Employee Network

An Employee network is a classic Wi-Fi network. This network type is used by the employees in an organization and it supports passphrase-based (PSK) or 802.1X-based authentication methods. Employees may access the protected data through the employee network after successful authentication. The employee network is selected by default during a network profile configuration.

The very first employee network you create for the site cannot be deleted unless you choose to delete the site entirely from your account.

To configure an employee network:

  1. Click the Networks tile on the Instant On web application home page.
  2. Click Add () and select Identification tab.
  3. Select the Wireless option in the Network Type selection. The wireless option appears only when your site has both wired and wireless networks.
  4. Select Employee, under Usage to indicate that the network is for an enterprise.
  5. Enter a Network name for the employee network. This will also be broadcasted as the SSID for the WLAN network.
  6. Configure any one of the following security options:
    1. Password—Selecting this option displays the Network password (PSK) options. This enables you to secure the network using a shared password (PSK). Create a password of your choice in the Network password field. WPA2 Personal is enabled by default. To enable WPA2 + WPA3 Personal, select the checkbox.
    2. RADIUS—Selecting this option displays the Authentication server (RADIUS) options. This enables you to secure the network using a higher encryption RADIUS authentication server. To configure a RADIUS server, update the following parameters:

    You must configure the RADIUS server to allow APs individually or set a rule to allow the entire subnet.

    • WPA2 + WPA3 Enterprise—WPA2 Enterprise is enabled by default. To enable WPA2 + WPA3 Enterprise, select the checkbox.
    • Send RADIUS Accounting—Select this checkbox to send RADIUS accounting messages.
    • Primary RADIUS Server—Configure the following parameters for the Primary RADIUS Server.
      • Server IP address or domain name—Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name of the RADIUS server.
      • Shared secret—Enter a shared key for communicating with the external RADIUS server.
      • Server timeout—Specify a timeout value in seconds. The value determines the timeout for a RADIUS request. The Instant On AP attempts to send the request several times (as configured in the Retry count) before the user gets disconnected. For example, if the Timeout is 5 seconds, Retry counter is 3, user is disconnected after 20 seconds. The default value is 5 seconds.
      • Retry count—Specify a number between 1 and 5. Retry count indicates the maximum number of authentication requests that are sent to the server group, and the default value is 3 requests.
      • Authentication port—Enter the authentication port number of the external RADIUS server within the range of 1–65535. The default port number is 1812.
      • Secondary RADIUS Server— Select this checkbox to configure a secondary RADIUS server. When selected, configure the following parameters:

        • Server IP address or domain name—Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name of the secondary RADIUS server.

        • Shared secret—Enter a shared key for communicating with the secondary RADIUS server.

        • Authentication port—Enter the authentication port number of the secondary RADIUS server within the range of 1–65535. The default port number is 1812.

    • Network Access Attributes - Configure the following settings under Network Access Attributes, if you wish to proxy all RADIUS requests from the Instant On AP to the client.
      • NAS identifier—Enter a string value for RADIUS attribute 32, NAS Identifier, to be sent with RADIUS requests to the RADIUS server.
      • NAS IP address—Select one of the following options if your Instant On devices are configured in a private network mode. The options below determine how the RADIUS authentication takes place across all networks. This option is grayed out if the Instant On AP is configured as a primary Wi-Fi router on the network. In which case each AP in the network will send RADIUS requests to the server with a matching Source IP address and NAS IP address.

        • Use device IP (default)—This is the default setting. The RADIUS requests and NAS IP address will originate from each device authenticating the clients.
        • Use a single IP—The RADIUS and NAS IP address will originate from a single IP address representing the site. Enter the NAS IP address for the site.

  7. Click Save.

After you configure an Employee network and save its settings for the first time, an Active checkbox appears in the Employee Details page indicating the network is currently Active. Use this checkbox to enable or disable the employee network.