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1. Introduction
Thank you for purchasing Wireless Local Area Net (WLAN) PC Card. You
are about to install a networking system that is not only fast and powerful,
but also easy to set up and simple to maintain. In a short time you and those
in your network will be able to share a local printer and files, access the
Internet, and roam about the office wire -free.
Using radio frequency (RF) technology, WLANs transmit and receive data
over the air, minimizing the need for wired connections. Thus, WLANs
combine data connectivity with user mobility, and, through simplified
configuration, enable movable LANs.
This wireless networking solution has been designed for both large and
small businesses, and it is scalable so that you can easily add more users
and new network features as your business grows.
This manual will assist you in the installing WLAN PC Card.
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2. Wireless LAN basics
Wireless LAN network defined by IEEE 802.11b standard committee could be
configured as:
••
Ad Hoc wireless LAN,
o r
••
Infrastructure wireless LAN.
Ad Hoc
network is a group of notebooks with wireless LAN PC card called a BSS
(Basic Service Set). These notebooks use their wireless LAN PC cards to
communicate with each other, and notebooks cannot connect to the
Internet
.
Figure 2-1 Ad Hoc wireless network
The most obvious differentiation between
Infrastructure
wireless network and
Ad
Hoc
wireless network is that the notebooks in
Infrastructure
wireless network can
make use of the resource in the Internet through
Access Point
.
STA 3
STA 1
STA 2
Access Point
Internet
Figure 2 -2 Infrastructure wireless network
To set up your notebook’s network as the type of “
Ad Hoc
” or “
Infrastructure
”
wireless network depends completely on your requirement. Generally, if your network
environment has an
Access Point
, we recommend that you set it as “
Infrastructure
”
to connect to the
Internet
.
STA 1
STA 2
STA 3
