ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi all
this might seem trivial and basic but!!!
after a couple of months playing with ESP's and going through a lot of examples I realise that I still know very little about the 8266.
Can anyone explain or point me in the right direction of documents which go through the basics, i.e.
the three modes of the 8266 are: STA AP and AP_STA but what exactly does each mean and how are they used I have gleaned a lot from other peoples work (and there is a LOT of good work around) but to move on I think I need some sort of definitive explanation.
Also when (and how) to use soft-app etc
any help would be much appreciated
Dave

This is not specific only to ESP8266, but to any WiFi in general.
A quick search on Google and/or Wikipedia would have answered you.
https://www.google.ca/#q=wikipedia+wifi+sta+ap

STA = Station only, it is a client to a remote AP router.
AP = Access Point, it is acting as an access point where multiple clients can connect to it.
STA+AP = it actually manage to be both STA and AP on two separate network interfaces.