Many Wireless Options

Some wireless connections to the Internet can be slower than connections through a high-speed wired Internet connection (such as a LAN or a DSL or cable modem service), but they’re much more convenient when you’re away from home base. However, there are several types of wireless network access, each of which has its own set of benefits and drawbacks.

The most common wireless services include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and several digital cellular data technologies. EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution), 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service, also called WCDMA, or Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access) and 1xRTT (Radio Transmission Technology), are all methods for sending data through a cellular mobile telephone network.

With a few exceptions, the data transfer rate decreases as the coverage area increases; in other words, you can exchange files and Internet services faster through a nearby Wi-Fi hotspot than through a cellular data service that covers an entire metropolitan area. The exceptions are a mobile modem, which uses the mobile voice network, and WiMAX, which is not yet available in most locations.

Eventually, the radios and network interfaces that support wireless access to the Internet will automatically find the type of signal that can handle the fastest data transfer to and from your current location, and set up a link to your computer. In the future, when you’re in an airport waiting area or a coffee shop, the computer will find and use a fast Wi-Fi service; but when you’re visiting your elderly aunt, it will use one of the slower cellular data services instead. Today, that kind of seamless handover is not yet possible so you must set up each type of link separately