Wifi is also known as wi-fi, short (confusingly enough) as “wireless fidelity”. The official name for this is 802.11 and depending on what version of the wireless networking you’re using, it’s either 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or the newest, 802.11n. The basic difference? Speed. “g” is faster than “a” and “b” and “n” is faster than all of ‘em.
Having said that, the two most common are ‘b’ and ‘g’, I have to say, and for the most part, devices that work with one of the protocols work with both. However, there are some wrinkles in this too. For example, the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) has wi-fi capabilities, but it’s only 802.11b, which is a constant problem for people who are trying to access an 802.11g network, because they aren’t interoperable. Translated, if you have a unit that only speaks ‘b’ and a transmitter that only works with ‘g’, you can’t get them to work together.
Now, let’s talk a bit about how wireless networking works. Best to think that it’s like a radio, with a base station / transmitter and a receiver. In a typical configuration, the wireless base station is hooked up directly to the network connection via Ethernet cables (your cable modem, for example), and the receiver is a laptop with either built-in or card-based wireless capabilities.
Wireless has a typical range of 100-200 yards, depending on obstacles and interference, which means that in a typical house you can put the base station just about anywhere and get good coverage throughout. In my neighborhood, I can not only see my own wireless network, but I can also see about four other networks that our neighbors have running!
If you’re paying attention, you should be realizing that you’ll need to buy an additional unit to get your new Palm PDA hooked up to the Internet that you have coming into your house: you need a base unit.
Before you buy a wifi base unit, however, make double-sure that it’s the same version of wi-fi (‘b’, ‘g’, etc.) as your PDA. Let’s assume that you’re talking about the nifty Palm LifeDrive, in which case you can quickly learn from the Amazon info page that it supports “Built-in WiFi 802.11b and Bluetooth 1.1 wireless”. There ya go, it’s only a ‘b’ (or 802.11b) device. Very important to know before you start base station shopping!
To find a compatible base station, you need to ensure that you narrow down your search to either those base stations that are only ‘b’ or, better, are both ‘b’ and ‘g’ compatible. (why better? Because when you get newer devices, you’ll be able to use the same base station)
Another Electronics Newsletter
Posted by etronicsland 
Posted by etronicsland 
Posted by etronicsland 
Etronicsland.com announced today the arrival of the ELWATCH series of MP4 Wristphone Watches – Very lightweight in design.