Wireless Networking

Is increasingly common in homes today. Broadband internet connections are divided between computers, around the house.

Over the past few years, wireless networking has blossomed, often you can find connections in coffee shops, airport lounges and hotels rooms.

The WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance) trademarked the Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) name and provided a logo for products that met its standards. The 802.11 wireless networks from different suppliers all work together. The Wi-Fi industry is developing rapidly, and new standards such as 802.11a and 802.11g have replaced the 802.11b. Both 11a and 11g are much faster than 802.11b -nominally 54Mbits/sec compared with 11Mbits/sec.

Wi-Fi is not limited to broadband: you can easily use it with a dial-up modem. Wi-Fi makes sharing the broadband connection simple.

Start with a wireless hub

  1. plug that into your ADSL modem.
  2. connect the computers, Macs, Pocket PCs
  3. connect to the Wi-Fi system by plugging in a wireless Ethernet card or router, USB port or USB modem.
  4. Connect the Wi-Fi ADSL router to the broadband connection
  5. Insert the CD that came with the products for the automated set-up process.

Most combined routers pack the Wi-Fi capability, an ADSL modem and a router into one unit. For example ; BT, Netgear, D-Link and Vigor.

Within the software there are configuration details for encapsulation, authentication, VCI and VPI, TCP/IP, NDIS, DNS, DHCP, gateway addresses, SSIDs, etc.

The SSID - short for Service Set Identifier - is what differentiates one wireless network from another, and all the devices that connect to your Wi-Fi system must use the same SSID.

Your equipment should all have the same default SSID. This simplifies the set-up and security.

Keep eavesdroppers out with (WEP) Wireless Equivalent Privacy encryption or a more secure system called Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).