Wireless Internet Terminology - Confusion Or Clarity?
Wireless Internet Terminology like many things in life especially those that have anything to do with computers is filled with terminology. But like most things once you learn a few of the basic terms understanding will come quickly. So don’t be confused get informed & to help clarify I’ve put together a basic wireless “internet-to-english” guide to help you along.
IEEE The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers
The IEEE is in charge of the wireless networking standard as well as many other computer-related standards including the Ethernet standard. They ensure that computer equipment made by different manufacturers can work together.
PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
Simply another standard for how to plug credit card size devices into a laptop computer to boost it’s capabilities. It’s been suggested by some that it should stand for “People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms”. PCMCIA is great way of adding wireless networking to your laptop as easily as inserting a disk.
PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
Used to install devices like graphics cards & network devices inside your computer. You would be using a PCI if you wanted to install a wireless card inside your computer.
802.11
Set by the IEEE it’s the current wireless networking standard. It helps ensure that wireless devices can communicate with one another or in other words they are interoperable.
Interoperable
Simply means that two different pieces of equipment have the ability to speak to each other or another way to put it they are compatible. They can use them together because they were designed using the same standards. Because of the IEEE & the principle of interoperability all wireless equipment you purchase should be compatible.
Driver
Not a piece of golf equipment but computer software that informs a computer how to talk to devices that plug into it. Most wireless networking drivers come on a CD-ROM. You then download the drivers form CD onto your computer.
Ethernet
Currently the most common way of connecting to a LAN or Local Area Network. Most wires connected to your computer today are ethernet & if you have a cable internet connection an ethernet wire is in all likely-hood what is being used to connect to your modem.
USB Universal Serial Bus
A port used for connecting all sorts of devices to a computer including keyboards a mouse printers external hard-drives & basically anything else you can think of. If you don’t have a laptop or want to open up your computer you can get a USB wireless device.
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy
No longer used because in 2001 it was found to have security issues. As a result it now the old standard for encrypting wireless networks.
WPA WiFi Protected Access
The new standard for encrypting wireless networks. An upgrade of WEP to fix security issues. To avoid becoming vulnerable a WPA encrypted network changes encryption methods often. In addition if an attack is detected it has the ability to shut itself down for thirty seconds.
PAN Personal Area Network
A network of devices connected together in one small area. A simple example of a PAN would be your computer USB keyboard & mouse. Using a technology called Bluetooth a PAN can be wireless.
LAN Local Area Network
Briefly mentioned above LAN is computer network that… generally speaking is confined to one building such as a home or office. A wireless LAN is also known as a WLAN.
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
A network that covers a larger area like a city or town. They are expensive but a wireless MAN has the capacity to spread Internet access across a wide area. Many college universities set-up a MAN to connect the entire campus.
WAN Wide Area Network
A network that covers or connects to more than one physical site. A simple example would be a business that has locations in different cities states or countries & they need them each location connected on the same network. The Internet itself is WAN… the biggest WAN in the world.
Mbps Megabits Per Second
Not to be confused with MBps megabytes per second. Mbps is measurement of connection speed. There are eight megabits in a megabyte.
GHz Gigahertz
One gigahertz is one billion cycles per second… it’s a measurement of frequency. If the term sounds familiar it’s probably because it’s also used to measure the processing speed of the CPU on your computer which is also measured in gigahertz.
Linux
A popular & growing alternative operating system to Windows. Linux is less bulky more efficient operating system in many ways than Windows & not to mention it’s free. Many servers run Linux for this reason. Computers running Linux can run many programs & connect to the Internet without needing Windows. Many wireless devices run Linux or are compatible with it.
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