Chapter 2
Chapter 2:
Planning Your Wireless
Network
Network Topology
A wireless network is a group of computers, each equipped with one or more wireless adapters. Computers in a wireless network must be configured to share the same radio channel to talk to each other. Several PCs equipped with wireless cards or adapters can communicate with each other to form an
Linksys wireless adapters also provide access to a wired network when using an access point or wireless router. An integrated wireless and wired network is called an infrastructurenetwork.EachwirelessPCinaninfrastructure network can talk to any computer in a wired or wireless network via the access point or wireless router.
An infrastructure configuration extends the accessibility of a wireless PC to a wired network, and may double the effective wireless transmission range for two wireless adapter PCs. Since an access point is able to forward data within a network, the effective transmission range in an infrastructure network may be doubled (depending on antenna characteristics).
Network Layout
The
Go to the Linksys website at www.linksys.com for more information about wireless products.
Planning Your Wireless Network
Example of WET200 in Infrastructure Mode
Example of WET200 in Infrastructure Mode
The above diagram shows a typical infrastructure wireless network setup where the WET200 is being used to manage multiple VLANs, with one VLAN connected wirelessly to the company network and Internet. In this example, the WET200 is connected to a wireless Access Point, which is in turn connected to the network backbone.
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