User's Manual

7
Network Configuration
To better understand how the wireless LAN products work together to create a
wireless network, it might be helpful to depict a few of the possible wireless LAN PC
card network configurations. The wireless LAN products can be configured as:
a) Ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) for departmental or SOHO LANs.
b) Infrastructure for enterprise LANs.
a) Ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) Mode
This is the simplest network configuration with several computers
equipped with the Network Interface Cards that form a wireless network
whenever they are within range of one another. In ad-hoc mode, each
client is peer-to-peer, would only have access to the resources of the
other client and does not require an access point. This is the easiest and
least expensive way for the SOHO to set up a wireless network. The
image below depicts a network in an ad-hoc mode.
b) Infrastructure Mode
The infrastructure mode requires the use of an Access Point (AP) or a a
router. In this mode, all wireless communication between two computers
has to be via the AP. It doesn’t matter if the AP is stand-alone or wired to
an Ethernet network. If used in stand-alone, the AP can extend the range
of independent wireless LANs by acting as a repeater, which effectively
doubles the distance between wireless stations. The image below
depicts a network in infrastructure mode.