CHAPTER 4—WIRELESS NETWORK
FUNDAMENTALS
Wireless Network Configuration
AD-HOC MODE (PEER-TO-PEER WORKGROUP)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard for wireless LANs (WLANs), 802.11- offers two methods for configuring a wireless network — ad-hoc and infrastructure. In an ad-hoc network, computers are brought together as needed; thus, there is no structure or fixed points to the network — each node can generally communicate with any other node. There is no access point involved in this configuration. It enables you to quickly set up a small wireless workgroup and allows workgroup members to exchange data or share printers as supported by Microsoft Networking in the various Windows operating systems. Some vendors also refer to ad-hoc networking as peer-to- peer workgroup networking.
In this configuration, network packets are directly sent and received by the intended transmitting and receiving stations. As long as the stations are within range of one another, this is the easiest and least expensive way to set up a wireless network.
To set up an ad-hoc workgroup operating with standard protocols, do the following:
♦Set all stations to connect in Ad-hoc mode (or Peer-to-Peer workgroup mode).
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