Wireless Peer to Peer Network

[Sam Cheung]

Before I deploy a wireless network with 10 windows computers with 802.11b+ (in 4x mode peer to peer) PCI cards and wireless printer server to share computer resources, I would like to explore the likely problems? The network will not be used for internet connection and therefore no wireless router or AP will be deployed. All computers will be housed in a 1200 square feet open space floor.

[Sam Cheung]

Speed will probably one of the main concern, what else?

[Uncle Ken]

I'd use a wireless router and DHCP for easier manageability, security, client performance, ease of reconfiguration, etc.

[Sam Cheung]

Thanks for the reply.

1. I don't understand the problem without a router. In a wired situation a router can direct traffic to designated computer, therefore a switch or router is better than a hub. Correct me if I am wrong, for wireless, with or without router you have the RF all over places when a particular computer broadcasts, and all the rest computers will receive this broadcasted signal and response(?) from a particular computer. Am I correct to assume that the rest of the computers except the one responding will simply ignore the broadcast. This will probably slightly slows down the traffic.

2. Will there be problems to assign static IPs to each wireless PCI card of each computers?

[Uncle Ken]

1. The router gives you a) infrastructure mode, which is easier to manage centrally, b) better security, since you can select MAC addresses you want to allow and exclude all others and c) easier upgrade to internet connection, should you ever want one (and who doesn't?). Since a router is point-to-multipoint and ad-hoc is multipoint-to-multipoint, performance should be improved.

2. There is no problem assigning static IP addresses while using a router.