Just How Can I Surf The Net Without A Phone Cable?
I know it might sound nuts - how can all this information that I'm currently uploading and downloading from my computer through a phone cable be transmitted "through the air?!" Well I'm glad you asked.
WiFi works, in essence, exactly the same way a Television or Cell Phone works. They don't have cables attached to them for transmitting information and neither will your computer once you start using WiFi.
Basically, WiFi uses radio waves to transmit the information to and from the internet or your computer network. When a website wants to communicate with your computer it sends the information to your modem as it does now on your wired connection, then the information is passed on to a wireless router, which then converts it to radio waves and beams it to your computer. You computer then interprets the radio waves with the help of installed hardware/software specific for wireless networking. The reverse process occurs when your computer needs to communicate to the internet. All this to-ing and fro-ing happens a lot faster than it took to explain it. In alot of cases a wireless connection is actually faster than a wired broadband connection.
WiFi works, in essence, exactly the same way a Television or Cell Phone works. They don't have cables attached to them for transmitting information and neither will your computer once you start using WiFi.
Basically, WiFi uses radio waves to transmit the information to and from the internet or your computer network. When a website wants to communicate with your computer it sends the information to your modem as it does now on your wired connection, then the information is passed on to a wireless router, which then converts it to radio waves and beams it to your computer. You computer then interprets the radio waves with the help of installed hardware/software specific for wireless networking. The reverse process occurs when your computer needs to communicate to the internet. All this to-ing and fro-ing happens a lot faster than it took to explain it. In alot of cases a wireless connection is actually faster than a wired broadband connection.
One of the fundamental differences between WiFi and your Cell Phone, however, is that WiFi operates on a much higher frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz), as opposed to Cell Phones which work below the 1GHz level. The higher the frequency the higher the amount of data (information) that is able to be transferred.
With one wireless router in your home you can connect multiple computers to each other and the internet, without any cables connecting each computer to it's brother. In the techno-savvy family of today that spells a great convenience, as Dad can be working in his study, Mum can be chatting to her friends, and Son and Daughter can be in their own rooms researching homework assignments - all at once on individual computers. In my day (back in the dark ages of the internet), our family would have to take turns to use the one computer, and then there would be the obligatory fight when someone had been using it for too long.
Nowadays the only real problem is, how am I going to afford multiple computers for my family?
With one wireless router in your home you can connect multiple computers to each other and the internet, without any cables connecting each computer to it's brother. In the techno-savvy family of today that spells a great convenience, as Dad can be working in his study, Mum can be chatting to her friends, and Son and Daughter can be in their own rooms researching homework assignments - all at once on individual computers. In my day (back in the dark ages of the internet), our family would have to take turns to use the one computer, and then there would be the obligatory fight when someone had been using it for too long.
Nowadays the only real problem is, how am I going to afford multiple computers for my family?
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