Cisco WVC2300 User Guide

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Cisco PVC2300 and WVC2300 Internet Video Cameras with Audio Administration Guide

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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 and other devices, such as peripherals, in a WLAN 
share the same frequency channel and SSID, which is an identification name for 
wireless devices. This chapter includes the following sections:

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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 computers with wireless capabilities 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.

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. The 
basis of infrastructure mode centers around an access point, which serves as the 
main point of communications in a wireless network. A wireless router can also be 
used because a wireless router incorporates the capabilities of an access point. 
Access points transmit data to PCs equipped with wireless network cards, which 
can roam within a certain radial range of the access point. Multiple access points 
can be arranged to work in succession to extend the roaming range, and can be 
set up to communicate with your Ethernet (wired) hardware as well.