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Wireless Networking
Access
Point or Ad-Hoc Networks?
Network Structures Explained
by Jeff Cohen
What
happens to many people is that they're just about to buy
some wireless equipment, and then they have a sudden realization
- they have no idea how their network layout is going to
work with a wireless connection. Well, there are a few things
you need to think about when you decide how you're going
to connect up your computers with all that
great new wireless stuff.
Ad-hoc
Networks
Ad-hoc
networks are the ones your wireless devices create more-or-less
on their own - they are also known as peer-to-peer
networks. In an ad-hoc network, each computer on
the network acts as an equal 'peer', with each one sending
data to any other. This arrangement is most often used in
place of a real LAN, to allow employees in a company, for
example, to exchange files. You can create ad-hoc wireless
networks between any computers that have wireless equipment
- access to the Internet is not required.
These
networks work using something called an 'SSID' (Service Set
Identifier). Essentially, this is the network's name, decided
on the computer that was the first to connect to the network
(yes, a network consisting of just itself). The other computers
that connect to the network can then simply connect by finding
the network with the name (SSID) they want.
This
is powerful. You can put your wireless-enabled laptop next
to a friend's, and the two computers can create a little
network for themselves on the fly. Thanks to the way wireless
networking works, they keep the connection even if you move
them around - the only thing that will force the computers
to disconnect from each other is if they go out of range.
For many people, this spells the end of messing around with
CDs and floppy disks - they can finally use their laptop
just like a briefcase, carrying everything from one place
to another.
Arriving
somewhere with your laptop and being automatically included
in the wireless network also gives you access to shared resources,
such as printers. Imagine being able to take your computer
to somewhere where there's a printer, press print, collect
the document and walk away again. Ad-hoc networking makes
this a reality.
Access
Points
An
access point, on the other hand, is a way of connecting
your ad-hoc wireless network to a real, wired network.
Note that this network could just be a LAN, or it could be
the entire Internet. There are hardware access points and
software ones, with either kind allowing you to connect your
wireless device to a wired network. Internet Connecting Sharing,
for example, is a software access point to the Internet,
while a wireless router is a wired one. If you have wireless
access at your office, the chances are it is provided as
a wireless access point to the wired network, to let people
bring in wireless devices and connect them to the office
LAN.
A
network that contains an access point is sometimes called
an 'infrastructure' network, as opposed to an ad-hoc one.
It's worth remembering, though, that part of the infrastructure
network still consists of the ad-hoc network between the
computers - they can still communicate just the same as they
could before.
If
you think about it, you can see that the access point structure
allows you to create a series of networks, all interconnected.
The Internet, in this scheme, is just another wired network.
You can connect your wired network to the Internet, connect
your wireless network to an access point to your wired network
- whatever you want.
The
string of networks is potentially never-ending, with wired
networks being able to break out into wireless ones as often
as they need to. This concept is sometimes called lilypad
networking, because it lets your computer be like a frog,
hopping from lilypad to lilypad. Even though the whole area
of the water isn't covered with lilypads, the frog can still
get through - and you can make wireless networks work the
same way.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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