Chapter 2: Planning Your Wireless Network - Linksys WUSB54AG User Manual

• One Adapter Connects to Either 2.4GHz (802.11b or Draft 802.11g) or
5GHz (802.11a) Networks
• Advanced Security Features with up to 152-Bit WEP Encryption
• Easy-to-Use Setup Wizard
• Detailed Monitoring and Performance Utility
• IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, and Draft 802.11g Compliant
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• 1-Year Limited Warranty
Chapter 2: Planning Your Wireless
Network
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 for wireless devices.
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.
Figure 2-1.
If the computers on the wireless network need to be accessed 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. (See Figure 2-1.) The basis of infrastructure mode centers around an
access point, which serves as the main point of communications in a wireless network. Access points
transmit data to PCs equipped with wireless network cards, which can roam within a certain radial