Functions, Pricing & Availability

As mentioned earlier, the GPE supports up to eight separate wireless LANs, each with its own SSID and VLAN-separated traffic. Figure 9 shows that you can also set the priority for each VLAN to low, medium or high to help balance traffic. Note that you can set SSID, VLAN priority and transmit rate separately for each VLAN, but SSID broadcast disable applies to all VLANs, as does the mode and channel.

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Figure 9: Wireless LAN setup
(click image to enlarge)

WEP and WPA-Personal (PSK) and WPA-Enterprise (RADIUS) security is supported, along with allow / deny MAC address filtering. But the more secure WPA-2 is not supported.

Bridging and Repeating features are WDS-based, which means that you can't use the GPE to link to just any 802.11b/g AP or wireless router. Instead, both ends of the wireless bridge must support WDS and you'll need to enter the MAC address of the other end of the bridge on each unit. The GPE can't act as a wireless client, either, so forget about slapping it up on the outside wall of your apartment to grab the signal from a nearby open WLAN.

Availability is anyone's guess, although it's a hopeful sign that the product is actually live on Linksys' website. A letter in the FCC file reads:

"To Whom It May Concern:
Please be advised that due to the unique function supplied by this product, this device is intended for use as a Wireless LAN bridge only and will be distributed through controlled distribution channel which has trained professional to install this product and will not be sold directly to the general public through retail store."

so it's likely that you won't see the GPE in general retail distribution.

Tags: AP, Linksys, WAP54GPE, WiFi,

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