Linksys wrk54g Guia Do Utilizador

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Chapter 2: Planning Your Wireless Network

A wireless network is exactly like a regular local network, except that each computer in your wireless network 
uses a wireless device to connect to the network. Computers in a wireless network share the same frequency 
channel and SSID, which is an identification name shared by the wireless devices belonging to the same wireless 
network.

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 wireless network and wired network 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. 

If the computers on the wireless network need to be accessible 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 a wireless router or an access point, such as the 
Wireless-G Broadband Router, which serves as the main point of communications in a wireless network. The 
Router transmits data to PCs equipped with wireless network adapters, which can roam within a certain radial 
range of the Router.  You can arrange the Router and multiple access points to work in succession to extend the 
roaming range, and you can set up your wireless network to communicate with your Ethernet hardware as well. 

If the wireless network is relatively small and needs to share resources only with the other computers on the 
wireless network, then the Ad-Hoc mode can be used. Ad-Hoc mode allows computers equipped with wireless 
transmitters and receivers to communicate directly with each other, eliminating the need for a wireless router or 
access point. The drawback of this mode is that in Ad-Hoc mode, wireless-equipped computers are not able to 
communicate with computers on a wired network. And, of course, communication between the wireless-
equipped computers is limited by the distance and interference directly between them.