Steps to Connecting

When a wireless NIC and wireless router want to establish a connection, several steps need to occur, as shown in Figure 10-1 and described in the following sections. The example assumes your wireless NICs can see signals from two wireless routers, KF34DC3, which we have been using in previous examples as your router, and a second system named homenet, which is a neighbor’s wireless router.

Figure 10-1. How a Wireless NIC Joins a Wireless Network

Scanning

First, the wireless NIC must perform a scan for available wireless signals, similar to the way your cell phone searches for a network when you turn it on. The NIC makes a list of the available wireless networks, including their SSID and channel. In this example the systems found were KF34DC3 and homenet.