For most people Wireless Networking or WIFI networks (wireless fidelity) can be considered a bit of a grey area. There are a number of facts to consider such as what you need to do to get two or more machines communicating.
Do you want to be able to print wirelessly? Would you like to share an Internet connection? And of course how do you make it secure?
We shall cover all the necessary steps to help you setup Wireless Networking Communication in a way that’s right for you.
The first thing to consider is which technology you want to use, you have a choice of two.
The first is called 802.11b this will give you a data transmission speed of 11mbps, the second is called 802.11g, this will give you data transfer speeds of up to 54mbps.
As you can see 802.11g is faster than 802.11b, which is not surprising as it is after all newer technology.
But this then means that it will cost more to implement although not by a great amount.
I’d certainly recommend you go the 802.11g route as apart from the speed; it is also backward compatible so you can connect devices using 802.11b if necessary.
Ok so you’ve decided on which technology to go for
If your wireless networking communication setup is going to have an Internet connection you really have two choices here, the first is the access point network, basically you purchase a device called a wireless router or router/modem, and this will then share your Internet connection for you
wireless networking communication guide
The other type is the Ad Hoc network connection, this type uses no hardware router or modem, and it actually uses a pc in place of this, the Internet connection is connected to a computer via a hard cable type connection.
ICS ( Internet connection sharing ) is then enabled and then the Internet connection is shared.
Regardless of which type of network you are using So if you need security please read our windows security fact sheet and our windows Antispyware guide to make sure your computer is secure and has no spyware installed,
if you are using the Ad-Hoc network setup this is doubly important, the computer sharing the internet connection is your first line of defence, so it must be the most secure.
wireless networking communication guide
The only advantage of using an Ad Hoc setup would be the cost, you don’t have to purchase a wireless router/modem, but like I said this is the only advantage, please note your pc sharing the Internet will have to be running Windows XP.
The advantages of a router/modem in my opinion far out weigh this, firstly if you use Ad Hoc the connection will only be 802.11b (we can bump this up to 54mbps but it’s still not a true 802.11g connection, the next point is the security, any wireless router/modem worth it’s salt will come with a hardware firewall built in, it will also give you a far greater range.
It’s very easy to connect new machines to if you need to use a cable type connection, if you want to surf the web on any machine, of course the pc sharing the connection will have to be on.
Read the second part of wireless networking communication article How to setup Wifi
computer adviser wireless networking communication article
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