Network Types – CompTIA Network+ N10-009 – 2.3

There are many ways to connect devices on a wireless network. In this video, you’ll learn about mesh, ad hoc, point to point, and infrastructure mode connections.


There are a number of different ways to connect and configure wireless networks. And in this video, we’ll look at some of these different wireless network types. One popular wireless network type, especially in home-based environments, is a wireless mesh. This is where you would have multiple access points that can all communicate to each other within a relatively close area. And then you would have other devices that are located on the outside of those access points that are able to communicate to that single access point and ultimately to the rest of the network.

This meshing of access points in the middle is something that you would configure on the access point. And if you were to add additional access points onto this network, they would also be included in that same mesh of access points. Of course, this doesn’t have to be access points. There are some devices that can mesh amongst each other in an ad hoc form.

This allows for different options for sending data over these networks because all of these devices are now communicating to each other. And if one device leaves the network, it can automatically identify that that device is no longer there and self-heal itself to maintain connectivity to everyone who’s left on the wireless network.

If you only have two devices, you might want to connect them together without an access point. We refer to this type of connectivity as an ad hoc connection. This is where you would use the 802.11 wireless functionality of your device, but you would not be directly connecting to an access point. This uses the 802.11 wireless network functionality of this device, but instead of connecting to an access point, you simply connect to the other wireless device. You might also see this referred to as an Independent Basic Service Set, or an IBSS.

This might be something that is a very long-term connection. If all you have are two devices, you can simply connect those two together and they will communicate as long as that connection is available. But you might be using this on more of a temporary basis. This might be used in conjunction with an Internet of Things, or IoT device, where you would initially connect to the IoT device over an ad hoc connection. This may allow you to transfer configuration details such as the name of your larger wireless network and any security configurations that have to be included to connect to that wireless network.

At that point, the ad hoc connection is then disabled and the internet of things device can connect to the larger access point network using those configuration parameters.

Some wireless access points allow you to connect two devices directly to each other over a point to point mode. The point to point mode is commonly used to connect larger distances to each other, for example, one building connecting to another building. I’ve run this exact configuration between two homes. So you could have an access point in one house connected to a switch and all of the internal devices of that network connected to the same switch. And then you would have the same configuration in another home and have all of those networks now connected to each other over that point to point mode.

Not all access points support this point to point mode. So you’ll want to be sure that the software of the access point supports point to point, and you’ll want to be sure that the hardware on this device is also able to transmit over that extended distance. You may, for example, require additional types of antennas to be able to bridge that gap between the access points. There might also be a requirement to change the power output between these two devices and to make sure you’re using frequencies that are able to communicate over that longer distance.

And perhaps the most common way to connect to a wireless network is in something called infrastructure mode. This is where you would have a centralized access point. And this is probably the type of wireless networking that you’re using at home and in your office. All of the wireless devices in your home or office connect to that central access point, and you’re able to communicate out to the wired network or between other wireless devices over that same access point.

Some wireless access points give you the option to allow devices to communicate with each other over that wireless network or to isolate each of these wireless devices to only be able to communicate directly to the access point and any networks beyond that access point. You’ll want to check your access point to see how it’s configured for these devices and make sure the proper security is configured on that device.