Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part II: Making Plans
Figure 4-2:
Three PCs
connected
wirelessly
to each
other
through
an AP.
Choosing an access point
The most important and typically most expensive device in a wireless network
is the access point (AP; also sometimes called a base station). An AP acts like
a wireless switchboard that connects wireless devices on the network to each
other and to the rest of the wired network; it’s required to create a wireless
home network. Figure 4-2 depicts three PCs connected wirelessly to each
other through an AP.
The vast majority of APs now available aren’t just access points. Instead,
most incorporate the functionality of a broadband router (which connects
multiple computers to an Internet connection), a network switch (which connects
multiple wired computers together), and even a firewall (which helps
keep “bad guys” off your network).
The most popular APs for use in home networks are those that can do one or
more of the following:
� Connect wired PCs: A switch is an enhanced version of a network hub
that operates more efficiently and quickly than a simple hub. By building
a switch inside the AP, you can use the one device to connect PCs to your
network by using either wired network adapters or wireless adapters.
We cover hubs and switches in more detail in Chapter 1.
� Assign network addresses: Every computer on a network or on the
Internet has its own address: its Internet Protocol (IP) address.
Computers on the Internet communicate — they forward e-mail, Web
pages, and the like — by sending data back and forth from IP address
to IP address. A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server
dynamically assigns private IP addresses to the computers on your
home network so that they can communicate. You could use a software
utility in Windows (or Mac OS) to manually assign an IP address to each
computer, but that process is tedious and much less flexible than automatic
address assignment.
Wireless PCs
AP
Wireless PC