Actiontec electronic HWE05490-01 - Manual (Page 7)

5 Understanding your Wireless Network
Understanding your
Wireless Network
Wireless local area networks (WLAN) perform the exact same functions as wired
local area networks (LAN). Each computer in the WLAN uses a data radio device to
connect to the network, where all computers in the network share the same frequen-
cy and method for identifying wireless devices. Wireless local area networks differ
from wired Local area networks only in their operating mode. The two operation
modes are AdHoc Mode and Infrastructure Mode.
What is Adhoc Mode?
Adhoc mode is a networking framework by which wireless devices or stations
communicate directly with each other, without the need for an access point (AP).
Ad-hoc mode can be referred to as peer-to-peer mode or an Independent Basic
Service Set (IBSS). This Mode is useful when you want to communicate among many
computers locally without the need to connect to printers or file servers on a wired
LAN.
Figure 3. AdHoc Network
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