Question on Airlink AR430 Wireless Router

I just got one of these. Set up easily, works fine, and provides more
signal strength than my old Belkin. But here's the question:

On one end there is a small, square, translucent plastic button. When
pressed, a blue LED inside the box illuminates the button. There is no
mention in the user manual of this button.

What does it so? (Note: I am not talking about the recessed "reset"
button on the rear of the box).

thx

Isaac

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:20:40 -0700, isw <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I just got one of these. Set up easily, works fine, and provides more
>signal strength than my old Belkin.

Is this the one?
<http://www.airlink101.com/products/ar430w.php>

>On one end there is a small, square, translucent plastic button. When
>pressed, a blue LED inside the box illuminates the button. There is no
>mention in the user manual of this button.
>
>What does it so? (Note: I am not talking about the recessed "reset"
>button on the rear of the box).

The user manual is at:
<http://www.airlink101.com/download/ar430w.php>
Hmmmm.... no mention in the manual or quick install guide.

My guess(tm) is that it's part of some kind of SES (Secure Easy Setup)
or AOSS wireless client setup feature. However, there's no way to
tell from the Airlink docs.





--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

isw wrote:
> I just got one of these. Set up easily, works fine, and provides more
> signal strength than my old Belkin. But here's the question:
>
> On one end there is a small, square, translucent plastic button. When
> pressed, a blue LED inside the box illuminates the button. There is no
> mention in the user manual of this button.
>
> What does it so? (Note: I am not talking about the recessed "reset"
> button on the rear of the box).
>
> thx
>
> Isaac
As Jeff says it will be an "easy" wireless security set up system
button. Later Airlink models use WPS( WiFi Protected Setup) so if it is
the same system on your router you may get more information on how to
use it from one of the more modern router manuals.
<http://www.airlink101.com/products/ar670w.php>

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
LR <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> isw wrote:
> > I just got one of these. Set up easily, works fine, and provides more
> > signal strength than my old Belkin. But here's the question:
> >
> > On one end there is a small, square, translucent plastic button. When
> > pressed, a blue LED inside the box illuminates the button. There is no
> > mention in the user manual of this button.
> >
> > What does it so? (Note: I am not talking about the recessed "reset"
> > button on the rear of the box).
> >
> > thx
> >
> > Isaac
> As Jeff says it will be an "easy" wireless security set up system
> button. Later Airlink models use WPS( WiFi Protected Setup) so if it is
> the same system on your router you may get more information on how to
> use it from one of the more modern router manuals.
> <http://www.airlink101.com/products/ar670w.php>

Ah. Thanks.

I already have the security stuff running, so I guess I don't have much
use for it. Still, I always like to know what all the buttons do...

Isaac

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:29:22 -0700, isw <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I already have the security stuff running, so I guess I don't have much
>use for it. Still, I always like to know what all the buttons do...

Beware of unlabeled buttons. There's always someone that just has to
press the button to see what it does.

In kollege, I did a psychology experiment on exactly that. I placed a
doorbell-like button outside an office in the engineering building.
The wires went to home made counter (Veeder-Root counter with a 10
second timer). The 10 second timer prevented repeated pressings from
counting as more than one button pressing.

For 5 days, the button was there without any label. It was pushed
about 150 times, presumably by 150 different individuals. Two weeks
later, the button reappeared, outside a different office, this time
with an engraved sign displaying "Buzzer". There was no buzzer. In 5
days, only 25 button pressings were recorded.

My paper concluded that curiosity motivated 6 times as many people to
press the button. I also concluded that there were at least 25 people
that either can't read, or don't believe what they just read.

Put a label on the button and your friends and visitors will be less
tempted to press it.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:58:18 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In kollege, I did a psychology experiment on exactly that. I placed a
>doorbell-like button outside an office in the engineering building.
>The wires went to home made counter (Veeder-Root counter with a 10
>second timer). The 10 second timer prevented repeated pressings from
>counting as more than one button pressing.
>
>For 5 days, the button was there without any label. It was pushed
>about 150 times, presumably by 150 different individuals. Two weeks
>later, the button reappeared, outside a different office, this time
>with an engraved sign displaying "Buzzer". There was no buzzer. In 5
>days, only 25 button pressings were recorded.

Is it possible people thought it was a doorbell for the engineering
building for after hours or something?
--
To reply via e-mail, remove The Obvious from my e-mail address.

On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:38:15 -0700, Evan Platt
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:58:18 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>>In kollege, I did a psychology experiment on exactly that. I placed a
>>doorbell-like button outside an office in the engineering building.
>>The wires went to home made counter (Veeder-Root counter with a 10
>>second timer). The 10 second timer prevented repeated pressings from
>>counting as more than one button pressing.
>>
>>For 5 days, the button was there without any label. It was pushed
>>about 150 times, presumably by 150 different individuals. Two weeks
>>later, the button reappeared, outside a different office, this time
>>with an engraved sign displaying "Buzzer". There was no buzzer. In 5
>>days, only 25 button pressings were recorded.

>Is it possible people thought it was a doorbell for the engineering
>building for after hours or something?

Nope. It was located directly outside the instructors office door, on
a wall that was adjacent to one of the larger lab rooms. There was no
way to mistake it for a doorbell to either the office or the lab as it
was roughly half way in between the two doors. It was also at eye
level, which is rather an unusual elevation for a doorbell button. The
idea was to position it in a manner offering no clue as to its purpose
or function.

I suspect I would have obtained similar results if I had placed the
doorbell button on the ceiling, with a broom and chair located nearby
to make it easy to poke.

Incidentally, somewhat later, I found myself engaged in the design of
one of the first microprocessor based marine radios. We were limited
to 16 buttons on the front panel. The mechanical designer came from
telecom, where all the label are traditionally tiny, abbreviated,
incomprehensible, and/or absent. The front panel was all of those.
While doing booth duty at the annual Cow Palace boat show, I noticed
that a substantial number of visitors were having a difficult time
operating the radio, and were poking at buttons almost randomly to see
what the display would do. The front panel labels were subsequently
enlarge, de-obfuscated, and generally made readable. The next year,
the amount of random button pushing was dramatically decreased.




--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558