What is WiFi?
The shortest answer is: WiFi is a wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide networking connectivity between devices.
A common misconception is that the term Wi-Fi is short for “wireless fidelity,” however this is not the case. The phrase Wi-Fi is simply a trademarked phrase that encapsulates the various wireless networking standards in the “IEEE 802.11x” family.
IEEE 802.11 is a networking standard from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is governed by the WiFi alliance. Who unfortunately aren’t a band of super heroes, but they do make sure all WiFi devices can talk to each other regardless of manufacturer thanks to their implementation of networking standards. But that’s a long and boring topic we can talk about another time.
So how does Wi-Fi Work?
To some people Wireless networking might just appear to be some kind of magic, but it’s actually not that complicated:
The key components to a Wi-Fi Network are an Access point and a Wireless interface for the client device.
A Wireless access point is a device that gives out a wireless network. In a home network this would normally be your Hub or Router that your ISP provides. This device broadcasts a Radio frequency that WiFi transceivers in client devices can connect to and this forms the network.
Wi-Fi variants:
There are several versions of the IEEE802.11 standard but they all vary based on 2 main things:
The Band width & the Transfer speed
Below is a graph showing the main variants of the 802.11 standard
|
Standard |
Freq band |
Max data rate |
|
802.11 |
2.4Ghz |
2Mbps |
|
802.11b |
2.4Ghz |
11Mbps |
|
802.11a |
5.0GGhz |
54Mbps |
|
802.11g |
2.4Ghz |
54Mbps |
|
802.11n |
2.4Ghz 5.0Ghz |
300 or 600Mbps |
|
802.11ac |
5.0Ghz |
6.93Gbps |
2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz
The decision here needs a little physics knowledge – a wave loses strength faster at higher frequencies than it does at low frequencies. This is the same with Wi-Fi signals as it is with any other type of wave for example an audio wave.
If you’re neighbours have their music on loud you can normally hear the bass really clearly in your house but you lose all the top end and clarity, this is because the bass is a lower frequency and the vocals are a higher frequency, the higher frequency waves dissipate far quicker than the lower frequency waves. So, devices using the 5GHz (the higher frequency) band will have faster transfer speeds but will have a shorter range than a 2.4Ghz network (Lower frequency network).
So, if you want your network to cover a large area then you want to use a 2.4Ghz network instead of a 5Ghz one.
You also must bear in mind that radio signals travel in a straight line and any objects that block the path will reduce your signals strength especially walls much the same as with the music example earlier.
So for anyone, who lives in an old house like me you most likely have very thick solid brick walls which can be a serious issue for the strength of a wireless signal from room to room, making wireless networking very difficult.
A Few tips to help you along:
- Try and position your Router in the centre of the area you want covered.
- Avoid putting your Router inside of a cupboard or anything that cause obstruction.
- Keep your router away from other objects that could cause interference – cordless phones, microwaves & baby monitors.
- If you are struggling with wireless signal in one room, consider how many walls or floors the signal is passing through and see if you could reduce this somehow.
- Powerline adapters, for devices that you can wire into your network but aren’t anywhere near your router:
- These turn your electrical cabling into network cabling, so you don’t have to run network cables around your house. One end plugs into your router and a wall socket and the other end comes out of a wall socket and plugs into a network device. (note, this only works if the two sockets are on the same ring main)
- Wifi Boosters
- I’ve seen limited success with these, for some people they work well for others not so well. The idea is it works like a repeater. You would put it on the edge of your wireless network and the device will amplify the signal. The problem here is that it’s amplifying an already degraded signal and can sometimes cause more hassle than they’re worth.
- The ultimate solution is to have multiple devices that broadcast your wireless network. These are called Access Points. You normally only have one and it’s built into your router, but there are ways to have multiple Access points setup. Usually you would connect them together through a wired network.
- A technology called Mesh networking is now starting to get some main stream attention and this doesn’t require the devices to be physically connected. They talk to each other via a separate channel nothing else uses to reduce network noise, but We’ll talk about Mesh networking at a later date as it’s a whole new topic.
Thanks for watching the video and reading my blog!
– Adam B
