What Is WiFi?

Wi-Fi is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange datawirelessly (using radio waves) over a computer network, including high-speed Internet connections. The term wifi is derieved form Wireless Fidelity. A wireless network uses radio waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios do. In fact, communication across a wireless network is a lot like two-way radio communication.

Here's what happens: 1. A computer's wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it using an antenna. 2. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. The router sends the information to the Internet using a physical, wired Ethernet connection.

The process also works in reverse, with the router receiving information from the Internet, translating it into a radio signal and sending it to the computer's wireless adapter. WiFi has a lot of advantages. Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They're also unobtrusive -- unless you're on the lookout for a place to use your laptop, you may not even notice when you're in a hotspot. In this article, we'll look at the technology that allows information to travel over the air. We'll also review what it takes to create a wireless network in your home. A device that can use Wi-Fi (such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, tablet, or digital audio player) can connect to a network resource such as the Internet via a wireless network access point. Such an access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (65 feet) indoors and a greater range outdoors. Hotspot coverage can comprise an area as small as a single room with walls that block radio waves or as large as many square miles this is achieved by using multiple overlapping access points. Wi-Fi has had a checkered security history. Its earliest encryption system, WEP, proved easy to break. Much higher quality protocols, WPA and WPA2, were added later. However, an optional feature added in 2007, called Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), has a flaw that allows a remote attacker to recover the router's WPA or WPA2 password in a few hours on most implementations.

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communications standard designed to provide 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates,[1] with the 2011 update providing up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations. It is a part of a fourth generation, or4G, of wireless-communication technology. WiMax far surpasses the 30-metre (100-foot) wireless range of a conventional Wi-Fi local area network (LAN), offering a metropolitan area network with a signal radius of about 50 km (30 miles). The name "WiMAX" was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".[2] WiMax offers data-transfer rates that can be superior to conventional cablemodem and DSL connections, however, the bandwidth must be shared among multiple users and thus yields lower speeds in practice.

Internet access WiMAX can provide at-home or mobile Internet access across whole cities or countries. In many cases this has resulted in competition in markets which typically only had access through an existing incumbent DSL (or similar) operator. Additionally, given the relatively low costs associated with the deployment of a WiMAX network (in comparison with 3G, HSDPA, xDSL, HFC or FTTx), it is now economically viable to provide last-mile broadband Internet access in remote locations.

Mobile phones HTC announced the first WiMAX enabled mobile phone, the Max 4G, on November 12, 2008. The device was only available to certain markets in Russia on the Yota network. HTC and Sprint Nextel released the second WiMAX enabled mobile phone, the EVO 4G, March 23, 2010 at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas. The device, made available on June 4, 2010, is capable of both EV-DO(3G) and WiMAX(4G) as well as simultaneous data & voice sessions. WiMAX is a long range system, covering many kilometres, that uses licensed or unlicensed spectrum to deliver connection to a network, in most cases the Internet.