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Wireless Networking Using 802.11b
To form a wireless network, two basic components are used. The first is a
wireless adapter for a PC. This can be either a USB wireless adapter or a
PCMCIA adapter. The adapter gives the PC wireless Ethernet capabilities.
The second is a Wireless Access Point, which A can connect to a wired
LAN and allow the wireless PC’s to be able to access the wired LAN. A
Wireless Access Point can be a stand alone component or it can be
embedded into a Cable/DSL router, thus forming a wireless
Gateway/Router. The uses of each of these types of products is outlined
later in this article.
Wireless networking is very similar to wired networking, except for a few
basic concepts that one must grasp. There are two different ways to
network computers using 802.11b. The first, and least used method is the
Ad-Hoc method, also known as Peer-to-Peer. The more commonly used
method is called Infrastructure Mode.
Ad-Hoc (Peer-to-Peer) Network
Ad-Hoc or Peer-to-Peer refers to a wireless configuration in which each
computer communicates directly with another. An Ad-Hoc wireless LAN
consists of a group of computers, each equipped with a wireless adapter,
connected directly via radio signals to form an independent wireless LAN.
Computers in a specific Ad-Hoc wireless LAN must be configured to the
same radio channel to communicate with one another. More than one
Ad-Hoc network can exist in the same space if it is configured to operate
on a different channel. There are a varying number of channels depending
on which the part of the world you are operating in. The US has 11
channels, Europe has 13 channels and Japan has 14 channels. The
following diagram shows a typical Ad-Hoc wireless LAN configuration.