Going Wireless – Wireless Networking Standards

In computing terms, “wireless” means connecting your computer to other devices using radio waves rather than cables. These can include a router for connecting to a network, a printer, keyboard, mouse or speakers (as long as these devices also have a wireless capability). For the laptop user in particular, this gives you the ultimate freedom: you can take your laptop wherever you want and still be able to access the Internet and use a variety of peripherals.

Wireless standards

As with everything in the world of computers, there are industry standards for wireless connections: for networking devices the standard is known as IEEE 802.11. The purpose of standards is to ensure that all of the connected devices can communicate with each other.

The IEEE 802.11 standard (or just 802.11) used for networks has a number of different variations (known as protocols) of the original standard. These variations have been developed since the introduction of 802.11 in 1997 with a view to making it work faster and cover a greater range. Early wireless devices used the 802.lla and 802.lib protocols, while the most widely used one at the time of writing is the 802.llg protocol.

When you are creating a wireless network it is best to have all of the devices using the same version of 802.11. For instance, if you have a wireless card in your laptop that uses 802.llg then it is best to have the same version in your router. However, most modern wireless cards and routers have multiple compatibility and can cater for at least the b and g versions of the standard. If two devices are using different 802.11 protocols they should still be able to communicate with each other but the rate of data transfer will probably be slower than if both of the devices used the same protocol.

The Bluetooth standard is another method of connecting devices wirelessly. It does not have the same range as 802.11 and is generally now mainly used for connecting cellphones.