Here I report some technical info to understand basic Wireless environment.
At first layer ISO/OSI we can have 3 kind of spec:
2 types of configurations:
Adhoc is the simpler method (and the also the less scalable) and let many hosts communicate each other directly. The restrictive requirement is that all one are to be visible directly to reach a complete coverage of the network. (at least Ideally, because this problem could be solved at IP level! For more see Par 5.4).
Adhoc mode A - - - - - C \ / | \ / | /\ | / \ | / \ B - - - - - D
In a Infrastructure environment you use the Access Point to which ALL other hosts must connect to share the network.
Infrastructure mode ESS A - - - | - Access Point - - Access Point - | - - - D B - - - | BSS1 BSS2 | - - - E C - - - | | - - - F
B and C could not see D,E and F, but they can communicate as well cause all one are using the same ESS. Important: A,B and C could also not see each other.
In addition there are terms like indoor and outdoor to distinguish short area coverage from long area coverage.
Keep on mind that there are a number of Wireless cards in the world, but not every card can communicate with every other one. For talking together the cards have to use to:
Access Point are very useful and killing problem but they are expansive. Ideally, for a more concentrated network you could use Infrastructure mode, while for few hosts you can choose Adhoc: why to spend much money for few hosts?
Anyway be aware that if you spend much money probably all works well while spending less you could have some trouble.
Recently there is a kind of hardware that allows this feature: Prism2
You can find something at http://people.ssh.com/jkm/Prism2/