Feature: Complete guide to Wifi

There’s something akin to a political mantra in technology circles – wireless, wireless, wireless. Specifically in computing, the rage right now is wireless networking.

That means enabling one or more PCs to communicate with devices such as printers and connect to the internet without cables. It means that several users may share files and folders and an internet connection, say. It is a lot less messy than routing wires all over the place.

However, although a wireless network might be physically neat, the world of wireless networking is far from tidy. It is littered with enough acronyms, abbreviations and jargon to overwhelm even experienced PC users. It’s no wonder that so many people find wireless networking a worrisome prospect.

Well, worry no more – we’re here to help. In the first few pages of this feature, we’ll explain what wireless standards mean, and then we will move on to show exactly what’s needed to get a wireless network up and running, at home or in an office. And be assured, we’ll keep the jargon to a minimum.

Which wireless?
There are several varieties of wireless network. For instance, a mobile phone relies on a wireless network of sorts, with coverage provided by radio masts dotted around the country in a cellular arrangement. Similarly, some mobile phone accessories, such as cordless earpieces, rely on another type of wireless network – a short-range system called Bluetooth.However, we will be looking at wireless networking for PCs.

These days this technology is often referred to as Wifi, which is short for wireless fidelity. This term also lends its name to the industry organisation responsible for negotiating and agreeing standards for all things Wifi: called the Wifi Alliance (www.wifi.org). The group is made up of over 250 members, which includes just about every technology company we could name. To all intents and purposes, then, these days the terms wireless networking and Wifi are interchangeable.

Organisation frustration
But while the Wifi Alliance is in charge of certifying compatibility between products, the Alliance is not responsible for ratifying wireless standards as ‘official’. That job belongs to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE.

Now, being a technically-minded bunch, the folks at the IEEE have little favour for consumer-friendly branding, such as Wifi. Instead, it prefers to label the computer-based wireless-networking standards (or ‘protocols’) that it ratifies with a filing number – which in this case is 802.11.

To further ache confused consumer heads, the IEEE has to date ratified several different varieties of 802.11 wireless networking, appending a letter onto the end of the 802.11 label to distinguish one from another. So, right now it’s possible to buy wireless networking gear that conforms to 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. It’s also possible to buy kit that promises compatibility with 802.11n – a standard that’s yet to be officially ratified.

Of course, none of these labels actually tells consumers anything useful about the equipment they describe. More to the point, nor do they guarantee seamless compatibility between any two products supposedly adhering to the same standard, which might seem to defeat the whole purpose of having formalised standards in the first place – but we’ll explore compatibility issues later.