SSID default

Went to a site today where they've been having poor wireless
performance.

There are a number of reasons why they're having problems which I can
work on but one other thing I noticed is, although they've setup WEP
encryption, they have not setup their own SSID and are connecting to
"default".

They are in an area with lots of netwroks so my question is:
Is there any potential performance hit by using the "default"?

I cant think why there might be, but would appreciate any informed
comments.

TIA,

JohnK

"John F Kappler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> Went to a site today where they've been having poor wireless
> performance.
>
> There are a number of reasons why they're having problems which I can
> work on but one other thing I noticed is, although they've setup WEP
> encryption, they have not setup their own SSID and are connecting to
> "default".
>
> They are in an area with lots of netwroks so my question is:
> Is there any potential performance hit by using the "default"?
>
> I cant think why there might be, but would appreciate any informed
> comments.
>
> TIA,
>
> JohnK

Other than the fact that other random laptops might try and associate with
the AP automatically there shouldn't be any problem. Something that is more
of a problem would be being on the same channel as thoes other AP. Make sure
you are on a good clean channel with little activity.
Also don't use WEP, use WPA much more secure.

Adair

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:45:14 +0100, John F Kappler
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Went to a site today where they've been having poor wireless
>performance.
>
>There are a number of reasons why they're having problems which I can
>work on but one other thing I noticed is, although they've setup WEP
>encryption, they have not setup their own SSID and are connecting to
>"default".

1. WEP is a bad idea. It's easily cracked. I suggest WPA or WPA2
instead.

2. If they didn't change the SSID, there's probably a few other
things that need to be checked, like the router access password.

>They are in an area with lots of netwroks so my question is:
>Is there any potential performance hit by using the "default"?

No. Wireless, from the clients point of view, is a 1:1 relationship.
Under all the acronyms, the actual bridging is done by MAC address,
not by SSID. You could have the entire city use the same SSID (as in
many metro mesh networks) and there would be no performance problem.
There is a real possibility that a client might connect to the wrong
access point, or that it might roam to a neighbors system.

>I cant think why there might be, but would appreciate any informed
>comments.

Think of how the metro mesh networks are setup. They usually have all
the same SSID. Same with University systems and large corporate
WLAN's.



--
# 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

Thanks for all the replies and tips.

We're trying to move from WEP but there are still some Win98 PCs
(Yeah, I know!!) on the WLAN with old adaptors.

Cheers,

JK

John F Kappler <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Thanks for all the replies and tips.
>
>We're trying to move from WEP but there are still some Win98 PCs
>(Yeah, I know!!) on the WLAN with old adaptors.

Try the incentive plan. Setup the main access point for 802.11g at
full speed and using WPA2. Setup a 2nd access point with just WEP
using a different SSID. Get a router that supports QoS and throttle
the 2nd access point to where it just barely is usable. The Windoze
98 users will soon complain that "it's too slow" and start talking
about getting a new machine. If anyone asks why two access points,
mumble something about improving security.

Another method that I shoved down one customers throat was to use an
external wireless ethernet bridge instead of a PCMCIA card. It wasn't
that horrible as I tended to use a travel router, which was quite
small. It was clumsy, but it sucessfully delayed upgrading to a new
laptop for about 6 months.

Note that there are some USB, PCMCIA, and Card Bus wireless devices
that support WPA-PSK under Windoze 98SE. I'm too lazy to dig out some
prospective models. You can also install WPA seperately with:
<http://www.wirelesssecuritycorp.com/wsc/public/WPAAssistant.do>
but the wireless device driver must have WPA support.

--
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