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What is Understanding Wireless?

You maybe argue that you don’t want to understand how wireless works to use it, however, basic understanding would helps when it comes to setup and troubleshooting. For example, people who have trouble setting up their computer, not understanding even the most basic details of how computer viruses spread has ensured not only that viruses spread like wildfire, but also that virus hoax e-mail messages spread as well. One of the overarching solutions for technology use is understanding the technology you’re using, at least to the degree that you can determine what might be going wrong.

Of course, that you don’t need to be an expert. but when it comes to anything to do with computer networking, knowing where to begin troubleshooting helps a great deal. In all my years of working with PCs, two things have always continued to astound us: the fact that PCs work at all, and the fact that you can get a group of them to work together. When you toss the concept of wireless into the bin, it goes beyond astonishment toward.

This book touches on all these topics, and gives you hands-on examples of how to do the things you need to do to make your wireless equipment work for you. Work through part of it and you’ll be able to use your devices more effectively. Work through all of it and you’ll be able to start answering other people’s questions, which, you’ll quickly discover, is something of a mixed blessing, but extremely valuable.

One other thing you’ll get from this book: a strong sense of what all those brain-mushing terms and abbreviations mean. You know the ones: 802.11b, 802.11g, Wireless-G, Wi-Fi, WEP, WPA, wireless broadband, and on and on and on. The computer world is filled with abbreviations, of course, but the wireless industry seems intent on giving us far more than we can handle. As you work through this book, you’ll encounter numerous wireless terms, but in all cases you’ll also find a comprehensible working definition for them, along with a readable explanation of what the technology behind each term actually does, not only how it works, but what it means to you.

Link: PC Magazine Wireless Solutions