|
Wi-Fi is a wireless technology standard defined by IEEE. It is a radio frequency standard used for connecting various devices
like computers using a wireless connection.
Wi-Fi became a popular wireless technology today and is being used in video games, MP3 players, PDAs, mobile phones, home networks.
Almost all computer-related devices manufactured today can support Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is cheap and also easy to set up. Also Wi-Fi provides faster data transfer speeds and wide range compared to Bluetooth.
|
|
Wi-Fi provides the ability to connect a Wi-Fi enabled device such as computer, PDA, mobile phone or other devices to the internet when they are in Wi-Fi range that is connected to internet.
We can notice the Wi-Fi zones in airports, libraries, colleges, restaurants.
These are also called HotSpots where we can access the internet wirelessly even being in the public places.
Some provide free wireless access whereas some may charge for using the service.
Wi-Fi networks use any of the three radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b or 802.11g to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. So, it involves transmission and reception of radio signals.
While transmitting the data from our computer to the internet, the digital data is first converted to radio signals by the wireless adapter in our computer. Then the radio signals are transmitted using the antenna.
The wireless router in turn receives these radio signals and sends the decoded information to the internet.
While receiving the data from the internet, the router translates the digital information to radio signal and sends it to the wireless adapter of our computer. As Wi-Fi can operate at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies, the data transfer rate will be high.
|
|
Using Wi-Fi with our computer
If our desktop or laptop has built-in wireless transmitters, then they can automatically find the existing nearby networks when we turn on our computer and ask us if we want to connect to those networks.
If our computer doesn’t have the built-in facility then we can buy an USB wireless adapter or PC card slot wireless adapter and use it for our computer to make it Wi-Fi enabled.
|
|
