User's Manual

Split your traffic
The best way to improve your multimedia wireless performance is to split your wireless traffic between your router’s bands (ranges of radio frequencies). Your router supports the 2.4
GHz band and the 5 GHz band, and handles the two bands as two separate wireless networks to manage the traffic.
The most common way to split wireless traffic is to use the 2.4 GHz band for basic Internet tasks such as web browsing, email, and downloads, and use the 5 GHz band for streaming
multimedia.
Although the 2.4 GHz band may be more crowded with wireless traffic from your neighbors, it’s fine for basic Internet traffic that is not time-sensitive such as e-mail. Even though
you are connected to your own wireless network, you are still sharing air time with nearby networks. The 5 GHz band is much less crowded than the 2.4 GHz band, so it’s ideal for
streaming multimedia. The 5 GHz band has more available channels, so it is more likely that you will have your own, interference-free channel for your wireless network.
By default, your dual-band router uses the same network name on both the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. The easiest way to segment your traffic is to rename one of your
wireless networks. With a separate, descriptive name, it will be easy to connect to the right network.
How to control access to your network
By default, setup enables industry-standard WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) security.
If you choose not to use the built-in security features of your router, you can still control access to your wireless network using MAC filtering. Every network device has a unique,
12-digit MAC (Media Access Control) address. Using MAC filtering, you can allow only known MAC addresses, and therefore known devices, onto your network. You can also
exclude specific MAC addresses, denying them access to your network.
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MAC filtering is not strong security. The best way to secure your
network is to use the router’s WPA2 security setting.
Example: Because each MAC filtering configuration is unique, this simplified example shows how to set up MAC filtering to allow only one device access to the network.
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It is easier to select
Allow
to permit only known devices than to try to
Deny (exclude) unknown devices.
To set up MAC filtering to allow one device access to your network:
Log in to Linksys Smart Wi-Fi. (See “How to connect to Linksys Smart Wi-Fi” on page 4.)
Under Router Settings, click Wireless. The Wireless page will open.