Recently I assembled an Arduino as a web server and I could communicate with it via a cell phone browser. My Arduino had a setting for my network name, password, and an IP address, something like 192.168.1.44. On my cell phone, I could surf to this specific address and make a connection. Since my cell phone surfed to the same address, did I need a router or did I in fact have an access point and not knowing it? I assume that my cell phone went directly to the IP address and a router was not needed.
barryjo:
... My Arduino had a setting for my network name, password, and an IP address, something like 192.168.1.44. On my cell phone, I could surf to this specific address and make a connection. Since my cell phone surfed to the same address, did I need a router or did I in fact have an access point and not knowing it? I assume that my cell phone went directly to the IP address and a router was not needed.
When you say your Arduino had a setting for network name, do you mean SSID? Did you then connect your cell phone to that wifi network using that SSID and password? If so, your Arduino is acting as an access point and running an HTTP server. Your cell phone is then connected to the same network your HTTP server is on allowing you to access it through the 192.168.1.44 IP address.
If you wanted to use a router so other devices could connect to the Arduino HTTP server, you could do this as well. You would need to change the code on your Arduino to connect to your router's network instead of acting as an access point.