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<title><gui>SSID</gui></title>
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<p>This is the name of the wireless network you are connecting to, otherwise known as the <em>Service Set Identifier</em>. Don't change this unless you have changed the name of the wireless network (for example, by changing the settings of your wireless router or base station).</p>
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<title><gui>Mode</gui></title>
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<p>Use this to specify whether you are connecting to an <gui>Infrastructure</gui> network (one where computers wirelessly connect to a central base station or router) or an <gui>Ad-hoc</gui> network (where there is no base station, and the computers in the network connect to one another). Most networks are infrastructure ones; you may wish to <link xref="net-adhoc">set-up your own ad-hoc network</link> though.</p>
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<p>If you choose <gui>Ad-hoc</gui>, you will see two other options, <gui>Band</gui> and <gui>Channel</gui>. These determine which wireless frequency band the ad-hoc wireless network will operate on. Some computers are only able to work on certain bands (for example, only <gui>A</gui> or only <gui>B/G</gui>), so you might want to pick a band that all of the computers in the ad-hoc network can use. In busy places, there might be several wireless networks sharing the same channel; this might slow-down your connection, so you can change which channel you are using too.</p>
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<title><gui>BSSID</gui></title>
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<p>This is the <em>Basic Service Set Identifier</em>. The SSID (see above) is the name of the network which humans are intended to read; the BSSID is a name which the computer understands (it's a string of letters and numbers that is supposed to be unique to the wireless network). If a <link xref="net-wireless-hidden">network is hidden</link>, it will not have an SSID but it will have a BSSID.</p>
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<title><gui>Device MAC address</gui></title>
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<p>A <link xref="net-macaddress">MAC address</link> is a code which identifies a piece of network hardware (for example, a wireless card, an Ethernet network card or a router). Every device that you can connect to a network has a unique MAC address which was given to it in the factory.</p>
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<p>This option can be used to change the MAC address of your network card.</p>
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<title><gui>Cloned MAC address</gui></title>
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<p>Your network hardware (wireless card) can pretend to have a different MAC address. This is useful if you have a device or service which will only communicate with a certain MAC address (for example, a cable broadband modem). If you put that MAC address into the <gui>cloned MAC address</gui> box, the device/service will think that your computer has the cloned MAC address rather than its real one.</p>
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<title><gui>MTU</gui></title>
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<p>This setting changes the <em>Maximum Transmission Unit</em>, which is the maximum size of a chunk of data that can be sent over the network. When files are sent over a network, data is broken up into small chunks (or packets). The optimal MTU for your network will depend on how likely it is for packets to be lost (due to a noisy connection) and how fast the connection is. In general, you should not need to change this setting.</p>