I get asked a lot about how Wireless works and what is Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity. Wi-Fi is basically radio waves that carry the zeros and ones(computer language) your computer uses to communicate. It's just like the way your cell phone sends and receives text messages.
When you open a web browser from your laptop connected to Wi-Fi, the URL is converted to zeros and ones then passed to your wireless card. The wireless card converts it to a radio wave and sends it to the Wireless Access Point(WAP) your connected to. The WAP sends it to the router, then the router sends it to the modem provided by your service provider then off to the Internet. Once the information is found on the Internet everything is reversed and sent back to you to appear on your screen.
The radio signal for Wi-Fi is good for 150-200 feet indoors. Five times that outdoors. Now those are published, recommended distances. I've seen routers that have reached 300-400 feet. Your house or building construction materials will change those numbers. If your Wi-Fi router is in a room that has stucco on the walls, it may not penetrate very well because of the chicken wire that is used to stick the stucco on the wall. Or if you put the router near your microwave. It will work great until you make a bag of popcorn. The microwave will interfere. I've seen homes that had insulation in all the interior wall that had a type of foil on one side. Wi-Fi did not work in that house because the foil was bouncing the Wi-Fi radio waves all over the place. The radio waves could not find the WAP.
Most WAP's are combined with routers now to create the Wireless DSL/Cable router modem, that everyone uses. Netgear, Linksys and D-Link make the most popular Wi-Fi routers on the market. All of them are ready to use out of the box and require little to no configuration to get surfing. The tricky part comes when we have to configure security.
Why would you configure security on a Wi-Fi router?
Would you let anyone off the street just walk into your home and make long distance phone calls?
Wi-Fi security prevents people from using your Internet connection and possibly taking your data.
Most home use Wi-Fi routers allow for around 10 connections. Any more than that and it slows down the Wi-Fi router. But you need to take into account that for every computer actively attached to the Wi-Fi router, and surfing the Internet, your connection speed to the Internet will be cut by half.
Remember that Wi-Fi is radio waves. Everything that is sent and received from your computer to the WAP can be received by somebody else on the sidewalk, in the street or your driveway. Stand by your router and look out your window. Try to figure out where 500 feet would be. Do you think your neighbor can receive your radio waves? How about somebody driving by?
I don't think you want your financial or family's personal data being read by your neighbor or anybody just driving by.
Most Wi-Fi routers come with an instruction manual that show you how to setup the security settings. If you don't have a paper manual, look on the CD that came with it. If you can't find it. Go to the manufacturers website and look in the Support section.
If you want to learn more, check out these great articles by HowStuffWorks.com
If all else fails, give me a call and I can secure your Wi-Fi.
Excellent information!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently working on a new wi-fi system specifically designed for rural homeowners and farmers/ranchers. Using outdoor access points with good antennas, we can cast a wi-fi signal just about wherever it is needed. The "secrets" are:
1. Using very high power to good antennas - our access points use the highest power output allowed by the FCC for a range of up to half a mile.
2. Using an outdoor-mountable access point (to provide a better line-of-sight), and
3. The use of meshing - you can use multiple access points, but only one of them has to be "plugged in" to the internet. This way, you can "light up" an area about 4 miles in diameter.
To the point of your article, the system always uses WPA2 encryption, the strongest available, so it cannot be "hijacked" by passers-by or your neighbors.
Please get in touch, I'd love to tell you about it. It's currently in beta testing now as we prepare to introduce it to the market.
-Bill Moffitt, bmoffitt "at" ayrstone (dot) com
We use something like this in Tikrit Iraq with a little better encryption of course but same principle. It works great but I think the connection speed sacrifices a little. However being 2010 I can see where the modern farmer could put this to use.
ReplyDelete