DARYL BACORDO

NAT422

WHAT IS AD HOC?

Ad hoc mode refers to the ability of wireless devices to communicate directly with each
other. Ad hoc networks make sense when needing to build a small, all-wireless LAN
quickly and spend the minimum amount of money on equipment. Ad hoc networks also
work well as a temporary fallback mechanism if normally-available infrastructure mode
gear (access points or routers) stop functioning. You want to use a broad band
connection to do the ad hoc sharing a connections.

CONFIGURATIONS OF AD HOC?

1) Let’s start with the configuration, here I will choose one computer to start the
configuration, right click wireless adapter and then click properties.

2) Wireless Network Connection Properties will appear. Click Wireless Networks tab,
here I tick Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings. After that click
Advanced button.

3) Advanced window will appear. Select Computer-to-computer (ad hoc) networks only
option. Click Close at last.

4) After that, click Add to add new ad hoc wireless network.

5) Name your ad hoc network, here I use home-ad hoc. Try to use open authentication
without encryption first. After tested it works well, only proceed to enable WPA or WEP
encryption. Click OK at last.

6) Now you will see your created ad hoc network (PC card icon) in preferred networks
list. You have finished configuring this host computer.
LIMITATIONS OF AD HOC?

1. WIFI devices in ad hoc mode offer minimal security against unwanted incoming
connections. For example, ad-hoc WIFI devices cannot disable SSID broadcast like
infrastructure mode devices can. Attackers generally will have little difficulty connecting
to your ad-hoc device if they get within signal range.

2. Signal strength indications accessible when connected in infrastructure mode will be

unavailable to you in ad-hoc mode. Therefore, you will face some difficulty whenever re-
positioning an ad-hoc device to achieve a better signal.

3. The WIFI networking standards (including 802.11g) require only that ad-hoc mode
communication supports 11 Mbps bandwidth. You should expect that WIFI devices
supporting 54 Mbps or higher in infrastructure mode, will drop back to a maximum of
11 Mbps when changed to ad-hoc mode. Ad-hoc mode should generally be viewed as
"slower" than infrastructure mode for this reason.