Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, is freedom: it allows you to connect to the Internet from your couch at home, a bed in a hotel room or a conference room at work without wires. How? Wi-Fi is a wireless technology like a cell phone. Wi-Fi enabled computers send and receive data indoors and out; anywhere within the range of a base station. And the best thing of all, it's fast. In fact, it's several times faster than the fastest cable modem connection.
However, you only have true freedom to be connected anywhere if your computer is configured with a Wi-Fi CERTIFIED radio (a PC Card or similar device). Wi-Fi certification means that you will be able to connect anywhere there are other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products — whether you are at home, the office or corporate campus, or in airports, hotels, coffee shops and other public areas equipped with a Wi-Fi access available.
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Look for the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo on a product before you buy it. The Wi-Fi certified logo is your only assurance that the product has met rigorous interoperability testing requirements to assure products from different vendors will work together. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo means that it's a "safe" buy.
Wi-Fi Certification comes from the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit international trade organization that tests 802.11-based wireless equipment to make sure it meets the Wi-Fi standard and works with all other manufacturers' Wi-Fi equipment on the market. Thanks to the Wi-Fi Alliance, you don't have to read the fine print or study technical journals: if it says Wi-Fi, it will work.
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Imagine working on your laptop or checking e-mail from anywhere in your home. Imagine being able to connect to your office network from an airport or coffee shop. Imagine retrieving files or presentations from the corporate network, cruising the Internet or sending instant messages to co-workers—and doing it all from a conference room or the company cafeteria.
Now, imagine doing all these things easily and quickly - without worrying about finding a wired network connection. That is Wi-Fi.
Imagine being able to move your entire office without losing your investment in networking installs, or to add new staff, all without moving cables or installing complicated hubs and routers. That is Wi-Fi.
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It's powerful. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11b or 802.11a to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet). Wi-Fi networks operate in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bands, with an 11 Mbps (802.11b) or 54 Mbps (802.11a) data rate or with products that contain both bands (dual band), so they can provide real-world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networks used in many offices.
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Everyone can use Wi-Fi, almost everywhere in the world. Home Wi-Fi networks can connect multiple computers to each other, to peripherals, and to the Internet. A Wi-Fi network can connect a family's computers together to share such hardware and software resources as printers and the Internet. That means everyone in the family can share stored files, photos and documents and print them out on a single printer attached to one desktop computer—all without unsightly cables running throughout the home.
In a home or home office, using Wi-Fi CERTIFIED equipment in your wireless network gives you the ability to share a single high-speed broadband cable or DSL connection. A Wi-Fi network can easily be expanded to ten users or more.
It also gives you assurance that the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED equipment you purchase today will work with the equipment you add to your network in the future.
Wi-Fi networks also work well for small businesses, providing connectivity between mobile salespeople, floor staff and behind-the-scenes finance and accounting departments. Because small businesses are dynamic, the built-in flexibility of a Wi-Fi network makes it easy and affordable for them to change and grow.
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