User's Manual

Wireless LAN CardBus Card
12
also have a network in your home (with a wireless Access Point) for sharing an
Internet connection and a printer between several computers. Suppose also that
you have another office within your business which also has WLAN capability, but
which is configured differently than your main office.
In this situation, you can create a different profile for each of these three
environments. Each profile specifies the parameters used on a single network.
Moving from one location to another, you need only apply the appropriate profile
to be able to participate in the local network.
Network Name
Officially, in wireless networks the network name is known as the SSID (Service
Set Identifier), and is used by Access Points and stations to identify a wireless LAN.
Your PRISM WLAN Interface adapter scans the available channels looking for an
Access Point or another station, which has specified this same SSID. It then
attempts to associate with these Access Points or stations to form a wireless LAN.
To change the SSID, simply highlight it, type the new SSID, and click the Apply
button.
In typical infrastructure applications a company will use a single SSID for all
Access Points. If the radio is scanning and cannot find a channel when an Access
Point is known to be in range, verify that the Network Name is set correctly.
Network Type
The adapter can operate in one of two types of networks, which are specified in
the Network Type: field of the Configuration menu. Clicking the down arrow at
the right of this field displays the available types.
• Peer-to-Peer
IEEE 802.11, the standard on which the WLAN protocol is based, defines two
modes to handle two separate needs. The first, called AdHoc (or IBSS) mode, is
used when two or more wirelessly-enabled PCs exchange data directly, without an
Access Point. In this case the PCs can establish a peer-to-peer network in which
they are the only members and over which they can exchange data. To exchange
data, each computer participating in the AdHoc network must specify the same
Network Name in this menu.
Peer-to-Peer networks operate on a single communications channel. You specify
the channel on which your adapter communicates in an IBSS network through the
IBSS Menu.
• Access Point
The second mode defined by the IEEE 802.11 standard is called infrastructure
mode, and is the primary application for WLAN operation. In this mode all data on
the wireless network is directed to an Access Point, which then routes the data to
the appropriate wireless station. The Access Point may also be configured to allow
data to be bridged from the wireless network to wired networks.
To participate in a wireless LAN in infrastructure mode, every station and Access
Point must specify the same Network Name. In infrastructure mode, all available
channels are scanned for traffic, so there is no need to specify a channel.