Your Guide To Wireless

How To Avoid Wireless Network Interference

For all of their conveniences, wireless networks can suffer from interference. Cordless phones, wireless game controllers, fluorescent lights, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, cordless headsets, and even the neighbor’s wireless network can all interfere with your wireless network. This interference occurs when devices emit signals into the same frequency that your network uses. For example, many cordless phones use the same 2.4GHz band used by 802.11b and 802.11g networks. Even 802.11n dev...

Wireless Puzzle

Before installing a wireless network, you’ll need to determine if any of your computers or mobile devices already have wireless technology and, if they do, which wireless standards they support. If none of your computers have wireless capabilities, you’ll still need to know which wireless standards are compatible with each other so you don’t buy incompatible products Refer to the chart above when purchasing wireless devices

How To Install A Wireless Network

We will show you how to build an entirely wireless network using wireless router, rather than adding a wireless access point to an existing wired network. If you do decide to use an access point with an existing wired broadband router, the following information is still valuable, because you’ll need to follow many of the same steps to configure your access point. A wireless router is the device that sends the wireless signals, including Internet access to other computers on your network, its ...

Will WPA reduce the performance?

Will encryption such as WPA reduce the performance of my 802.11n connection? Yes, wireless encryption can slow the net data throughput of your wireless connection, but the impact should be only slight and not even noticeable unless you’re comparing detailed throughput measurements. Encryption is a mathematical process that has to be applied to data before it’s transmitted and then again once the data is received. A well-designed encryption feature can achieve this at nearly line rate. But...

What You Need For Wireless Network

Freedom is the name of the game when it comes to computing today. Much of that freedom can be attributed directly to wireless networks, which allow consumers to use their desktop and laptop PCs wherever they like around their homes. Over the years, wireless hardware hasn’t changed much from its original formula, but device manufacturers have eased the process of installing and configuring a wireless network. Still, you’ll need a solid working knowledge of wireless concepts and designs before ...

Why are there multiple antennas with 802.11n devices?

Why are there multiple antennas with 802.11n devices? Are the small USB 802.11n adapters with no external antennas just as good as the internal NIC with three big antennas? One of the big benefits to 802.11n is its use of multiple simultaneous communication channels, which breaks the data stream into multiple parts and transmits each part across a different antenna to corresponding antennas on the receiving end. The technique is called MIMO. All types of 802.11n NIC devices use multipl...

Maximum 802.11n Wireless Range

Some one sent email asking what is the maximum practical range for 802.11n, and how I can get the most range? Wireless range is difficult to define because it is influenced by various factors. The big variable is data rate. For example, it’s possible to extend the range by lowering the data rate. Data rates and effective ranges are also impacted by electrical and physical interference to the wireless radio signal. This includes interference from wireless telephones operating in the 2.4GHz or ...