Connecting 3 computers using ad-hoc feature of Wi-Fi

Question

The 802.11g allows P2P ad-hoc (non-infrastructure) connection between two Computers with WiFi capabilities. But is it possible, practically or theoretically (as in only on paper but the network would be quirky or unstable) to connect three computers using this feature? Something like a triangular structure? Eg: A <--> B AND B <--> C In such a case can i ping the host C from A directly? (OS is strictly Windows 7)

Answer 1

Yes, Wi-Fi ad-hoc (technically called "IBSS" in the IEEE 802.11 standard) networks can support any number of computers. It was designed from the beginning to support any number of computers. Macs and Windows machines will automatically do IPv4 link-local addressing (169.254.x.x self-assigned IP addresses) and IPv6 link-local addressing as well, for that matter.

Beware that for an IBSS network to work well, all devices must be in radio range of all other devices, because there's no AP to perform intra-BSS relay to help out devices that need to talk to each other but aren't in range of each other.

Answer 2

You mean multi-hop adhoc? No, IBSS doesn't have native multihop support. Node B, when receiving ping packets addressed to C from A, considers the packets as sent to C directly and discards them, since B wouldn't know whether C is in the range of A or not.

Utilities in higher layer are needed to perform the relay/routing. Maybe Daihinia would work for you since you want strictly Windows 7.

Answer 3

On Windows 7 you can try VirtualWiFi http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/virtualwifi/

Answer 4

As I used Ad-hoc networks it was also possible with more than one computer.

Make sure the IP-configuration all computers have the same ip-net. If the configuration of IP is set to automatic all computers can communicate. Only in some cases some computer games have a problem.