wireless lan : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

The catch is, by default, anyone in “earshot” can tap into your LAN as if there were one of your computers. Make sure you configure encryption, user ids and passwords to make each station log into your LAN. You must give your wireless network an name. Other wireless LAN users in your building will also see this, so keep it clean and informative e.g. “Apt 1a, 2030 Main Street”. Usually you let the configuration program pick a random encryption key. You can use my password generator to compute and unguessable one for you. Write it down in case you later have to refresh the memory of your devices.

Wireless LANs are usually slightly slower than using cable, and they are more susceptible to electical interference.

The advantage is ease of installation and lack of clutter from the cables.

A wireless LAN is not totally wireless. It will have at least a cable to the Internet modem.

Some advanced cell-phones take advantage of any nearby wireless LAN for fast, free data transfer, particularly music, video and web surfing. This only works within a building. For fast transfer to a cell-phone tower, you need 3G.

On 2009-09-14 the new IEEE 802.11n standard was ratified. It supports 300+ megabits per second.

	recommend Amazon⇒Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless Router
	asin: B0014J07R2
Its full name is Ciscco/Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router. You will notice it has no antennas rather than the usual one or two. Has four ports. Wireless-G, 54 Mbps, i.e. 5 times faster than the old 10 Mbps wired lans and half the speed the standard 100 Mbps ones, and 1/20 the speed of the new gigabit wired LANs.
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	recommend Amazon⇒Linksys WRT600N Wireless Router
	asin: B000WG3ZU4
Its full name is Cisco/Linksys WRT600N Linksys Ultra RangePlus Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link. You will notice it has three antennas rather than the usual one or two. This gives it extended range, e.g. to the back yard by eliminating deadspots. Has four ports. Wireless-G, 54 Mbps, i.e. 5 times faster than the old 10 Mbps wired lans and half the speed the standard 100 Mbps ones, and 1/20 the speed of the new gigabit wired LANs.
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