Wifi how does it work

It has just changed the way of data transfer and communication. Wi-Fi does not actually stand for anything but from the term, we get a sense of local area wireless technology. WiFi works in the way other wireless devices work.

It actually uses radio frequencies to deliver signals between devices. But here the radio frequencies are completely different from car radios, walkie-talkies, cell phones, and weather radios. By using radio waves, it provides wireless high-speed internet and network connections. After that, a wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. The router is there also to send information to the internet using a wired Ethernet connection. Wi-Fi is just an attractive term used to refer to wireless networks.

Previously, there was the only way to connect devices and the way was network cables to create a local area network.

It was inconvenient. But Wi-Fi lets one connect one device to another without cables. Without any physical connection, you will get the network. The router mainly controls these connections. One device communicates with another device through the router. The internet is known as a wide area network or WAN. It is a vast network linking computers around the globe. After connecting your own wireless network, you will become a part of one huge global network. And it is called the internet.

Initially developed as a way to replace your Ethernet cable the cord that connects computers to the web , Wi-Fi is a popular technology that provides interconnectivity between devices. In the early s, the wired Ethernet network standard was 20 years old, and the twisted-pair LAN cable had been around for a decade. Wired networks were great for reliability and speed, but they weren't especially versatile.

At a time where laptop computers were becoming a popular household electronic, there needed to be a way to communicate with other devices via the internet, wirelessly Time Magazine. A form of electro-magnetic radiation, Wi-Fi waves work completely differently to sound.

Wi-Fi waves have an electric and magnetic aspect, while sound waves work by displacing air Scientific American. Radio works by sending information from a transmitter to a receiver. The transmitter turns electrical signals into fluctuating electromagnetic waves that beam through the air at the speed of light. The receiver catches the waves and turns them back into electrical signals.

The more powerful the transmitter and receiver, the further apart they can be spaced. They're also unobtrusive — unless you're on the lookout for a place to watch streaming movies on your tablet, you may not even notice when you're in a hot spot. 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 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:. 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. The radios used for WiFi communication are very similar to the radios used for walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices.

They can transmit and receive radio waves, and they can convert 1s and 0s into radio waves and convert the radio waves back into 1s and 0s.

But WiFi radios have a few notable differences from other radios:. WiFi uses Other WiFi radios can transmit on any frequency band.

Or they can "frequency hop" rapidly between the different bands. Frequency hopping helps reduce interference and lets multiple devices use the same wireless connection simultaneously. As long as they all have wireless adapters, several devices can use one router to connect to the internet.

This connection is convenient, virtually invisible and fairly reliable; however, if the router fails or if too many people try to use high-bandwidth applications at the same time, users can experience interference or lose their connections, although newer, faster standards like You may be wondering why people refer to WiFi as The The IEEE sets standards for a range of technological protocols, and it uses a numbering system to classify these standards.

A WiFi hot spot is simply an area with an accessible wireless network. The term is most often used to refer to wireless networks in public areas like airports and coffee shops. Some are free and some require fees for use, but in either case they can be handy when you are on the go. You can even create your own mobile hot spot using a cell phone or an external device that can connect to a cellular network. And you can always set up a WiFi network at home.

If you want to take advantage of public WiFi hot spots or your own home-based network, the first thing you'll need to do is make sure your computer has the right gear.

Most new laptops and many new desktop computers come with built-in wireless transmitters, and just about all mobile devices are WiFi enabled. If your computer isn't already equipped, you can buy a wireless adapter that plugs into the PC card slot or USB port. Desktop computers can use USB adapters, or you can buy an adapter that plugs into the PCI slot inside the computer's case.

Many of these adapters can use more than one Once you've installed a wireless adapter and the drivers that allow it to operate, your computer should be able to automatically discover existing networks. This means that when you turn your computer on in a WiFi hot spot, the computer will inform you that the network exists and ask whether you want to connect to it.

If you have an older computer, you may need to use a software program to detect and connect to a wireless network. Being able to connect to the internet in public hot spots is extremely convenient. Wireless home networks are convenient as well. They allow you to easily connect multiple computers and to move them from place to place without disconnecting and reconnecting wires.

In the next section, we'll look at how to create a wireless network in your home. If you already have several computers networked in your home, you can create a wireless network with a wireless access point. If you have several computers that are not networked, or if you want to replace your ethernet network, you'll need a wireless router. This is a single unit that contains:. A wireless router allows you to use wireless signals or ethernet cables to connect your computers and mobile devices to one another, to a printer and to the internet.

Most routers provide coverage for about feet If your home is very large, you can buy inexpensive range extenders or repeaters to increase your router's range. As with wireless adapters, many routers can use more than one Normally, Once you plug in your router, it should start working at its default settings. Most routers let you use a web interface to change your settings. You can select:. Security is an important part of a home wireless network, as well as public WiFi hot spots.

If you set your router to create an open hot spot, anyone who has a wireless card will be able to use your signal. Most people would rather keep strangers out of their network, though.