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Wireless Networks
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Article 1: Wireless Networks Explained
Like wired computer
networks before them, wireless local area
networks (WLANs) allow devices to exchange data
at high speeds. But, WLANs do so without
physically linking everything together, which
eliminates cables cluttering floors and wires
strung through walls or ceilings.
In the not too distant future, instantaneous
wireless communication between all electronic
and computerized business devices will be as
commonplace as TV. Not yet. But soon.
Wireless networks are already here in realistic
and affordable configurations to effectively
link laptops, desktops and peripherals like
printers and storage devices. They even provide
Internet access for multiple users in seamless,
high-speed communication.
WLANs are about where the Internet was when 56K
modems first arrived, before malicious hackers
could be effectively blocked. As it was in those
pioneering Internet days, WLAN’s speed of
communication is adequate, but bandwidth issues
remain, and system integrity is vulnerable to
skilled hackers.
Nevertheless, WLANs offer previously unimagined
flexibility as well as ease of setup,
administration and use. The technology
necessary—an adapter card—is built into many new
laptops. Coupled with the other necessary
component (rabbit-ear type gadgets called access
points), users can affordably link enabled
devices to one another, to a server and to the
Internet.
Although there are competing wireless networking
standards, the clear emerging leader and likely
ultimate winner is Wi-Fi, an acronym for
wireless fidelity. The current leading Wi-Fi
flavor is the 802.11b protocol, which operates
at a frequency of 2.4 Ghz (gigahertz) and is
capable of throughput of up to 11 Mbps
(megabytes per second). Competing standards are
generally slower.
New, even faster Wi-Fi versions (802.11a and
802.11g) are emerging that bump up throughput
substantially. The 802.11a and the even newer
802.11g operate at 5 Ghz and at speeds up to 54
Mbps. Of the newer versions, more channels are
available with 802.11a, which translates to
greater bandwidth.
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