Cisco WIRELESS-G WRT54GP2 - Manual (Page 11)

Wireless-G Broadband Router with 2 Phone Ports
5 Chapter 2: Planning Your Wireless Network
Network Topology
Chapter 2: Planning Your Wireless Network
Network Topology
A wireless local area network (WLAN) is exactly like a regular local area network (LAN), except that each
computer in the WLAN uses a wireless device to connect to the network. Computers in a WLAN share the same
frequency channel and SSID, which is an identification name shared by the wireless devices belonging to the
same wireless network.
Ad-Hoc versus Infrastructure Mode
Unlike wired networks, wireless networks have two different modes in which they may be set up: infrastructure
and ad-hoc. An infrastructure configuration is a WLAN and wired LAN communicating to each other through an
access point. An ad-hoc configuration is wireless-equipped computers communicating directly with each other.
Choosing between these two modes depends on whether or not the wireless network needs to share data or
peripherals with a wired network or not.
If the computers on the wireless network need to be accessible by a wired network or need to share a
peripheral, such as a printer, with the wired network computers, the wireless network should be set up in
Infrastructure mode. The basis of Infrastructure mode centers around an access point or wireless router, such as
the Wireless-G Broadband Router with 2 Phone Ports, which serves as the main point of communications in a
wireless network. The Router transmits data to PCs equipped with wireless network adapters, which can roam
within a certain radial range of the Router. You can arrange the Router and multiple access points to work in
succession to extend the roaming range, and you can set up your wireless network to communicate with your
Ethernet hardware as well.
infrastructure: a wireless network
that is bridged to a wired network via
an access point.
ssid: your wireless network’s name.
ad-hoc: a group of wireless devices
communicating directly to each other
(peer-to-peer) without the use of an
access point.
adapter: a device that adds network
functionality to your PC.
network: a series of computers or
devices connected for the purpose of
data sharing, storage, and/or
transmission between users.
ethernet: IEEE standard network
protocol that specifies how data is
placed on and retrieved from a common
transmission medium.