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Setting Up a Peer-to-Peer Network

Once the Wi-Fi card or USB unit properties have been specified, it’s finally time to take the final step in getting your Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer network up and running. You must now tell Windows that it is connected to a network, and that, yes, you do want it to share its files and peripherals with the other computer on that network.

A peer-to-peer network is small; two computers or fewer. It also doesn’t include some of the heavy-duty security often employed in larger client/server networks. Peer-to-peer networking has no server machine—no somewhat more powerful computer that serves as a storage, routing, and sometimes a processing center for a group of less capable machines (the clients) dependent on its services.

Instead, in a peer-to-peer setup, the computers are by definition peers, equals (or roughly equals, anyway). There is no central server through which communications between clients must flow.

When computers are joined into a local area peer network, you can then right-click on a folder (or drive) in Windows Explorer and choose Sharing from the Context menu to permit other peer machines to access this folder and its contents. Likewise, printers, CD-ROM units, and other peripherals can be shared.

When you attach a network adapter (such as a Wi-Fi unit) to a machine, Windows automatically creates the basis of a LAN for you. Thereafter, each time you start a computer with a network adapter running, the associated LAN is automatically started.