User manual

Frequently Asked Questions
39
o A family of IEEE standards for wireless LANs first introduced in
1997. 802.11 provides 1 or 2Mbps transmission in the 2.4GHz band
using either a frequency hopping modulation (FHSS) technique or
D
irect Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), which is also known
as
CDMA. The 802.11b standard defines an 11Mbps data rate in
the
2.4GHz band, and the 802.11a standard defines 54Mbps in
the 5GHz band.
o In order that your wireless components interact with traditional
wired networks they need a media bridge to translate for them.
This
is where [Infrastructure] or [ Network] mode comes into play.
An Access Point is attached to the network using CAT-5 Ethernet
cable attaching
to a hub, switch or another PC. Wireless PC's can
then communicate to Wired Ethernet computers through this
access point. The total range of the network is limited to a radius
around this Access Point. To increase the range, extra
Access
Points may be wired into the network. These Access Points talk to
each other over the hard-wired Ethernet cables
however, they
cannot communicate wirelessly to one another and they must be
wired to the same network. Individual wireless PC's can move
between Access Points on the same network seamlessly due
to a feature called Roaming.
o Tx-Rate or Transfer Rate is the current speed at which
the
network component is operating. SMC-802.11b products can
operate at speeds of 1Mb, 2Mb, 5.5Mb, & 11Mbps. A wireless card
set to [Auto] will attempt to connect at whatever speed will give the
best throughput on the network.
What is the 802.11 standard?
What is Infrastructure?
What is Tx-Rate?