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WiFi 101

B

bobthedinosaur

Junior Member
hi!
i've been using wifi at home for a while now, but only in AP mode to connect pcs to my router

but the other day i went to a friend's place with the intention of lanning with wifi without a router, it didn't work

firstly, is it possible to LAN (with whatever game) over a peer to peer network?

if so, what's the correct way of setting up a peer to peer network?
i know enough about networking to understand all the jargon etc. i got my wifi network at home running over ipx so my firewalls don't complain (cos norton is so full of bs) and it works great, tho i know most games today don't do ipx

also, how many pcs can be involved in a peer to peer network? only 2?

any advice would be appreciated

thanks!

ps. on my mainboard i've got an orange pci slot which the manual refers to as a 'communication' slot, what the hell is that? and do i need to plug my wifi card in that specific slot for it to work?
 
You are confusing two terms.

1. Wireless computer talking one to the other directly without a Wireless Access Point (or Wireless Router).

This can be done by configuring both Wireless cards to function in Ad-Hoc mode.

2. Wireless peer to peer Network (infrastructure mode). Computers that are connected to the same Wireless Router, wire, or wireless can talk one to the other (even if you disconnect the Internet); all you have to do is configure the File Sharing on each computer. http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

Ad- Hoc is inferior to regular peer to peer and is used when there is No Access Point, there is No good reason to use it if you do have an Access Point.

As for Norton, see this, http://www.ezlan.net/faq#trusted
 
ok, so say i have no AP, but i have 3 pc's with wireless cards, could i hook them up with ad-hoc mode?

can some network cards be used in both AdHoc and AP modes? i've seen a new motherboard with wifi AP as a feature...

i got filesharing figured out already and
i know how to work norton, i entered my lan's ip range into the trusted zone on my desktop but i still couldn't ping my desktop pc from other pcs, i could only get a ping through when i disabled NIS2005, thats why i say norton is full of bs

 
Originally posted by: JackMDS
You are confusing two terms.

1. Wireless computer talking one to the other directly without a Wireless Access Point (or Wireless Router).

This can be done by configuring both Wireless cards to function in Ad-Hoc mode.

2. Wireless peer to peer Network (infrastructure mode). Computers that are connected to the same Wireless Router, wire, or wireless can talk one to the other (even if you disconnect the Internet); all you have to do is configure the File Sharing on each computer. http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

Ad- Hoc is inferior to regular peer to peer and is used when there is No Access Point, there is No good reason to use it if you do have an Access Point.

As for Norton, see this, http://www.ezlan.net/faq#trusted
Click to expand...

Fair enough!

Use Ad-Hoc mode, if they support peer to peer!

I doubt network adapter will support the AP mode. Maybe some will do then you can also use the bridge mode.
 
If he has no router for you to link up to then you will have to use Ad-hoc mode. However one wireless peer will have to have some form of internet access, which it shares, in order for you to have internet access. And you'll probably have to configure Static IPs on both of them.
 
well i've discovered that the wifi pci card that came with my k8n diamond mobo has a software AP mode, how cool is that

so for adhoc mode you can obviously have more than one pc connected right?
 
Originally posted by: bobthedinosaur
well i've discovered that the wifi pci card that came with my k8n diamond mobo has a software AP mode, how cool is that

so for adhoc mode you can obviously have more than one pc connected right?
Click to expand...

I believe that you can have multiple peers connected to one network with Ad-hoc mode. However if your desktop supports AP mode it would be easier to have it share internet and have everyone else connect to it.
 
ok so i've been fiddling with the setup here and i've gotten filesharing to work perfectly over the wireless using the AP function on my desktop via tcp/ip

a few questions tho..
there's a new protocol on my pc called ms tcpip 6, should i deselect normal tcp/ip and select this one? or does it work in conjunction with the other one?
i can't get ipx to work over this network... previously i had my pcs connected to my wireless router, one via wifi and the other with cabling, and i used ipx for sharing and 'client for microsoft networks' in order to bypass NIS 2005 and avoid any possible hacking weaknesses, but i can't get it to work now

any ideas?


EDIT

so here's an interesting twist

easy way to share an internet connection via adhoc wifi:
have one pc with an internet connection of some kind setup, use a 'network bridge' across that pcs wifi and internet connection, if the internet connection is via a router to which the pc is connected by rj45 cable then bridge the wifi and the cable connection
now setup the ad-hoc connections, the other pcs, upon connecting to the first pc's adhoc connection will automatically figure out that they need to route tcpip traffic through that pc

now wasn't that easy?

one question tho, it seems that as soon as i use a network bridge ipx goes out the window, can't use it for filesharing or client for ms networks, anybody know why?
 
You are going to save $30 on a Wireless Router, and go down the road to a Quirky Wireless Network.
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS
You are going to save $30 on a Wireless Router, and go down the road to a Quirky Wireless Network.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why people want to choose the most difficult way to network. Buy a router and be done with it.

If you're just doing this as an experiment, then have fun, but it's really not the best choice and you're not really saving that much money.

Just my 2 cents!!!

c3p0
:beer:
 
well i'm not trying to save money, like i said, i've got my netgear wireless adsl router at home, but i'm just experimenting for the sake of being a geek...
and it would be nice to know how to quickly set up a wireless lan on the odd occasion with a few friends without having to go buy a wireless router

so back to my question

howcome ipx doesn't work as soon as a network bridge gets involved?
i checked the protocols enabled on the bridge and ipx was there...

also, does anyone know of any allrounder wifi card software out there?
something that has more features than the OEM crap you normally get with every card?
cos if my card's software can do software AP, there's gotta be some software out there that'll do it with various cards


EDIT

So here's my 'lan at a friend's place scenario'

adsl router - wired lan only
wireless/wired router AP

now for setting it up...
would i be correct in assuming that i could just connect the wifi router to the adsl router via cable and then have all the other pcs connected to the wireless router via wifi and they should all have internet access? like i wouldn't have to do any funny network bridging or anything?
 
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