you do not use VLANs on your wireless LAN, the security options that you can assign to SSIDs are limited because on the Express Security page encryption settings and authentication types are linked. Without VLANs, encryption settings (WEP and ciphers) apply to an interface, such as the 2.4-GHz radio, and you cannot use more than one encryption setting on an interface. For example, when you create an SSID with static WEP with VLANs disabled, you cannot create additional SSIDs with WPA authentication because they use different encryption settings. If you find that the security setting for an SSID conflicts with another SSID, you can delete one or more SSIDs to eliminate the conflict.

This option is more secure than no security. However, static WEP keys are vulnerable to attack. If you configure this setting, you should consider limiting association to the wireless device based on MAC address.

You are required to enter the IP address and shared secret for an authentication server on your network (server authentication port 1645). Because 802.1X authentication provides dynamic encryption keys, you do not need to enter a WEP key.

If radio clients are configured to authenticate using EAP-FAST, open authentication with EAP should also be configured. If you don't configure open authentication with EAP, the following GUI warning message appears:

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