In teaching my algebraic topology class, this group showed up as part of an easy fundamental group computation: $\langle a,b\mid a^2=b^2\rangle$. My first instinct was that this must be $\mathbb{Z}*\mathbb{Z}/2$ because clearly every element can be written as a product of $b$'s (only to the power 1) and powers of $a$. But this turns out to be far from clear (and likely wrong). I assume this must be a well-known group to group theorists, so I'm curious if it's isomorphic to something that can be described by other means (or what's known about it in general).
Thanks!