NETGEAR MR314 Reference Manual page 101

The Model MR314 Cable/DSL Wireless Router conforms to the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b standard for wireless LANs (WLANs). On an 802.11b
wireless link, data is encoded using direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) technology and is
transmitted in the unlicensed radio spectrum at 2.5GHz. The maximum data rate for the wireless
link is 11 Mbps, but it will automatically back down from 11 Mbps to 5.5, 2, and 1 Mbps when the
radio signal is weak or when interference is detected.
The 802.11b standard is also called Wireless Ethernet or Wi-Fi by the Wireless Ethernet
Compatibility Alliance (WECA, see http://www.wi-fi.net), an industry standard group promoting
interoperability among 802.11b devices.
The 802.11b standard offers two methods for configuring a wireless network - ad hoc and
infrastructure.
In an ad hoc network, computers are brought together as needed; thus, there is no structure or fixed
points to the network - each node can generally communicate with any other node. There is no
Access Point involved in this configuration. This mode enables you to quickly set up a small
wireless workgroup and allows workgroup members to exchange data or share printers as
supported by Microsoft Networking in the various Windows operating systems. Some vendors
also refer to ad hoc networking as Peer-to-Peer group networking.
In this configuration, network packets are directly sent and received by the intended transmitting
and receiving stations. As long as the stations are within range of one another, this is the easiest
and least expensive way to set up a wireless network.
With a wireless Access Point, you can operate the wireless LAN in the infrastructure mode. This
mode provides wireless connectivity to multiple wireless network devices within a fixed range or
area of coverage, interacting with wireless nodes via an antenna.