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People new to wireless computing often confuse WiFi technology with cellular phone technology. The wireless capability built-into laptops is known as WiFi, and is defined by the IEEE standard for networking, (802.11b/g/n and sometimes y), where “b” is an older, slower standard, and “g” is the most widely used. Faster and more powerful versions, “n” and “y” have been defined for some time but were only implemented in laptop hardware very recently. WiFi technology relies on low power transceivers built-into both the laptop and the modem/router that brings high speed Internet into your home or workplace. WiFi may also be transmitted through stand-alone routers or repeaters (access points) that are hard wired to a high speed network. The range of the current WiFi networks is very low, on the order 100ft (30m) within a structure, depending on the construction, and not more than a few hundred feet (100m) in the open air. Within that working range, the quality of the signal will drop off rapidly, leading to slower operation and lost connections. The wireless adapters in laptops draw a couple watts of power that could be saved if you aren’t on the web, and may also allow others to access your laptop if it’s set up improperly. This has led most manufacturers to provide an external switch to disable the WiFi functionality. Not surprisingly, the first problem most new laptop owners encounter with trying to connect to a wireless network is that their WiFi has inadvertently been switched off. The next most common problem is that the signal strength is too weak to hold a connection. This can be extremely confusing if the network is working fine for a person sitting at the next table, but that laptop might have a more sensitive receiver, be set in just the right location, or even be accessing a different network. When you’re troubleshooting a wireless connection, it makes sense to get as close to the router as you can, certainly in the same room if it’s in your own home, so you can eliminate signal strength as a possible issue. In order to prevent every stranger who walks by from accessing any network with WiFi capability, there are a number of security options that can be set on WiFi routers. The most common of these is simply enabling password protection, so that any laptop trying to connect to the network will have to provide a password for the initial connection (after that the operating system remembers the password). The standard security for most routers today is WPA (WiFi Protected Access) with the long key (128 bits) requiring a longer password and offering somewhat better protection than the older WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) implementations. Many routers come with a default key printed on the label of the router in Hex (numbers 1-9 and letters A-F), either 10 or 26 characters long, depending on the level of security. If the router allows you to create your own password (using the full keyboard character set), the equivalent password will be 5 characters for the lower security level or 13 characters for the 128 bit key. WEP security can be cracked by anybody who downloads the right software and has the patience to set up within range of your router and spy on the traffic. But it usually works well enough to keep the neighbors from eating all of your bandwidth by using your highspeed connection to download movies and play games. And if you ever had much worse problem in wireless connectivity you can Always take your laptop to a computer hardware repair center near to your location.
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