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ZoomAir Wireless LAN Owner’s Manual
Is Interference a Problem?
Interference from neighboring wireless LANs should not be a
problem. Your own network operates on a frequency “channel”
much like a cellular phone. If a close neighbor also has a wireless
LAN, there will be interference only if you operate on the same or
an adjacent channel and the range of the wireless devices overlaps.
(Interference is experienced as a slowing of network response;
neighboring LANs will not have access to each others’ files unless
they share both a channel and an SS ID—an unlikely occurrence.)
You can even establish two independent wireless LANs in the
same office—ad-hoc or infrastructure—with no noticeable degra-
dation of performance.
Microwave ovens operate in the 2.4 GHz range, but most are
sealed fairly well. Any leakage of radio energy in this range falls off
very rapidly as one moves away from the oven. Your ZoomAir
Card is designed to reject microwave interference. In the worst
case, a microwave oven may theoretically slow data transmission; in
actual tests, the effect has been found to be minimal. You would
practically have to put your computer on top of a microwave oven
for you to notice a difference in data rate.
How Do I Connect to My Wired LAN?
Your ZoomAir Wireless network can be easily connected to a
wired LAN using an Access Point. ZoomAir Access Point Soft-
ware, available separately, lets you use one of the PCs already on
your wired LAN as an Access Point. Simply install the ZoomAir
Wireless LAN Card and the Access Point Software, and the wired
and wireless members of your LAN work seamlessly together. Us-
ing a computer as an Access Point should have little, if any, notice-
able effect on the computer’s performance. The ZoomAir Access
Point Software also includes SyGate™, a program that allows one
computer on your network to share Internet access with the rest of
your LAN.
For more demanding installations, Zoom sells a dedicated hard-
ware-based Access Point, the ZoomAir AP128™. The ZoomAir
AP128 is a wireless Access Point that can also be configured as a