RUT900 Wireless

The information in this page is updated in accordance with firmware version RUT9XX_R_00.06.09.5.

Summary

The Wireless page is used to configure and manage WiFi Access Points (AP) and WiFi Stations (STA). RUT900 devices support 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n and 802.11e_WMM wireless technologies.

This user manual page provides an overview of the Wireless page in RUT900 devices.

Wireless Access Points

The Wireless Access Points section displays existing WiFi access point (AP) configurations. By default there is one active WiFi AP.

Its SSID consists of a combination of the device's name and the last 4 symbols of the WiFi MAC address (for example, RUT900_ABCD). which is enabled by default. The default password is unique to each device and can be found on the bottom engraving:

You can create more WiFi APs from this section with the 'Add' button or you can make modifications to the existing AP by clicking the 'Edit' button next to it:

After clicking 'Edit' you will be redirected to the configuration page of the wireless AP.

Device Configuration

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The Device Configuration section is used to configure hardware related parameters of the WiFi radio.

General Setup

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The General Setup section is used to turn an Access Point on or off and to select the wireless channel used by the WiFi radio.

In some cases choosing a WiFi channel manually can improve overall WiFi performance. You can download a free WiFi analyzer app on your phone, laptop or other WiFi device and scan the surrounding WiFi networks to see which channels are most and least populated. Choose a WiFi channel that overlaps with the lowest number of other channels. Choosing WiFi channels that are far apart from each other may also prove to increase performance when using more than one AP on the device.

Alternatively, leave channel selection set as 'Auto'. This way your device will pick the WiFi channel automatically.

Advanced Settings

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The Advanced Settings section is used to configure the hardware operating settings of the WiFi radio. The settings available in this section are mostly used to find the best WiFi performance conditions.

Field	Value	Description
Mode	Auto | 802.11b | 802.11g | 802.11g+n; default: 802.11g+n	Selects the wireless protocol. Different modes provide different wireless standard support which directly impacts the radio's throughput performance.
HT mode	20MHz | 40MHz 2nd channel below | 40MHz 2nd channel above; default: 20MHz	HT (High Throughput) mode specifies WiFi channel bandwidth. 40 MHz bandwidth provides better performance but it overlaps with 4 adjacent channels on each side. Therefore, it might overlap with many other Access Points operating at similar frequencies. If that is the case, the router will switch back to 20 MHz mode automatically to reduce interference. 40 MHz is only available when the WiFi Channel is selected manually in the General Setup section.
Country code	country code; default: 00 - World	SO/IEC 3166 alpha2 country codes as defined in the ISO 3166-1 standard.
Transmit power	100 % | 80 % | 60 % | 40 % | 20 %; default: 100 %	WiFi signal power. Use lower power to reduce the device's CPU usage, but lower wireless performance.
Fragmentation threshold	integer [256..2346]; default: none	The smallest packet size that can be fragmented and transmitted in multiple frames. In areas were interference is a problem, setting a lower fragment threshold might help reduce the probability of unsuccessful packet transfers, thus increasing speed.
RTS/CTS threshold	integer [0..2347]; default: none	RTS/CTS (Request to Send/Clear to Send) are mechanisms used to reduce frame collisions introduced by the hidden node problem. It can help resolve issues arising when several access points are in the same area, contending.

Interface Configuration

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The Interface Configuration section is used to configuring software related parameters of the WiFi AP.

General Setup

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The General Setup section is used to set SSID related settings. An SSID is the name of a WiFi AP. When other WiFi capable computers or devices scan the area for WiFi networks they will see your network with this name.

The 'Hide SSID' option is used to make your Access Point invisible to other devices. To use a hidden WiFi Access Point, first un-hide it, connect your device to it, then hide it again.

Wireless Security

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The Wireless Security section is used to set the authentication settings for the WiFi AP.

Field	Value	Description
Encryption	No encryption | WPA-PSK | WPA2-PSK | WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK mixed mode | WPA-EAP* | WPA2-EAP*; default: WPA2-PSK	The type of WiFi encryption used. PSK uses a pre-shared key for authentication while EAP uses a RADIUS server.
Cipher	Auto | Force CCMP (AES) | Force TKIP | Force TKIP and CCMP (AES); default: Force TKIP and CCMP (AES)	Selects an algorithm for performing encryption and decryption.
Key	string; default: none	Pre-shared key, a custom passphrase used for user authentication (at least 8 characters long).

* The "EAP" (Extensible Authentication Protocol) are for using a RADIUS server for authentication instead of a pre-shared key. The configuration layout for these selections is distinct from PSK.

Field	Value	Description
Encryption	No encryption | WPA-PSK | WPA2-PSK | WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK mixed mode | WPA-EAP* | WPA2-EAP*; default: WPA2-PSK	The type of WiFi encryption used. PSK uses a pre-shared key for authentication while EAP uses a RADIUS server.
Cipher	Auto | Force CCMP (AES) | Force TKIP | Force TKIP and CCMP (AES); default: Force TKIP and CCMP (AES)	Selects an algorithm for performing encryption and decryption.
Radius Server IP	host | ip; default: none	RADIUS server's IP address or hostname.
Radius Server Port	integer [0..65535]; default: none	The port number used for connection to the RADIUS server.
Radius Server Secret	string; default: none	A case-sensitive shared secret used for authentication on both RADIUS devices.

MAC Filter

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The MAC Filter section is used for setting up rules that allow or exclude listed devices (based on MAC address) from connecting to your WiFi network.

Field	Value	Description
MAC address filter	Disable | Allow listed only | Allow all except listed; default: Disable	Defines how MAC filtering is done. Disable - allows all devices to connect to the WiFi network. Allow listed only - allows devices with MAC addresses specified in the MAC list to connect to the WiFi network. Allow all except listed - blocks devices with MAC addresses specified in the MAC list from connecting to your WiFi network.
MAC	mac; default: none	List of MAC addresses to be included or excluded from connecting to your WiFi network.

Advanced Settings

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The Advanced Settings section can be used to set the following parameters:

Field	Value	Description
Separate clients	yes | no; default: no	Prevents WiFi clients from communicating with each other on the WiFi network.
Increase TTL packet size	yes | no; default: no	Increases TTL packet size for incoming packets.

Wireless Station

The RUT900 device can also operate as a WiFi Station (client) to obtain an Internet connection from another WiFi AP.

In order to configure the device as a Wireless Station, go to the Network → WAN page and set WiFi to either Main WAN or WAN Failover. Then click the 'Scan' button to initiate a scan for available nearby WiFi access points.

The scan should take up to 10 seconds and display a list of available WiFi access points at the end of the process. Pick an access point to connect to and click 'Join Network'.

If the selected access point is secured, enter the password (WPA passphrase) in the next window and click 'Save' to finish the process.

The newly connected access points should be displayed in the Network → Wireless page.

Multiple Access Points

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You can also configure access to multiple wireless access points from one page. To enter multiple access point configuration, click the 'Configure' button next to Wireless Station Mode.

After this you should be redirected to a page that looks like this:

Field	Value	Description
Enable	yes | no; default: no	Turns multiple access point configuration on or off.
Scan Time (sec)	integer (30+); default: 60	Frequency (in seconds) of scans for WiFi access point availability.
Blocking Time (min)	integer (1+); default: 10	The amount time (in minutes) after which the device will no longer attempt to connect to an access point after the number of unsuccessful retries is exceeded.
AP list	- (interactive button)	Uploads a list of access point configurations.

You can either configure multiple access points from this page of the WebUI or you can upload a file with a list of access point configurations. The file should contains WIFi access point configuration options and values, which should be defined as option: value (for example, ssid: home_wifi). The SSID is mandatory, while other optional options are:

Field	Value	Description
Enable	1 | 0	State of an access point configuration. 1 - enabled 0 - disabled
SSID	string	SSID of an access point.
Encryption	none | psk | psk2 | psk-mixed	The type of WiFi encryption used by an access point.
Cipher	auto | ccmp | tkip | ccmp+tkip	Algorithm for performing encryption and decryption.
Key	string	Pre-shared key, a custom passphrase used for user authentication (at least 8 characters long).
Retry	integer [1..10]	Defines the number of times this device will attempt to connect to an access point before moving to another configuration in the list.

Option names in the file should be provided in lower case letters. AP list file example:

ssid: RUT_1
enable: 1
encryption: psk2
cipher: tkip+ccmp
key: 12345678
retry: 3
ssid: RUT_2
enable: 1
encryption: psk2
cipher: tkip+ccmp
key: 12345678
retry: 3
ssid: RUT_3
enable: 1
encryption: psk2
cipher: tkip+ccmp
key: 12345678
retry: 3

Once uploaded, the contents of the file should become visible in the Access Points list: