Wireless Home Networking - Index of

As you plan out your network and count devices, consider that some devices
already have all the wireless network capabilities they need built in. For
example, most laptop computers and some printers support at least 802.11g
wireless networking — so you should put them on your list, but you don’t
need to spend any money to add them to your network.
Choosing wired or wireless
Chapter 4: Planning a Wireless Home Network
After you know what you’re networking, you need to choose how to network
it. By that, we mean that you have to decide what to connect to your home’s
network with wires and what you should use wireless networking for. At first
glance, this decision may seem obvious. You would expect us to always recommend
using wireless because this book talks about wireless networks;
however, using both wired and wireless connections can sometimes make
the most sense.
Wireless network devices and wired network devices can be used on the same
network. Both talk to the network and to each other by using a protocol
known as Ethernet. (You should be getting used to that term by now if you
have been reading from the beginning of the book. If not, read through
Chapters 1 and 2 for more information about networking technology.)
The obvious and primary benefit of connecting to a network wirelessly is that
you eliminate wires running all over the place. But, if two devices are sitting
on the same desk or table — or are within a few feet of each other — connecting
them wirelessly may be pointless. You can get Ethernet cables for $5 or
less; an equivalent wireless capability for two devices may top $100 when
everything is said and done. Keep in mind, however, that your computer
must have a wired network adapter installed to be able to make a wired connection
to the network. Fortunately, wired network adapters are dirt cheap
these days. Virtually all new computers come with one installed as a standard
feature (at no additional charge).
Figure 4-1 shows a simple drawing of a network that connects a wireless PC
to a wired PC through two network devices: an access point (AP) and a hub.
(Recall that your AP connects wireless devices to the rest of the wired network.
A network hub or switch is often used to connect PCs to the network by
a wired connection. In Chapter 1, we describe the purpose of, and differences
between, APs and hubs and switches.) If you think that it seems absurd to
need two network devices to connect two computers, you’re not alone.
Hardware manufacturers have addressed this issue by creating APs that have
a built-in switch — in fact, it’s hard to buy an AP that doesn’t have a switch
(as well as a broadband router) built into it. See the section “Choosing an
access point,” later in this chapter, for more information about these multifunction
APs.
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