Presentation of the Ad Hoc WiFi Network

8/2/2019 Presentation of the Ad Hoc WiFi Network

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Presentation of the ad hoc WiFi network

If you have two or more computers equipped with wireless adapters (WiFi cards), it is possibleto easily connect them in a network by setting up a so-called "ad hoc" network, that is, a

computer-to-computer network, without using an access point.

If one of the computers on the ad hoc network has an internet connection, it is possible to share it

with the other computers on the network, like in the case of a traditional local network.

Installing drivers

Before doing anything else, you need to equip all the machines that will be on the future ad hoc

network with a wireless adapter and install drivers. You are strongly advised to visit the website

of the wireless adapter's manufacturer, to retrieve the latest versions of the drivers, even if you

have recently purchased your hardware. Major updates generally take place when hardware is

put on the market. In addition, drivers in their packaging are sometimes several months old.

To install the wireless adapter, you need to refer to the documentation provided or, if you runinto a problem, perform a search on your favourite search engine with the brand and reference

number of your hardware as keywords and one or more keywords such as "installation",

"drivers" and "windows".

If the installation goes smoothly, in Windows XP, a prompt window should appear to ask you to

continue with the installation and a warning message may appear stating the following:

The software you are installing for this hardware:

*********************

has not passed Windows logo testingto verify its compatibility with Windows XP. (Tell me

why this test is important.)

Continuing your installation of this software may impair

or destabilize the correct operation of your

system, either immediately or in the future. Microsoft

strongly recommends that you stop this

installation now and contact the hardware vendor

for software that has passed

Windows logo testing.

ClickContinue. A balloon should appear stating that new hardware has been installed and

prompting you to execute the automatic configuration. The rest of this article describes how tomanually configure the ad hoc network connection.

A new icon appears in the bar, indicating the presence of an active wireless adapter in the

computer:


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By default, Windows XP offers a utility making it possible to configure wireless networks. The

Microsoft Windows XP wireless network configuration utility disables manufacturerconfiguration tools. To disable the Windows XP tool, simply click Start/Settings/Network

connections, then right-click the icon corresponding to the wireless network and choose

Properties. In the wireless network configuration tab, check or uncheckUse Windows to

configure my wireless network.

This manipulation involves enabling or disabling Windows XP's wireless network automaticconfiguration service. An alternative is to go to the control panel/Administrative tools/Services,

and then to start or stop theAutomatic wireless configuration service.

In the rest of this article, all manipulations will be made using the Windows XP utility (Service

pack 2).

Configuring the ad hoc network

The properties dialogue box for the wireless network connection (wireless network configurationtab) presents the networks detected by the wireless adapter and lets you configure them.

To create an ad hoc network, you need to add a new network, identified by a unique name, the

SSID. To do so, click the buttonAdd. A new dialogue box opens:


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To create the ad hoc network, on each of the future network's computers, you simply need to

enter the same SSID and check the box "This is a computer-to-computer network". The otheroptions are used to heighten security. Firstly, leave the network completely open (with the

options in the above screenshot), so as not to multiply settings that could prevent the first

networking.

At this point, the machines on the ad hoc network should be able to connect to each other.

Resolving problems

If the icon on the taskbar shows a small cross, it means that the computer is not connected to thewireless network; you should check the following points:

In the list of available wireless networks (single click the Wireless network connectionicon on the taskbar), the ad hoc network's SSID should appear. Double click on its nameto connect

If it does not appear, open the properties of the wireless network connection ( Wirelessnetwork configuration), clickAdvancedand make sure the computer is not configured to

Networks with access point only (infrastructure)

If it still doesn't work, temporarily disable your personal firewalls (including theWindows XP firewall), to reduce the number of causes that could be creating the failure

IP configuration

The previous steps let you connect the various machines. However, to be able to fully use thenetwork, you need to define an IP addressing for the network's machines and set up a certain

number of services (web server, shared files, internet connection sharing, etc.).

For this type of network, it is necessary to use a private IP address. There are address ranges

reserved to that effect, in this case 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.255 will be sufficient (or

192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255 if you already have a local network with the previous addressing).

If one of the computers on the ad hoc network already has an internet access it wants to sharewith the network's other computers, it is usually named 192.168.0.1 (or 192.168.1.1), but this is

just a convention. The other machines will take addresses from the same address range:

192.168.0.2, etc.

To configure the machine, simply right-click the icon corresponding to the wireless networkconnection, then choose "properties":


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Then, in the list of protocols, select "Internet protocol (TCP/IP)" and click "Properties":

Enter each machine's IP address, making sure not to enter the same IP address twice,255.255.255.0 as subnet mask and possibly the IP address of the machine sharing the internet

access (default gateway, with the address 192.168.0.1 by convention).


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In the fields concerning the DNS, enter the IP addresses of the name servers corresponding to the

connected machine's service provider. To find them out, you can just enter the following

command for example (Start/Run) on the machine that's connected to the internet:

cmd /k ipconfig /all

All that's left is totest the connectionbetween the machines on the ad hoc network.
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Presentation of the Ad Hoc WiFi Network

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