Wireless Networking Essay -- essays research papers

Wireless Networking The term wireless networking is a technology that enables two or more computers to communicate using standard network protocols without network cabling. The industry standard mainly used for wireless networking is IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) 802.11. What this standard is could be described as a wireless network with hardware that requires the use of technology, which deals with radio frequencies as well as data transmission. There are two kinds of wireless networks, Ad-Hoc (Peer to Peer), or access point (base station). Ad-Hoc (Peer to Peer) consists of a number of computers each equipped with a wireless networking interface card. Each computer can communicate to other wireless enabled computers. They can share files and printers, but may not be able access wired LAN resources unless one computer acts as a bridge to connect to a wired LAN. Access points (base stations) can be hardware based or software based. The hardware based access point is a separate component connected to a wired Ethernet network and or server via an interface card. Software based access points can be a computer operating with software installed and is connected to a wired Ethernet network with an interface card. The benefits of software access points are there are fewer components, easier to set up, more cost effective, and have more built in features. Many manufacturers of wireless equipment can function with each other using IEEE 802.11 standards. There are two different methods for wireless communication, Frequency Hopping (FH) and Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS or DS). It is important to check which of these two methods are being used because they can not work together. The latest version of the IEEE 802.11 standard is 11 mbps and 5.5 mbps (mega bits per second), with support for the older standard of one mbps and two mbps speeds. This new standard only covers Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, not Frequency Hopping types. It is expected that the price of wireless networking interface cards to become inexpensive like the Ethernet cards. If your computer is connected to a wireless LAN, you can communicate to a wired LAN. You would need some sort of bridge between the wired and wireless LAN. You would need hardware or software based access point. Hardware access points are available with various types of network interfaces such a... ...d, much less decoded, by simple scanners, short wave receivers etc. You can gain access with specialist equipment. You can protect your data with a function built into 802.11 called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a form of encryption, which provides comparable privacy as the wired network. Traditional Virtual Private Networking (VPN) will work over wireless networks in the same way as traditional wired networks. IEEE 802.11 standard makes it possible to connect anything that has support for instance PDA’s, cell phones, cars, appliances, computers, body suits, electronic watches, etc. This technology is growing fast and soon everything will be communicating with each other. There are many uses of this technology and can be implemented in a number of different ways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Security of data can be minimized using WEP and VPN. The technology is not that old and like most electronics and software, it too will evolve and change over time. More standards and uses are being developed. Technology is only limited by our dreams. http://apple.com/airport http://enterasys.com/com/technologies/wireless http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/ http://wirelessethernet.org