Hello everyone and welcome to part 3
the final one in our ongoing webinar series about DrayTek Wi-Fi Solutions.
As you may know, my name is Jawa and I'm a
Technical Sales Specialist at i-LAN Technology.
In Part one of this series we gave a general
introduction to Wi-Fi technology
and discussed things like Wi-Fi standards
and antenna theory.
Part 2 dealt with the menu options in DrayTek
routers and Wi-Fi mesh networks.
Now in today's agenda we'll be going through
DrayTek's Wi-Fi management tools
including Central AP Management, VigorConnect
and the Vigor ACS2.
Stick around at the end and we'll have a five minute Q&A to answer any questions that  you may have.
Let's get to it then!
The first order of business would be a quick
overview of DrayTek's Wi-Fi Management Tools.
It's rather easy to answer the obvious question
of why we would use these management tools.
For a network with 2 or more access points
it can often be rather time consuming to add
& configure additional APs.
And let's admit it, it is not exactly convenient
to log into each access point individually
to check statistics and syslogs.
Using a central console to manage and configure
the entire Wi-Fi network will be more convenient
as well as time saving.
Wi-Fi Management tools also allow for custom
profiles to be configured
which can then be rolled out to all access
points whenever a change is required,
thus saving time.
For instance, changes to security settings
can be rapidly deployed across the entire
Wi-Fi network with just a few clicks.
DrayTek Access Points can be managed individually
by using the web GUI built into each device.
All you need is a web browser with a laptop
or PC.
Apps are also available for both Android and
Apple IOS devices.
For larger installations, a centralised management
tool is recommended to monitor and manage
the entire Wi-Fi network.
We'll be discussing three of these in today's
session.
Let's start off things with a look at Central
Access Point Management or APM.
Central AP Management is a tool that's built
into DrayTek SMB routers
for providing a central console to manage
and configure Multiple Vigor access points
located within the same network.
It provides an excellent low-cost method for
small businesses to configure, monitor, maintain
and provision DrayTek APs.
The easy to use router web interface greatly
simplifies and reduces the time consumed
when configuring more than one wireless access point.
It's important to note that access points
will need to be connected directly to the
router's LAN by a UTP cable.
Here's a table that shows the number of AP devices that can be managed depending on the router model.
There are a number of options available in
the central AP management menu as shown here.
The first menu option is the Dashboard.
The status section shows each access point.
Green text indicates online and red indicates offline.
We see Event Logs that display the activity reported by the Access Points such as clients connecting.
The Total Traffic: Provides a summary of the
average traffic usage of each access points.
And Station Number: Displays the number of
clients connected to each band (2.4GHz / 5GHz)
of each access point.
The Status menu shows information such as
Device names IP Addresses, and SSID of the
2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands,
Clicking on the index number will display
additional details.
Here we can see the details of the VigorAP
903 in index 1.
Things like Wi-Fi channel used and number
of clients & APs connected with their current
uptime & firmware versions can be checked quickly.
You can also modify the Device Name & password.
Clicking the red 'x' button will remove the
access point from the list.
Next we have the WLAN profile menu.
This can be used to provision settings to
a group of access points from a single profile
on the DrayTek Vigor router.
Each wireless profile has three pages of settings
which are:
The first being Wireless Interface and device settings
The second being 2.4GHz SSID and Security Settings
And finally, the 5GHz SSID and Security Settings.
Here we have the first page in the WLAN profile
configuration settings.
The AP Maintenance section provides a central
platform to perform maintenance tasks
such as Configuration Backups & restore, firmware
upgrades, remote reboot & factory resets.
The AP Map function is pretty handy.
It can help to find the ideal access point
placement on a floor in a building.
Once the floor plan has been uploaded
you can simply drag and drop icons to see
the simulated signal strength & coverage areas.
Traffic graph as the name suggests displays
the total transmitted and received traffic
for each access point.
These can be viewed over a daily or weekly
period.
If the VigorAP is fitted with a USB temperature
sensor then the environmental temperature
can be monitored.
Displayed data includes the current temperature along with the maximum, minimum and average temperatures.
Rogue AP Detection will display all access
points detected by the router.
These will be classified as either friendly,
rogue or unknown access points by colour coding:
green, red or black.
Time and event log for all of the APs managed
by the Vigor router will be shown.
It's a pretty handy tool for troubleshooting.
Total Traffic page stays true to its name.
It displays the total traffic i.e data received
and transmitted for VigorAPs managed by the router.
The total number of the wireless clients will
be shown on this page,
regardless of the mode of wireless connection
i.e 2.4GHz or 5GHz
Wi-Fi performance can be improved by distributing
the traffic load over multiple access points.
Load Balancing is achieved by disallowing
new connections to the AP
when there are too many stations connected
or if there's too much traffic,
thus forcing any new stations to connect to
other free access points.
When you have "By Station Number" Mode enabled,
every access point gets a limit assigned
no new connections are permitted when this
threshold is reached
and any new stations connecting to the Wi-Fi network will be forced to connect to a less crowded AP.
For instance, you can set a threshold between
3 to 128 in the Vigor2862AC router.
Similarly, with "By Traffic" Mode enabled,
a limit is set for upload and download traffic.
When the specified threshold is reached, the
AP will not allow new connections
and any new stations are forced to connect
to a less busy access point.
I'll include a link in the description below
which would describe all of these features
of Central AP management that we discussed
just now.
Although the video is based on an older router
model i.e Vigor2860 & the Vigor2925 Series,
the configuration options still apply to later
models.
Let's now take a look at VigorConnect.
VigorConnect is a TR-069 based system to manage up to 100 DrayTek APs & switches on your  local network.
This management tool is suitable for businesses
with multiple Vigor Access Points and VigorSwitches
located within a building on the same LAN.
Best of all, it's free and is suitable for
small networks
that don't require the advanced functionality of a central management system such as the VigorACS 2.
VigorConnect version 1.4.0 supports a number
of DrayTek Access Points and DrayTek VigorSwitches
as listed in the table shown here.
So, the big question - how does it work?
As I mentioned, the VigorConnect utilises
the TR-069 standard for communication between
the VigorConnect server and up to a 100 CPE devices.
TR-069 is an application layer protocol for
remote management of end user devices.
It was developed for automatic configuration
of modems, routers, gateways and access points
by using an Auto Configuration Server.
There are several parameters required for
communication between the VigorConnect server
and the CPE Devices.
These are:
The VigorConnect URL – This is the Internet
address of the VigorConnect server.
The Periodic Inform Interval – which is
the time period before the CPE device contacts
the VigorConnect server.
and finally the Username and password – which
is used to authenticate the CPE device on
the VigorConnect server.
The connection between the CPE device and
the VigorConnect server is not permanent.
The CPE device establishes a connection only
at specific points in time as determined by
the Periodic Inform Interval.
This connection which is called a Provisioning
Session lasts several seconds.
It's important to note that such a session
can initiated only by the CPE device.
I'll now play a short video that shows the process of discovering access points on a local area network
and then adding them to the VigorConnect console
for monitoring & management.
This one runs for about 6 minutes.
Hello, Darren from DrayTek Australia and New
Zealand.
DrayTek VigorConnect is a TR069 based management
system
to manage up to 100 DrayTek access points
and switches on the local network.
It’s suitable for businesses with multiple
Vigor Access Points and VigorSwitches
located within a building on the same local
area network.
In this video I will show you the process
of discovering access points on your LAN and
adding them to the VigorConnect management
console
so they can be monitored and managed.
VigorConnect can be installed on any PC running
Windows 7 or higher.
It’s also recommended that all APs are running
the latest firmware.
The software can either be downloaded from
this page on draytek.com.au
which you’ll find under Products >> Network
Management Tools >> VigorConnect,
then just scroll down towards the bottom and
click the download link.
or from the downloads page under Support >> Downloads
then scroll down to Software
and click download.
It’s also available on draytek.com.
Once it’s finished downloading, run the
installation program.
If you get this prompt from Windows Defender
click on More Info then Run Anyway.
Click ok.
And next.
And Install.
And that’ll take a minute or so to install
now.
Near the end of the installation you’ll get this prompt to change any of the default parameters.
If you don’t need to change anything or
you don’t know what these settings are anyway,
just click ok to that.
Then click on finish, and then 
the setup wizard will close.
We can also close that,
and the program will start automatically by
opening a new tab in your default web browser.
At the login prompt enter the username root
and password admin123
as well as the validation code.
It is recommended to change the username and
password for security reasons.
Then you’ll see a prompt to scan and setup
APs using the wizard.
I’ll click No to that because we can come
back to that later.
To come back to the dash board later you can
either bookmark this URL
or you’ll find an icon the desktop of your
PC to allow you to start the application manually.
Now we’re logged in and we’re greeted
with the dashboard page,
and we’re now ready to start discovering
access points on the same LAN.
To start the discovery process, click on the
discover button on the dashboard.
Wait a few seconds and you will see a list
appear.
Here we have one access point discovered.
You will need to change the username and password if these are not the default values in the access point,
and then click on add.
It may take a minute, but once added it will
appear in the Unknown Devices list
as well as on the left over here in the Device
Overview list.
If you have any trouble adding an AP or if
no APs are found after clicking the discover button,
make sure the Windows Defender Firewall is
turned off on the public network and try again.
To change it to a known device and add it
to a network, click the plus sign.
We have selected root network here.
Enter the device location and set to known
device
and click apply to save.
Now we can go back to the main menu and find
our new AP under the Root Network.
Here we can select it and bring up its own dashboard page instead of the root network dashboard.
This will give us lots of information about
the AP’s status
such as device name, IP address, the model,
firmware version and MAC address.
It’ll also show us which ports are active,
and down the bottom here we can backup or
restore configurations,
download the latest config or reboot the AP.
One useful feature in VigorConnect is to load
a floor plan of your building
and use it to work out where the access points
should be placed to achieve the best coverage.
To do this go back to the root network dashboard
and down to Monitoring.
Click on Floor Plan.
Then click on add New Profile
Enter a profile name.
I’ll call this one Office.
Then browse to the floor plan image we want
to use.
Once this is done, click on Continue.
Then click on “add device”.
Find our AP over on the right and drag it
over to the required location on the map.
If you can’t see the whole floorplan you
can zoom out over here and then drag again
to its proper location.
Then Save.
Now we can click on Browse View
and select our created profile to see our
floor plan with the location of all the APs
Other monitoring functions are Alarms, logs
and Rogue AP detection.
Next in the configuration menu you can create
configuration profiles for the access points
which can be rolled out to other APs in the
network.
Other functions in the system menu down under
Maintenance
we can schedule backups, restore configs,
we can upgrade firmware, set schedules.
Network management.
We can delete APs we don’t want anymore.
System >> System Parameters
Under User Management we can see who’s logged
in to VigorConnect.
And in the About section we can check for
updates.
OK.
Ok, thanks to Darren for that one.
I'll now quickly review what we saw in the
video.
VigorConnect will automatically discover DrayTek
Vigor APs on the local area network
and auto configure the TR-069.
For this to happen, the access points will
need to be at their factory default settings
when installed in the network.
The wireless Wizard provides a quick way to
perform the initial setup.
It involves:
Locating new Vigor Access Points or VigorSwitches
The adding these devices to VigorConnect
and finally Configuring Profiles
Here you can group & monitor the devices based on network assignment such as Guest room or Office area.
Next, we have the Dashboard view which provides
comprehensive details
such as online or offline status, SSIDs, channels,
and clients.
Simply select an AP to drill down into details
for that access point
and see details of its current usage and configuration
all collected into one place.
The monitoring feature will notify you when
an Access Point loses connectivity
or when rogue Access Points are nearby.
In addition, CPU and Memory Usage is also
displayed.
The floor plan image of your building can
be uploaded to VigorConnect as we saw in the video.
You can then place the access points on the
floor plan as shown here.
This will aid in their placement to give the
best possible coverage.
The Provisioning feature allows a pre-configured profile
to be uploaded to selected Access Points
in the network.
This makes it possible to set up the wireless
network quickly in just a few minutes.
Device Maintenance allows regular tasks such
as firmware upgrades and config backups and
restores to be automated.
In this screenshot we have the firmware upgrade
selected to be carried out at a scheduled time.
VigorConnect records and displays real time
alarms showing the type of fault conditions.
The reports list the date, time, type, level
and acknowledge status.
You can examine these details and system logs
to determine the exact nature of a fault.
The RWD or Responsive Web Design
allows the screen display to automatically
adjust to suit various screen types and sizes
for devices like PCs, tablets and smartphones.
Now here's a list of the minimum system requirements.
For the server you'll need a PC running windows 7 
or later,
with 1.2GHz quad core 64 bit CPU and 2GB RAM
with at least a gig of storage.
For the client you can use any of these popular
browsers.
So we now look at our final topic which is
VigorACS 2
VigorACS 2 is a centralised management system
for DrayTek Vigor devices.
ACS stands for Auto Configuration Server.
Formerly known as ACS SI now has been upgraded
to the second generation.
It's a user-friendly interface, allowing Network
Administrators to configure,
monitor and manage DrayTek devices remotely.
This interface has responsive web design display
which automatically adjusts and arranges content
to suit a variety of devices such as PCs,
tablets or phones.
VigorACS 2 is a software package from DrayTek and licence keys are available from 25 to 5,000 nodes.
Listed here are some of the major features
of ACS 2.
As you can see, the package offers so much
more than VigorConnect including Automatic
remote service provisioning for DrayTek Vigor devices,
Real-time Status Monitoring,
Scheduled firmware upgrades,
Device performance reporting and system logging,
a drag and drop VPN configuration wizard,
Flexible and secure CPE grouping,
and, as with VigorConnect, it also features
a RWD (Responsive Web Design) which enables
viewing on various screen sizes.
Talking about the obvious benefits.
There are substantial time and cost savings
for building a reliable and secure network.
Reduced travel time for network administrators
with better monitoring and powerful reporting
functionality are a big plus.
It can even be used as an extra income source
for IT service providers.
We do offer a 30 day trial of the VigorACS 2.
If you're interested, just flick a quick email to sales@draytek.com.au and we'll take care of you.
That was today's session.
So to summarise, we covered the overview of
Wi-Fi management tools.
We looked at Central Access point management,
known as APM,
and finally we discussed the VigorConnect
and VigorACS 2 central management applications.
For more information about DrayTek products
please check out our website www.draytek.com.au
or send us an email to sales@draytek.com.au,
or just call us on 02 983 888 99.
Don't forget to like and subscribe below,
and if you'd like notifications of new videos we're about to launch, please click on that bell icon. :)
Ok, that's it for me but please do stay tuned.
Me & my technical staff will be answering
questions in the live chat on the right of
your screen for the next five minutes.
Thank you. :)
