Wi-Fi

Do you ever have a moment where you step back and think how something you use every day actually works?

Have you ever stopped to consider exactly how e-mail or streaming video gets into your smartphone or tablet so quickly?

More specifically have you ever wondered how the heck computers actually communicate wirelessly?

Well, that is exactly the question we are going to be tackling in today’s topic.

What is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity and is the same thing as saying WLAN which stands for Wireless Local Area Network. Wi-Fi is actually very similar to a radio signal. All sound and data sent over the air uses waves. Waves can have different frequencies (how close together they are), amplitudes (how big they are), and phases (how they are aligned in time).

Wi-Fi does the exact same thing as a radio by transmitting at a very different frequency. It uses radio frequencies to send signals between devices. The radio frequencies are completely different say from walky talkies, car radios, cell phone and weather radios. For example, your car stereo receives frequencies in Kilohertz and Megahertz range (AM and FM stations) and Wi-Fi transmits and receives data in the Gigahertz range.

How Does Wi-Fi Work?

As mentioned above, a Wi-Fi network makes use of radio waves to transmit information across a network. The computer should include a wireless adapter that will translate data sent into a radio signal. This same signal will be transmitted via an antenna to a decoder known as the router. Once decoded, the data will be sent to the internet through a wired Ethernet connection. As the wireless network will work as a two-way traffic, the data received from the internet will also pass through the router to be coded into a radio signal that will be receipt by the computer’s wireless adapter.

Wi-Fi can be said as convenience. This is because after a brief set-up, most devices connect to the network automatically. For example, when you go to work, your smartphone finds the office Wi-Fi network. When you arrive home, the phone finds the wireless network there. This happens without any effort on your part. However, Wi-Fi is limited with the range network. Much more than 200 feet from the router, the signal becomes too weak to be useful and your device will disconnect from the network. It also take some time to setting up a network and need your patience.

References 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/57916/how-does-wi-fi-signal-work

 http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4693928_wifi-work.html