Uses, Types and Advantages of Using WI-Fi Adapter

The propagation of Wi-Fi in convenient places like bookstores and cafes has led new computers to come with integrated WI-Fi capabilities. The owners of desktop computers and aged laptops often look for an adapter in order to take advantage of the almost universal WI-Fi offerings. If you are planning to make use of WiFi Adapter, you could check out its various uses, types, versions, advantages, considerations and precautions of Wifi Adapter.

Uses

WI-Fi adapters work almost like the wired network port on a laptop by replacing the wired Ethernet connection with radio waves.  A wired computer communicates across an Internet connection by a physical Ethernet wire. On the other hand a WI-Fi adapter first converts the data of the computer into radio waves and then sends the waves across a secured connection to an access point or wireless router. The connection of radio is communicated by making use of a standard as created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This standard identifies the right method of data communication across the wireless connection while avoiding the collision of data packet among various network clients. Multiple machines could be served efficiently from an access point or a single router by adhering to the standard, thus making a powerful network of computer absolutely free of wired connection.

Types

Different types of WI-Fi adapters are available including USB, PCI and PCMCIA. Designed particularly for drawing power from the expansion slots of a desktop, PCI cards sport large antenna and make powerful signal.  This allows the desktop computer for placing almost anywhere within an office or home while accessing the wireless network.  An alternative of the PCI card, PCMCIA cards could also sport a large antenna and are capable of creating wireless network connections over great distances. Nevertheless these cards are designed for fitting into the rectangular shaped slim expansion slots in desktop and laptops.  The manufacturers of computers collectively move toward the USB standard but USB WI-Fi adapters have become increasingly common.  These adapters are portable, small and quite inexpensive but they still offer the ability for creating a secured and strong network connection.

Versions

WI-Fi adapters usually follow the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless networking but different versions of this standard make use of increasingly stronger techniques of compression in order to achieve higher rates of data transfer. The older standard versions such as 802.11a and 802.11b offered WI-Fi data transfer at a speed of around 11 megabits every second. However as soon as the new and the faster adapters are available, the earlier versions have become almost obsolete. A newer version of 802.11g makes use of advanced data compression for achieving speeds of up to 54Mbps. This version was adopted quickly and enjoyed supremacy for most of the early 21st century. A newer 802.11n version is slowly phasing out the older ‘g’ WI-Fi adapters in favor of the faster speed of network connection.

Advantages

WI-Fi adapters have freed Internet users of their physical constraints.  They freed them for working wirelessly from any location where a WiFi signal is available. It is through WI-Fi networking and WI-Fi adapters that the owners of laptops could carry their computers with them and could surf the Internet wirelessly from places like restaurants, airports and coffee shops. On a less mobile front WiFi adapters allow the users of the desktop for moving the computers farther away from the WiFi empowered network access point. Thus they provide the LAN or Internet connectivity from places such as a den, kitchen or a child’s room.

Considerations

Remember that even though wireless networking is speedy, convenient and a ubiquitous way of creating network connection, it is not out of danger. Just as in the case of radio signals, data transmitted through the WI-Fi connection could be interrupted and decoded by almost anybody with proper equipment. Moreover connecting the public networks in places like cafes and airports could expose unprotected computers to hacking attempts by other people. You should install personal firewall software as well as other networking precautions and make use of them while accessing the public Wifi network connection.

Precautions

Keep in mind that Wi-Fi enabled locations such as in hotels and airports, malicious individuals could try to gain illegal access to a user’s computer by tricking the name of the local Wi-Fi network.  In order to take an instance a hacker on ‘Hotel Free WI-Fi’ network could set his PC for accepting ‘peer to peer’ network connections in the network name of ‘Hotel WI-Fi Backup.’ Users connecting the computers of the hackers unknowingly could risk identity theft, risk of loss of data or infection by computer virus.  In order to get rid of such malicious attempts of hacking, users must make sure of the fact that the selected connection is to an Internet, Network or Infrastructure network. Unless the user connects directly to the machine of an individual, ‘Ad-Hoc’ or ‘Peer to Peer’ networks must be avoided.

Weighing up the various aspects of WiFi Adapter will surely help you to make use of the adapter in the right way.