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Networking With a Wireless Router
With the advent of wireless networking and laptops, we have greatly increased our ability to connect to the Internet without the use of a cord. There are a lot of advantages to wireless networking including convenience, mobility and low cost. There are also a few disadvantages which include lack of security, lack of range, lack of reliability, and lack of speed. While discussions on most of these disadvantages are beyond the scope of this article, I will touch on wireless security in the last paragraph. Suffice it to say for now that a wireless network is not as secure, reliable, fast, or far reaching as a hard wired network. That being said let us look at what it takes to implement a wireless network.
There are only a few things needed to implement and use a wireless network. You must have a connection to the internet, a wireless access point, and a computer with a wireless receiver. The internet connection plugs directly into the WAP. The WAP or Wireless Access Point is a router that takes the internet traffic and broadcasts it over a radio frequency, and also takes the traffic from the radio frequency and routes it out to the internet. There are at least two things that need to be configured on the WAP. First we must configure the internet part of it so that the internet can be accessed from router. Then we must configure the wireless part so that other computers can contact it over the air waves. Lastly, the computer must be configured. The wireless software gets loaded which helps to do all necessary configurations and sets up any security settings. After these are set up, we have implemented a working wireless network!
Wireless Networking
Start wireless networking with making sure that your computer has the right device for wireless internet connections. Most of the new models out in the market today have built-in wireless transmitters but older models need a wireless adapter plugged into a USB port or PC card slot to make it Wi-Fi capable. New wireless adapter models are compatible with the different 802.11 standards.
Upon installation of the wireless adapter, drivers should be installed to enable the computer or laptop to detect existing Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity and then be prompt for connection. Older computers may need a special program to detect and connect to existing Wi-Fi networks.