Wireless Lan Technical Reference; Wireless Network Overview - ZyXEL Communications eircom D1000 User Manual

5.10 Wireless LAN Technical Reference

This section discusses wireless LANs in depth. For more information, see the appendix.

5.10.1 Wireless Network Overview

Wireless networks consist of wireless clients, access points and bridges.
• A wireless client is a radio connected to a user's computer.
• An access point is a radio with a wired connection to a network, which can connect with
numerous wireless clients and let them access the network.
• A bridge is a radio that relays communications between access points and wireless clients,
extending a network's range.
Traditionally, a wireless network operates in one of two ways.
• An "infrastructure" type of network has one or more access points and one or more wireless
clients. The wireless clients connect to the access points.
• An "ad-hoc" type of network is one in which there is no access point. Wireless clients connect to
one another in order to exchange information.
The following figure provides an example of a wireless network.
Figure 32 Example of a Wireless Network
The wireless network is the part in the blue circle. In this wireless network, devices A and B use the
access point (AP) to interact with the other devices (such as the printer) or with the Internet. Your
Device is the AP.
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Chapter 5 Wireless LAN
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