Components of an 802.11-Based Wireless Network

No matter which standard (802.11b, 802.11a, or 802.11g) you select for a wireless network, here are the components you need:

• One wireless network adapter for each PC on the network. Many laptops already include a builtin wireless network adapter. This is enough to create an ad-hoc network for sharing files and resources between wireless clients.

• An Access Point (AP) is also required if you want wireless clients to connect to other networks or to the Internet.

Note

As an alternative to using an AP, you could configure a system with existing Internet access to act as a gateway for other systems. This option requires using a connection-sharing program such as Internet Connection Sharing (Windows) in the computer with existing Internet access. If the ICS computer is shut down, other computers cannot connect to the Internet.

The AP and wireless network adapters must all support the same frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz); a dual-band (2.4/5GHz) AP supports both frequencies.