What is a Wireless Access Point?

It refers to the device, which acts as the centralized receiver and sender of wireless signals in a local area network. In other words, all other wireless devices talk with the access point only. If two other wireless devices want to communicate with each other, they will have to use an access point as a medium. Thus, the first thing to consider is to have Linksys wireless access point setup properly, wherein Linksys is one of the common brand of WAP devices.

When the number of devices increases, the overall bandwidth demand will also increase. The access point, because of its capacity limit, will become the bottleneck of your WLAN.

In addition, since all the traffic goes through the access point, and a malicious attacker can easily capture wireless packets, security of a WLAN relies greatly on the encryption strategy of the access point.

What Does 802.11a/b/g/b Mean?

802.11a/b/g/n refers to different industrial wireless standards. 802.11g is the most widely adopted standard now, and most of the wireless devices you see are 802.11g compatible. 802.11n is the newest wireless standard, which provides higher speed limit and wider signal coverage. 802.11n is a promising standard and is likely to be supported by most new wireless devices. 802.11a/b are relatively old standards and not used very often.

How Does the Standards Affect a Wireless Access Point?

As one of the wireless devices, an access point is greatly defined by the standard it implements. Different standards lead to different frequencies of channels, transfer rate limit and security measures. The 802.11g access points use the 2.4GHz channel and have a transfer rate limit of 54Mbps. The wide spread of 802.11g standards is now a problem because it leads to high probability of interference between wireless devices such as wireless keyboards and wireless adapters.

The 802.11n access points can use either the 2.4GHz or the 5.4GHz channel and has a transfer rate limit of 540Mbps. The 5.4GHz channel is cleaner and fewer conflicts will happen. The 540Mbps transfer rate limit makes it comparable with the speed of a wired local network. Thus, having a wireless router booster as well can make the connection more faster.

The above wireless access point reviews are mainly centered on the importance of standards. When you are purchasing your own WAP, you should look for as many specific reviews on specific products as possible.

Now, after installing the speakers, all you need is to install adapters. These devices are designed specifically to make them work, even with the speakers not only the old and new. They assist in traffic than perfect sound, even if other wireless objects are present in your home. These adapters can run on electricity from its main source of domestic appliances, or may even be forced to work for the same audio device that you listen. But nevertheless, they are clutter free; you do not have to worry about wires and cables any more.

There is a difference between the wireless adapters that have a Bluetooth adapter and a standard set of wireless stereo speakers. Bluetooth adapters, as the name implies, use Bluetooth technology to transit the audio from MP3 players or other audio device for receivers, whether speakers or headphones. Speaker of the adapters is almost no interference of sound, which makes the sound quality above all. This type of adapter is usually directly related to the audio devices. Standard adapters are equipped with cable outlets, which in turn are connected to the outlet of the speaker. They run on electricity and come in nine models typically volts. Once you plug it in, you’ll see a symbol flashes on the screen, indicating that the adapter has successfully connected.

The last thing on speaker adapters is that when you find these adapters, you must make sure that you choose the one that is compatible with your audio device and speaker. If you want to use these wireless speakers in your office, it is best to use a Bluetooth adapter for the speakers and portable music players.

In 2005 only 6,000 users had registered to get the wireless access service [in a city of 1.4 million people], which led to the withdrawal of EarthLink from offering the service. The mayor of the city, Michael Nutter, said recently that although the city does not spend the citizens’ money for the deployment of the wireless network, it is important to revive the program in order to help the further development of the city. The new group of investors is very optimistic that ultimately the wi-fi project will be completed.

The area of wireless communications and standards, however, is still in its infancy. The largest companies are divided into groups and develop competitive technologies to sovereignty in a market which is expected within the next two years to skyrocket to billion dollars.

Wireless networks have been available for several years by various manufacturers, but the speed offered (1,5 Mbps) was small and there was no compatibility between them. The new standards provide greater convenience, such as Bluetooth, or higher speeds, such as IEEE802.11b, standardized just a few years ago. But even those not yet formalized, such as IEEE802.11a and HiperLAN2, is equally strong opponents in the battle of prevalence, because of their high potential.

In the last years the area of wireless communication is in height: Analysts say when the one and when the other technology, some companies are changing camps and other companies played in two dashboard. The situation just now seems to be stabilized somewhat and things clarified.

Wireless networks allow electronic devices (from computers to video) to communicate with each other and exchange data without the existence of cables. All new models of wireless networks, apart from the standard IrDA (Infrared Data Association), which is anyway not actually a wireless network, do not require line of sight. In any wireless network there are two parts: the wireless network card (wireless LAN adapter), which communicates either with other devices have wireless network card, either with the transponder-node (Access Point), which serves as a bridge to the wired network . The network card resembles a standard network card (either PCI or ISA for fixed computers, either PC Card for laptops) with a small antenna and the transceiver has dimensions of a book and, apart from the antenna, has appropriate plugs for connecting to a fixed network. With regards to security, most wireless networks also use methods of authorization and encryption-related data. Several models use the technical rotation frequency (frequency hopping) whereby each transponder frequency changes after sending / receiving a packet data avoiding parasites.

The standard Bluetooth created by Ericsson, IBM, Toshiba, Intel, Nokia and Motorola and supported by other 1900 companies, is the de facto standard for wireless networking performance of small electronic devices (mobile, PDA, PC, printers, fax, modem, keyboards, etc.) with low consumption (0,01 W) and low cost. These networks are called PAN (Personal Area Networks, Personal Area Networks) because unlike the LAN, its an area which is covers very few meters. The PAN has been essentially designed to eliminate cables. The speed data transfer is up to 1Mbps while it is possible the simultaneous transfer of sound. The frequency emitted data are 2,4 GHz using the technique rotation frequency. The Bluetooth supports both direct communication between two devices (point to point) and communication equipment with a multi-access point (point to multipoint). The capacity is 8 devices per network, but the method of switching frequencies (1600 rotations per second to 79 channels) allows more than 1 networks to coexist on the same site. The minimum distance between the transmitter and receiver is 10 cm and a maximum 10 meters. In terms of safety, although the Bluetooth does not provide very high level, the short range limits risk.

The movement of devices that support Bluetooth has already begun in the form of mobile phones and network cards for computers. Since the cost of implementation of Bluetooth is very small, by the end of 2010 99% of mobile phones will incorporate Bluetooth. Companies such as Palm and Microsoft have already announced support for Bluetooth in future products.

If the Bluetooth aims to eliminate cables connecting the various gadgets and peripherals among themselves and with the computer, the Protocol IEEE 802.11b aims to eliminate cables between computers. The 802.11 is the name of the project working group of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for wireless networks. The IEEE 802.11, which was created in June 1997, has speed 2 M bps and is the model followed so far for wireless networks Ethernet. The issuance of IEEE 802.11b (also known as IEEE 802.11 High Rate, or Wi-Fi) was created in July 1998 and has speed 11Mbps while adopting IEEE 802.11a, which is still under development, provides speeds up to 54Mbps. The IEEE802.11 b is essentially the standard in wireless networks, Ethernet and supports contact point to point (which is called ad hoc) and contact point to multipoint. The computers that are on the same site, for example, can be defined in an ad hoc, and to communicate directly with each other. The need for access point occurs when necessary communication with wireline networks and / or regional or in the case of roaming (eg when a user of a mobile computer must be initiated within a building). Part also of 802.11b is the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy, secrecy corresponding with wired networks), which uses the RC4 algorithm and offers the possibility of empowering every node and data encryption. Like the Bluetooth, wifi operates at 2,4 GHz and uses the technical rotation frequency. This frequency, is the same used by microwave ovens, chosen because it is free and does not require licensing for devices using them. The use, however, of common frequency by both standards could create problems in coexistence. Such interference can occur if the two networks are very close and are trying to operate simultaneously. Such interference will lead to the wrong transfer of data and will automatically resume the transfer of wasting package to another frequency. The Bluetooth, however, carry smaller packages and testing alternative frequencies 600 times faster than IEEE802.11b, with the result, essentially, the first to block the second dramatically reducing its speed. There was a group IEEE802.15 which was designed to minimize interference between these two standards and the smooth coexistence.

The newest wifi network standard is 802.11n (sometimes you can see this referred to as wireless-N). It is considered the Next-Generation standard of wireless network technologies since it improves both data speed and coverage range.

All previous wifi 802.11 standards were working mostly at 2.5 GHz (or 5 GHz for 802.11a) with 20 MHz channel bands. Now, the new 802.11n standard still works at 2.5 GHz, but it uses 40 MHz band channels, resulting in greater data speeds. The data transmission rate supported by 802.11n is 248 Mbps, although the standards talks about even higher data rates.

The MIMO technology used in the standard (MIMO = Multiple In Multiple Out), exploits a radio-wave phenomenon called multipath: transmitted information bounces off walls, doors, and other objects,  reaching the receiving antenna multiple times via different routes and at slightly different times. MIMO harnesses multipath with a technique known as space-division multiplexing. The transmitting WLAN device actually splits a data stream into multiple parts, called spatial streams, and transmits each spatial stream through separate antennas to corresponding antennas on the receiving end. The current 802.11n draft provides for up to four spatial streams, even though compliant hardware is not required to support that many. This technique helps to increase both the data rate and the wireless distance coverage.

2. Do not have your pass phrase your last name of first name

3. Don’t leave your wireless channel at six, change it to 2 or 11

4. Don’t leave your wireless network open enable some sort of encryption

5. Place your wireless router in the middle of your home not next to a wall

6. Don’t place your wireless router next to large heavy objects

7. Configure your laptop not to automatically connect to a wireless networks named “linksys“

8. Don’t leave your passphase the same and change it every couple months

9. Don’t use only WEP encryption, enable WPA2 and your wireless network will be a lot safer.

10. Don’t use AES wireless encryption for wireless gamming it does slow your network down.

11. Don’t start configuring your wireless network until you have upgraded your wireless router firmware

12. Don’t purchase anything but wireless MIMO routers for home networks, MIMO routers will give you better coverage.

13. Don’t leave your transmit power at the default transmission level. If you need a strong signal turn it up, if you don’t turn it down to the minimum

14. Don’t place your wireless router in the lowest spot in your house. Place it as high as possible to give you the best coverage.

15. Don’t have your wireless antennas pointed in the wrong direction. Meaning your signal does not emit from the points, they emit from the sides.

16. Don’t expect to achieve those 108 mbps speeds that are advertised with MIMO routers….those speeds only are achieved under super ideal circumstances.

17. Don’t upgrade your wireless routers firmware over a wireless connection

18. Don’t upgrade your wireless routers firmware until you have reset your options to the defaults

19. Don’t confuse an access point for a wireless router. Wireless routers act as a firewall, access points do not.

20. Enable some sort of security on your wireless router, if you don’t you will be sorry.