Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wi-fi, wifi) is a designation for wireless connection of various terminal devices (e.g. PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone) and their connection to the computer network (no matter whether local or to the internet). It is a wireless technology that is now virtually in all laptops and even in some mobile phones.

Standard Wi-Fi was set up by Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance. From a technical perspective, the Wi-Fi is a standard IEEE 802.11, which utilizes free bandwidth of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (2.4 GHz is more often used). The standard is used in several variants (a variant is always marked on the device or in its technical specification):

• 802.11a - 5 GHz band, the maximum transmission rate of 54 Mbit/s, with the real data rate 25 Mbit/s (3.1 MB/s)
• 802.11b - 2.4 GHz band, the maximum transmission rate of 11 Mbit/s, withthe real data rate 700 kB/s
• 802.11g - 2.4 GHz band, the maximum transmission rate of 54 Mbit/s, with the real data rate 25 Mbit/s (3.1 MB/s)
• 802.11n - 2.4 and 5 GHz band, the maximum transmission rate of 600 Mbit/s, with the real data rate 201 Mbit/s (25 MB/s)

Currently, the most common is 802.11g. The successor to Wi-Fi should be WiMAX wireless technology.

Wi-Fi in practice: Wi-Fi is ideal for building a computer network without the need for laying cables. Since this is a technology that uses unlicensed frequency band (for its building and operation no license or authorities permission is necessary), the Wi-Fi network can be built by anyone. Wi-Fi networks are commercially available and therefore the network can be built cheaply, with relatively sufficient bandwidth.

Wi-Fi network security: The construction and use of the network using Wi-Fi is important to ensure secure data transfer (see encryption). The issue of security, as well as with other wireless technologies is very important. Unlike wired network, network connection cannot be secured by access to connection points, because the wireless signal is spread in all directions. Anyone can easily connect to the network, therefore it has to be protected. For this the encryption at various levels and a variety of other methods to secure communications on the Wi-Fi network is used (see how to secure a wireless Wi-Fi network).

Related terms and methods:

• Access point (AP)
• AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
• Authorization
• Bluetooth
• Computer Network
• Encryption
• Enterprise Computer Network
• Ethernet
• Firewall
• Gateway
• Hotspot
• IEEE 802.1x
• IEEE 802.11
• MAC address
• PSK (Pre-Shared Key)
• SSID (Service Set Identifier)
• VPN (Virtual Private Network)
• WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
• Wimax
• WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
• WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2), IEEE 802.11i

Related management field:

• Informatics

Related instructions:

• How to create a business network
• How to create a wireless computer network
• How to secure a wireless Wi-Fi network