There are lots of post on SO regarding setting up AP (Hotspot) on android mobile. However, in all these cases, the AP is a conduit to the outside internet world. In my case, I just want a server application running over a mobile setup as an AP. And let all the client android mobiles connect to it, send their data and disconnect if they like. No internet connection is assumed (i.e, no gprs/3g etc).
My observations: If I setup a wifi AP (via settings -> tethering and portable hotspots) when it is also connected to GPRS, then another android phone can successfully connect to this AP and send the data to the application. However, if I disable the GPRS, even though the client shows that it is connected to the AP, it can't seem to send any data. It seems that an external internet connection is a necessity for the AP mode to work.
Is this understanding correct? Or am I setting something wrong?