Antennas are used with Wi-Fi cards to give them a better connection to the access point broadcasting a signal.

Antennas are used with access points to add power (and range) to the access point’s radio broadcast. They are also an integral part of a Wi-Fi network that covers a substantial area. The use of antennas with your access points can greatly reduce costs in deploying a wireless local area network because you can use fewer access points than you would need without the antennas.

If you are planning to use antennas as part of your Wi-Fi network deployment, it’s important to understand the different kinds of antennas that are available.

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Vendors that try to stretch the range of wireless products have come under fire from a UK consultant for making airwave congestion worse. It is common in cities to find several Wi-Fi cells overlapping, and the longer the range, the more there are likely overlaped. Yet vendors often boast extended range, the wireless equivalent of shouting, as if it is an unalloyed good thing.

Bill Ray, of consultancy Arcchart, said long-range links are available from technologies such as WiMax, GSM and 3G, and there is a need for short-range wireless to minimise interference between neighbours. Yet even the IEEE standards body is extending the reach of Wi-Fi with the next generation 802.11n specification, which is designed for local links. Ray writes in a company newsletters: The latest standards to emerge from IEEE could easily see the effective range of Wi-Fi doubling with disastrous consequences.

The problem is that while a house in California might stretch the 45m limit of an access point, much of the world is less spacious: a typical Victorian terrace in London is only 5.5m wide, allowing the signal from access point to be shared by around 10 other properties.

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Creative’s Live Wireless Webcam sends footage directly to a secure Web address. Users with an assigned login and password can access the camera from nearly any Web browser, letting them monitor a child from another room in the house, or even check up on a new nanny from a cubicle at work.

Wireless networks require the same security measures as conventional networks. The issues that concern you in the wired realm should still concern you with wireless networks and devices: Keep the encryption strong, keep the certificates in place, and keep focused on security. Wireless security isn’t a matter of different security, it’s a matter of more security. Here are the most common security oversights and how you can avoid them.

Don’t breach your own firewall

You’ve firewal to protect the network, wireless or wired. However, you’ve done yourself no good if your configuration doesn’t place your wireless system’s access points outside the firewall. Make sure it does, otherwise, you’re not only failing to create a necessary barrier, you’re creating a convenient tunnel through one that was already there.

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The Wireless Network Setup Wizard is another new feature offered by Service Pack 2. You can use this wizard after you’ve purchased and installed the wireless hardware required for your computers, as well as the associated wireless access point(s). Access points are what allow the information to be transmitted wirelessly, and are a required part of the wireless network. These can also be routers.

While working through the wizard, you’ll have only a few decisions to make, but to do so you’ll need a brief understanding of the technology behind the network you want to create. As a primer, prior to running the wizard, make sure you’ve answered these questions:
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Two different groups testing new wireless products based on a draft standard of next-generation Wi-Fi technology are cautioning consumers against buying pre-standard networking gear. The Farpoint Group and the technology trade publication eWeek have released the results of tests on new products using draft versions of the 802.11n standard. While eWeek’s assessment was not nearly as negative as the Farpoint Group’s, both groups concurred that it was still too soon for consumers to buy products using 802.11n.

The 802.11n standard, which should be finalized early next year, will allow notebook users to connect to wireless access points at speeds much faster than what’s currently available with 802.11g technology.The 802.11n standard will use multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology, which is expected to improve range and throughput.

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Everything is going wireless! It’s a craze! At the center of the wireless dust storm is computer networking. By going wireless, you avoid having to attach another wire to your computer. Most folks figure anything that reduces the wire count by one must be a good thing.

A wireless NIC works just like a wired NIC, though it has no wire. Instead, it uses an antenna. The antenna connects to a base station. The base station acts as a wireless hub or router, and it can connect the wireless network to a broadband modem, a wire-based network, a shared printer, or even another wireless base station.

To keep all your wireless networking devices happy, they must support the same networking standard. The standard is known by a famous number: in this case, 802.11. That number is followed by a letter, either a little A, B, G or the latest N. If you go wireless, ensure that all your gizmos match the same standard, such as 802.11b or 802.11g or 802.11n. You can also pay more for wireless devices that match multiple standards, such as a wireless 802.11a/b/g/n NIC.

• The setup for wireless networks is much more involved than setting up a wired network. Wireless networks are also more expensive and not as secure.
• Apple is known to advertise its Macintosh computers as AirPort-ready, which means that they’re capable of accessing the Apple AirPort network. Note that you still need to buy the AirPort card (or NIC) to make your Macintosh wireless.
• Ensure that your version of Linux supports whatever wireless networking standard you choose, which will most likely be 802.11b/g. Again, hardware is needed for this software dictating; you don’t want to be stuck having to write your own Linux wireless networking drivers!