NETGEAR HA311 - Manual (Page 33)

33
C
HAPTER
4—W
IRELESS
N
ETWORK
F
UNDAMENTALS
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).