Wireless Channel Selection - NETGEAR MA401 Reference Manual

Reference Guide for the Model MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card
The 128-bit WEP data encryption method consists of 104 user-configurable bits.
Similar to the forty-bit WEP data encryption method, the remaining 24 bits are
factory set and not user configurable. Some vendors allow passphrases to be
entered instead of the cryptic hexadecimal characters to ease encryption key entry.

Wireless Channel Selection

IEEE 802.11 wireless nodes communicate with each other using radio frequency
signals in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band between 2.4Ghz and
2.5Ghz. Neighboring channels are 5Mhz apart. However, due to spread spectrum
effect of the signals, a node sending signals using a particular channel will utilize
frequency spectrum12.5Mhz above and below the center channel frequency. As a
result, two separate wireless networks using neighboring channels (for example,
channel 1 and channel 2) in the same general vicinity will interfere with each
other. Applying two channels that allow the maximum channel separation will
decrease the amount of channel cross-talk, and provide a noticeable performance
increase over networks with minimal channel separation.
B-4 802.11b Wireless Networking Basics