An Introduction to the Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)
Here you will learn how to setup wifi network, how wireless fidelity works, hotspot security, vpn servers. Wi-Fi or wireless fidelity is meant for to be used when referring any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11, 802.11a and dual band. Any products tested and approved as Wi-Fi certified by the Wi-Fi alliance are interoperable with each other.
Typically, any Wi-Fi product using the same radio frequency will work with each other even if not Wi-Fi certified. Formerly the term Wi-Fi was used only in the place of the 2.4 GHz 802.11b standard in the same way Ethernet was used.
Wi-fi short for wireless fidelity refers to a set of wireless networking technologies and more specifically referred to as any type of 802.11 network, 802.11b and 802.11a and dual band. The word Wi-Fi was built by an organization named as Wi-Fi alliance. A product that undergoes the Wi-Fi alliance analyses is given the name Wi-Fi certified.
Wi-Fi rapidly gained the fame in the United States with the access point. These devices tested by the “Wi-Fi alliance” are used around the world and allow users to have Wi-Fi capable device like a PDA or Laptop to connect anywhere there is availability of Wi-Fi access point. There are currently three standards that are used to signify the speed of the connection. Both the 802.11a and 802.11b are the capable of 54 Mbps with 802.11a additional features. The most common standard is 802.11b/second because it can transmit the data at 11 Mbps.
All these Wi-Fi connections are fast enough to allow the broadband internet connection. Wireless Fidelity is a fastest growing wireless technology that will probably be as common as phone lines and electric devices. Wi-Fi adds great levels of convenience and high level of production.
Wireless fidelity is planned to be used with the wireless devices but it is most commonly used for internet access. With Wi-Fi you can connect computers in your home, office or anywhere without the need of wires. The computers can just connect to the network that uses radio waves.
How does W-Fi work?
Wi-Fi is the wireless technology to handle the networking/communication. Wi-Fi allocates internet connection globally and to be transmitted by the radio waves. Radio waves are the main cause of Wi-Fi. Radio waves are transmitted from antenna and Wi-Fi receivers pick them up. When a user receives the Wi-Fi signals, a wireless internet connection is produced and a user is prompted to provide the user name and password if required to establish a wireless connection.
What is Wi-Fi Security?
Wi-Fi maintains certain security issues. WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy is used in the physical and data link layers. It was planned to provide the wireless security by protecting the data, while it transmits from one point to another. Wi-Fi networking usually maintained inside a building premises. The data transmission in the Wi-Fi is protected by Wireless LANs but due to the fact that data travels over the radio waves so there are chance that data can be exposed and capture.
How to secure your WiFi network?
When you buy a wireless router you might find an Installation CD by vendor that CD with guide you through a wizard on setting up router. Here are some suggestions that how can you setup security on the router without using the application software.
1. Open a new browser.
2. You may now type IP address of the router in your browser. The step here is where you can get the management system of the router. Due to different vendors, you need to lookup on your router’s manual for the IP address usually it may be 10.10.10.01, 196.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, 100.100.100.1 or something similar to those matches and the default password of the router. Every router management console is different from each other. Try exploring around and find the appropriate section to manage.
3. You should never forget this step to setup an administrative password. The step to set here is often not located in Security section; you will need to take a look at the utilities, user management or system settings. Find it and change the password immediately for any user account.
4. Enable Wireless security. To turn on your encryption look under the wireless security tab. The step over here will need you to either use WPA or WPA-PSK and this will only appropriate if the devices on your network supported it. Otherwise you will need 128-bit WEP. For WPA or WPA-PSK, you would have to type pass phrase/password into a piece of paper and transfer to thumb drive so that you can set the password in the client’s machines.
5. Change your SSID. You should not make your SSID this will be probably a default SSID, normally those who do not configure their SSID will have their router name such as “linksys”, “belkin”, “dlink” etc. Try changing it with someone menacing, which will be threat for them to connect. Like virus geek, virus spreader. Remember that you will need this SSID when you browse through the network from your client machines. You can find these settings in the section of Channel or SSID.
6. Save your configurations and settings by pressing the save changes or save settings button. You will need to save every change that you will make to the router in order to it can take effect and probably you will have to reboot your router multiple times.
Congratulations, finally you have covered the basic settings for your Wi-Fi network
Wi-Fi Hotspot Security: Using VPNs
There are numerous security issues regarding the use of the public wireless networks but all of which can be overcome. One of the solutions for users, as brought up in Wi-Fi Hotspot security, is to use the VPN (Virtual Private Network) to secure the real time traffic of the Wi-Fi hot spot users. Many small to large businesses provide their employees with the VPN access.
Although this access is typically put in place for employees to have the remote access to the corporate network in order to access the files and documents remotely. If you don’t have access to any VPN servers, create your own. By doing this you can remotely access the files from your office as well as other devices such as Wi-Fi video camera to keep an eye on the things while away.
When using the software-based VPN server features in Windows XP Pro, the PC running the server has to be powered-on to access the home network from the Wi-Fi hotspot. VPN routers can cost as low as $70 to $130 and the popular models are Linksys, WRV200 and WRV5G.