AD-HOC NETWORK

What is AD-HOC network ?

On wireless computer networks, ad-hoc mode is a method for wireless devices to directly communicate with each other. Operating in ad-hoc mode allows all wireless devices within range of each other to discover and communicate in peer-to-peer fashion without involving central access points (including those built in to broadband wireless routers).

To set up an ad-hoc wireless network, each wireless adapter must be configured for ad-hoc mode versus the alternative infrastructure mode. In addition, all wireless adapters on the ad-hoc network must use the same SSID and the same channel number.

An ad-hoc network tends to feature a small group of devices all in very close proximity to each other. Performance suffers as the number of devices grows, and a large ad-hoc network quickly becomes difficult to manage. Ad-hoc networks cannot bridge to wired LANs or to the Internet without installing a special-purpose gateway.

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.

For the hackers

This method works with all versions of Windows. This article is relevant and important here since the best way to start with hacking is to practice on yourself. You are going to need two adapters for this task. One on Windows which will create the network, and another on Kali Linux which will hack the network. This article concentrates only on the former part of the exercise, and we'll only create an ad-hoc network here. So non-hackers too can follow from here on.

For everyone

• Get access to an elevated command prompt (with administrator privileges). [On Windows 8 : Press Windows key + X or hover your mouse to the lowermost corner on the left part of the screen and right click. Then click "Command Prompt Admin"
• Now type netsh wlan show drivers
• If the hosted network supported says yes, move on to the next step
• Now type - netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<enter_network_name_here> key=<enter_password_here>
• Finally type  netsh wlan start hostednetwork. Your ad-hoc network is ready.