Computer and Technology

Wireless networks use radio waves work instead of wires to transfer data between computers. This is a simple version. If you are curious to know what's going on in more detail, so it's all explained in this article.

Ones and zeros.

I'm sure you know that computers transmit information digitally, using binary: ones and zeros. This is a way of communicating that translates very well to radio waves, because the computer can send ones and zeros as different sounds. These signals are so fast that the outside of the human hearing range - radio waves that you hear is actually all around you all the time. It does not prevent the computer from using them, though.

Morse code.

The way it works is a kind of Morse code. You probably already know that Morse code is a way of representing the alphabet so that it can be transmitted by radio through a (short signal) and a dash (hyphen). It was used manually for years, and became a great way to get information from one place to another with the invention of the telegraph. But especially for this example, however, is a binary system, like a computer and zeros.

You might think the wireless network, to Morse code for computers. Connecting a combined radio receiver and transmitter, and the computer can send corresponding points, and dashes (bits, computer-speak) to get information from one place to another.

All frequencies.

One might ask, but how a computer could send enough bits to send and receive data at a speed of it. Ultimately, it is to be a limit to what can be transferred before it becomes just a useless nonsense, right? Well, yes, but the key to the wireless network is that it circumvents this problem.

First of all wireless transmissions sent at very high frequencies, which means that more data can be sent per second. Most wireless connections use a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (2.4 billion cycles per second) - a frequency similar to mobile phones and microwave ovens. As you know, however, a high frequency, this means that the wavelength must be very short, so that wireless networking works only in a limited area.

In addition, wireless networks use a technique called "frequency hopping". Dozens of bands have been given use, and constantly switch between them. This makes wireless networks more immune to interference from radio signals different from what it would be if sent to a single frequency.

Base stations.

The final step is sent to all computers with Internet access network sharing. This is done using a special piece of wireless equipment called an access point. Access points are more expensive than wireless cards for a team, as they contain radios that are capable of speaking to about 100 computers at the same time and share Internet access between them. Dedicated access points are really essential for larger networks, however - if you only have a few computers, you can use an access point, or you might just have a wireless router.

They understand.

Good then, but how wireless equipment made by entirely different companies to work together when this is all so complicated? Well, the answer is that there are standards that all wireless devices follow. These standards are technically called the 802.11 standards, and is defined by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). It is thanks to people sticking to their standards of wireless networking is so cheap and easy today.

Do not worry.

If all this talk of frequencies you have a little 'nervous, do not need to be - the wireless networking hardware and software handles all this automatically, without anything. Do not think you have to say to a wireless device and how often the other is used because it is simply not going to happen, right? Wireless network for all the hard work, it's really much easier than you ever expected.