What Is A Network; Components Required To Connect A Pc To A Network; Your Wireless Ii Network Adapter; Device Driver And Wireless Adapter Settings - Intel AnyPoint Wireless II Network User Manual

CHAPTER 1

What is a network?

Components required to connect a PC to a network

Your Wireless II network adapter

Device driver and wireless adapter settings

2
Understanding your AnyPoint™ Wireless II Network
A computer network consists of two or more PCs that are able to
communicate with each other. Through a network, multiple PCs can share
resources, such as printers, an Internet connection, or stored data. It costs
less to share resources than provide every PC with its own printer or
Internet connection.
You can also access a file located on other PCs in the network just as if the
file was located on your own PC. For instance, from a PC upstairs, you may
want to listen to a large music file or view digital photos located on another
PC downstairs. You can keep the files for large applications on a system
with a larger drive capacity and then access those files with other PCs in the
network.
To make your AnyPoint™ Wireless II network function, you need three
components.
A Wireless II network adapter for each PC
1
A device driver and wireless settings
2
An AnyPoint™ Connectivity Suite CD
3
A network adapter is a hardware device that provides the connection
between your PC and the network. The adapter converts the data inside
your PC to a form that can be sent to other PCs. It connects externally to
your PC through the Universal Serial Bus (USB), or in the case of a laptop
PC, through a PC card.
Wireless adapters use radio waves as the means of connection, and transmit
data through the air just like a cordless telephone; no connecting wires
between PCs are necessary. The wireless adapter can communicate with all
PCs in the network as long as they are in close proximity to each other (up
to 300 feet). Keeping the adapters physically close to one another will
improve the speed of data transmission.
Your Wireless II adapter requires a
actually software code that specifically controls how the PC and the adapter
communicate with each other. The
your Wireless II adapter communicates with the other adapters in the
network. You cannot change the device driver software, but as you will
learn later in this chapter, you can change the adapter settings.
to function. The driver is
device driver
wireless adapter settings
control how