![]() You see unsecured connections in some public areas like coffee shops, libraries, schools, or airports. A secured WiFi connection is password-protected, while an unsecured one allows anyone to connect to it freely without having a password or additional information. ![]() The router’s wireless settings allow you to set up your WiFi network as secured or unsecured. It really can present a risk to your security as well as performance. ![]() What’s more, those other users could potentially access personal information through your wireless network. For one, having unwanted visitors sharing your connection can slow it down considerably. Our personal networks aren’t meant to be accessed by everyone. When it comes to security, WiFi is quite different from listening to the radio. Once you know how to do it on one device, the rest are likely to be a breeze. Laptops, tablets, and smartphones often use similar icons and steps for connecting to WiFi. Getting connected to a wireless network is something anyone can do, as long as you have a working router, know your network name and password, and know how to access the wireless setup on each of your devices. The good news is, as with most advanced technologies, using WiFi is far easier than understanding how it works. Amazing! Meanwhile, radio frequencies you listen to in your car travel at a speed of thousands (Kilohertz) or millions (Megahertz) of waves per second. That means those waves are traveling through the air at a rate of billions (Gigahertz) of waves per second. This is why many devices and networks have the option of selecting a different frequency range, to avoid signal interference.įor WiFi, the frequencies used are 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) and 5 GHz. For instance, smart home hub systems such as Zigbee and Z-Wave, as well as Bluetooth devices, tend to operate at frequencies similar to wireless networks. There can be some interference if the frequencies are too similar. We have car radios that receive AM and FM signals, microwaves and other appliances that emit radio waves, and WiFi-enabled devices, all operating at slightly different frequencies. These waves travel at certain frequencies. The way any radio setup works, you need a sending device and receiving device set to the same frequency to share data over radio waves. So you only need one unit to fill both functions: the modem to bring in the connection and the router to transmit it wirelessly throughout your home. Most modems today have the router built right in. Your internet signal is broadcasted via radio waves from a router’s antenna to any wireless device in range that can access that network. Clearly, no one has enough ports on their modem or yards of cords to hook up all those devices we use today! If you didn’t have WiFi, you would then have to connect every internet device you own to the back of your modem using multiple Ethernet cables. ![]() And your modem then connects to that through an Ethernet cord. ![]() The outside network connects to a jack in your home. Some services also use the same coaxial cable you might use for cable TV. It was, however, a direct pun on the audio term “hi-fi” (high fidelity), which caused the confusion.Ī wireless network can also be referred to as WLAN, which stands for “wireless local area network.”Īn internet provider brings your internet connection to your home over a network of wires, which can be either copper, as in DSL lines, or fiber-optic cables used in fiber internet. The term was invented in 1999 by a branding company to make the first standardized wireless protocol (IEEE 802.11) sound a lot cooler. WiFi, sometimes written as Wi-Fi or wi-fi, is often mistakenly thought to stand for “wireless fidelity.” But it doesn’t - not exactly. ![]()
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