Using Buffalo's AOSS (AirStation OneTouch Secure System) was almost a non-event in that it worked without muss or fuss the first time I tried it. Frankly, it took me longer to read the special AOSS Supplement printed inserts that came with the WBR2 and the WLI-CB-G54A CardBus card that Buffalo sent for review, than it took for AOSS to do its thing.

The wireless client does most of the heavy lifting in AOSS, so you need to use the Client Manager 2 application that comes with Buffalo's adapters. If you already have a Buffalo client card, just download the latest Client Manager 2 from Buffalo's website. Be sure you grab the latest card drivers, too, if you already aren't at the current rev. Note that AOSS is supported on Buffalo's Cardbus, PCI and USB 2.0 adapters, but not yet for its WLA2-G54 or WLA-G54 wireless Ethernet repeater / bridges.

Once you get everything installed, you next simply press and hold the AOSS button on the router until the AOSS front panel light starts blinking. You then have two minutes to click on the AOSS button on the Client Manager's Profiles tab (Figure 11) to start the process.

Figure 11: Client Manager and the AOSS button

A progress screen then pops up (Figure 12) to keep you appraised of what's going on.

Figure 12: AOSS progress

If all goes well, within a minute or so, you'll get the AOSS "Connection completed" screen (Figure 13), but you're not really done.

Figure 13: AOSS completed

The AOSS progress window will disappear, bringing you back to the Client Manager window, which then takes about another minute to get a valid DHCP lease. When everything's over, the Client Manager Status screen will look something like Figure 14.

Figure 14: AOSS really completed

Note that once clients have gone through the AOSS process, they will successfully rejoin the network, even after rebooting. The WBR2 also maintains AOSS information through reboot and power cycling. So the only time AOSS needs to be re-run is when a new client needs to be added to the network.