What Is WLAN? WLAN WiFi

What Is WLAN? WLAN WiFi: When people say WLAN, they usually mean wireless internet or Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi hotspot. WLAN literally means a wireless local area network. We're talking about a local area network created by something like this, a wireless router. 

WLAN compatible devices:

This wireless router will plug into your internet modem and will take that internet and share it wirelessly through a radio signal with all your Wi-Fi or WLAN compatible devices, like this laptop or your phone or your tablet or even your TV. 

The network that this wireless hotspot creates is not as fast as the one you will get with a regular LAN, which is by connecting it to an Ethernet cable. It is very, very convenient, and it lets you have internet in places that you would not normally have internet in or that would be really hard to get internet in. 

The nice thing about wireless LAN is that it enables you to sit on the sofa with your laptop, not having any cables around and still get the full internet without any speed issues or limitations. Basically, WLAN is just another way of saying Wi-Fi or hotspot and that's the way it works.

Now most of us had connected to a Wi-Fi network with our laptop, tablet or even our smartphone, and to join that network with our device you had to select a network name and you had to supply a password. Now Wi-Fi network can be just open with no password required, so that means that anybody can join it.

WEPWEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy:

However, in the majority of cases, Wi-Fi networks will be secure and will require a password. Now there are several different protocols that are used for securing a Wi-Fi network. So let's start with a secure protocol called WEPWEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy was developed in 1999and its the earliest security protocol that was used for wireless networks. And also as its name implies it's meant to supply the same security to wireless networks as it did for wired networks.

However, this turned out not to be the case because after a time it was found out that a 40-bit encryption key that WEP used as vulnerable and not secure. And therefore it was easily hackable. So that's why today WEP is no longer used and modern wi-fi routers won't even have it as an option anymore.

So a better security protocol was needed for wireless networks. And that brings us to WPAWPA or Wi-Fi Protected Access is another wireless security protocol that was developed to solve the problems of WEPWPA is far better than WEP and this is because it uses stronger encryption methods called TKIP which stands for Temporal Key Integrity Protocol. And TKIP dynamically changes its keys as its being used and this ensures data integrity.

But even though WPA is more secure than WEP even today WPA is outdated because TKIP did have some vulnerabilities. And that brings us to WPA2 was developed to provide even stronger security than WPA. And it does this by requiring the use of a stronger encryption method. While WPA uses TKIP for encryption which is known to have some limitationsWPA2 uses AES which stands for Advanced Encryption Standard. AES uses asymmetric encryption algorithms which makes it strong enough to resist a brute-force attack fact AES is so secure that the U.S. federal government has adopted it and is now using it to encrypt sensitive government data.

Wi-Fi routers configuration:

Now when you log into the Wi-Fi routers configuration page you go into the Wi-Fi security section this is where you would find the different security protocols that you can choose from to protect your Wi-Fi network here is an example from an older Linksys router and here you can see the WEP, WPA and WPA2 protocols that we discussed. Now as I said this router is a few years old and it still has WEP as an option.

However, newer routers like this one here won’t even have WEP as an option because WEP is weak and outdated and is no longer used and thank god for that because it was garbage. Now you also noticed that on both of these routers there's an option that has both WPA and WPA2and this is a mixed security option.

This option enables WPA and WPA2 at the same time so it’ll use both TKIP and AES security. Now the reason for this option is for compatibility purposes because some older devices like prior to 2006may not be compatible with using AES encryption that’s used with WPA2and so these older devices will connect to the older WPA protocol but at the same time modern devices will connect to WPA2.

Now some people might ask why not just choose the mixed option all the time since it’s the most compatible with all devices. Well, you can do this but the problem is that in addition to using AES its also using TKIP and since TKIP is not as strong as you're leaving your network more vulnerable to a breach.

However, if all of your devices are modern then the best option is to choose WPA2 which only uses AES. Now the next generation of wireless security is WPA3.WPA3 was introduced in 2018 and according to the official Wi-Fi websitehttps://www.wi-fi.org/WPA3 provides cutting edge security protocols to the market.

It adds new features to simplify Wi-Fi security and enables more robust authentification and it will receive increased protections from password guessing attempts. Now WPA3 won’t be available on every Wi-Fi router that you purchase today because it was just introduced last year. However, you will start to see it more and more on Wi-Fi products in the next few months.

Wi-Fi Protected Setup and WPS:

Now so far we discussed a few password-protected security protocols but there is another wireless security method that doesn’t require you to type in a password and this method is called WPS.WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup and WPS was designed for people who know little about wireless networks to make it as easy as possible for their devices to join a wireless network.

So, here is a WPS configuration page for our router. And there are a couple of different methods that are used with WPS. But by far the most common method is the push button method.

So, with this method, you would just press a couple of buttons and then you'd be connected. So, for example, most routers today will have a physical WPS button that you can press and a lot of Wi-Fi printers will also have a software or a physical WPS button so let’s say you wanted to connect this wireless printer to your Wi-Fi network so you would press the WPS button on your Wi-Fi router and within 2 minutes you would press the WPS button on your printer and then your printer would connect to the Wi-Fi router in a few seconds.

And that’s really as simple as it gets. And you can also use method two if you want if your client has a WPS pin number. So you would just enter that pin number into the field below and within a few seconds, it’ll connect. So as stated before WPS is the easiest way to join a wireless network and a lot of manufacturers have built their wireless products with WPS. And this is to make it as simple as possible for their costumers to join their device to a wireless network.

Access Controler (MAC Filter):

Now there’s one more method we need to talk about and this is called the Access Controler in some routers it’s called the MAC Filter and with this option, you can either allow or block devices from joining your network.

Every network adapter has a MAC address and is a hexadecimal number that uniquely identifies each device on a network and with Access Control you can either allow or block access by using the device’s MAC address.

When a device is blocked it would only be able to get an IP address from your router but it won’t be able to communicate with any other device and it would not be able to connect to the Internet so the Access Control is just an extra layer of security that’s in addition to your Wi-Fi password and the Access Control is also for wired devices.

What is Wireless Network? Types of Wireless Network

What is Wireless? Types of Wireless Network: How many of us really understand what goes on when you text your friend across the ocean and they get the ping, almost instantaneously! Allow me to entertain you with a little thought experiment. When you press “send” on your favorite messaging app, where’s your message really going? “Into the air,” you’d say, “like radio waves..” But let’s back up a bit. 

What is Wireless Network? Types of Wireless Network

What is Wireless Network? 

When two or more computers or mobiles are connected in such a manner that data is passing from one device to another device then this is called wireless networking.

What can we do with the wireless network?

With the help of wireless technology, we can transfer data from one device to another without using wires or cables using this technology we can establish Network which is more flexible intangible and easy to access.

When you press send on WhatsApp, you’re essentially sending instructions to your mobile processor via tiny copper wires on a printed circuit board on your smartphone. Now, these instructions are essentially electrical impulses, right? And electrical impulses are just electrons flowing along with the potential difference. 

How exactly does your message “jump” into thin air from being electron flows in copper wires? At one stage you had a circuit board that you could touch and feel (and even smell) and then suddenly you have radio waves in the invisible part of the spectrum, flying away into thin air at light speed. What’s in between? 

Why it is called Wireless Network?

We do not need to attach any kind of wire to a system to achieve an internet connection so this is called wireless networking.

What’s in between is this odd-looking device?

It’s an antenna, which translates to a “pole” in Latin. An antenna is a metal-tongued voodoo device that swallows electrical impulses and spits out radio waves. It is silent as the dead, but its screams can be heard for miles. 

Specifically, a Wi-Fi antenna like in the picture, screams at 2.4 GHz (2 billion beats per second!) and spits out waves of length 12.5 centimeters. Unlike visible light, these waves can pass through walls, and even bend around the corners! How does an antenna produce radio waves? Before we answer this question, let’s take a small detour. 

Do you remember the recent buzz in pop-science about gravitational waves? 

They’re basically fluctuations in a gravitational field, propagating as radiant energy. Einstein’s general relativity predicted their existence a hundred years ago, and we’ve only recently discovered them. Just like gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves are fluctuations in the electromagnetic field, propagating as radiant energy. And, not much unlike the story of gravitational waves, the existence of invisible electromagnetic waves was predicted by Maxwell’s equations well before their discovery by Heinrich Hertz! 

So, to produce radio waves, you need to create fluctuations in the electromagnetic field. And to create those fluctuations, you need electrons moving around in a conductor! The act of radio wave synthesis is a carefully choreographed, rhythmic dance of electrons in tiny copper wires. Like perturbations in still water that radiate outward from the point of disturbance, the electron flows in antenna cause perturbations in electromagnetic field which radiates out into space like electromagnetic waves. 

When you press “send” on your favorite messaging app, your mobile OS sets off a chain of events that ultimately encode the message as a careful choreography of electron dance. This dance results in rhythmic ebbs and flows in the electromagnetic field in the surrounding space, which radiates outward towards a cell tower. 

The receiving antenna on the cell tower feels these ebbs and flows on its conducting surface, inducing an electron dance very similar to the one at the transmitter. This electron dance is again a set of electric impulses in tiny copper wires, which are decoded by the hardware at the cell tower. 

The decoded information is then carried on high-throughput cables for thousands of miles across countries, continents and even oceans through Transatlantic communications cables or some other Submarine communications cables, to a cell tower near your friend across the ocean. From the tower to your friend’s phone is another wireless jump. And finally, your friend hears the familiar ping. 

How does the phone know where the cell tower is? 

It doesn’t, and it doesn’t need to! Your phone broadcasts your message in all directions for anyone to listen to. But don’t worry, your message will be encrypted and only the cell tower can decode your message. 

How does the cell tower know that the message is from me? With every message you transmit, you also include a code that uniquely identifies your device. That is how the cell tower knows it’s you. 

How does the cell tower differentiate between messages from different phones? 

The phones all agree on a protocol to send messages to the tower either at different times, different frequencies, different locations, or using different codes. The best analogy I have for this is that of a classroom. Imagine a classroom with 100 students and just one teacher. 

Now, if all the students start speaking at once, the teacher cannot understand any of them. So, they agree on a protocol. If a student wants to speak, they raise their hand and wait for the teacher to point to them. The student does not speak unless they are asked by the teacher to speak. 

If multiple students raise their hands at once, the teacher picks them out one by one so that only one student is speaking at any point in time. The cell tower is the teacher, and the devices are students. 

While students can speak at different times to avoid interference, devices can speak at different times, different frequencies or different codes to avoid interference. So, you’re telling me that the majority of the communication is not really wireless? Yes! Unless you’re using a Satellite phone, wireless communication is only used for two steps along the road: sender to tower-1, and tower-2 to a receiver. The communication between the cell towers happens through ultra high-speed communication cables underground. 

But, aren’t cables so out of fashion for the 21st century? Why not use wireless all the way? 

Well, the cables we’re talking about here like the Transatlantic communications cable are definitely very high-tech. They can carry terabytes of data every second, and do not face the problem of interference nearly as much as their wireless counterparts. Also, you’ll need a lot of satellites to cater to billions of users and their data needs if you want to go wireless all the way. And, launching satellites is really really expensive. 

WiFi Support - Portal WiFi Support

WiFi Support | Portal WiFi Support: With just a few simple steps You can install your new Shaw advanced Wi-Fi modem everything you need is included in the box. Your modem, Coax cable, Ethernet cable and a power cord. To ensure optimal Wi-Fi coverage the best place in your home for your modem is in a central location above ground level You should also avoid placing it near TVs or appliances if you can. 

Now, let's get started 

WiFi Support | Portal WiFi Support

Step:1 

Take the coax cable provided with your modem and attach one end to the wall outlet And the other end to this port on the back of your modem Make sure that the cable connection is finger tight into the wall and the modem.

Step:2

It's time to power up your new modem Plug the included power cord into the wall outlet, and then plug the other end into the slot marked power.

Step:3 

Activating your modem if you received your new modem in the mail the LED light at the top corner of your modem will remain yellow Indicating the modem is inactive until you contact us. You can chat with us online at shaw dot cust help calm or give us a call at 1-844-574-7429 to activate it. 

If you purchased your modem at one of the retail locations the LED light on the modem will go through the following light sequence change from yellow-green red then solid white Then alternate between green and yellow Once the modem light is alternating between green and yellow. You can move on to the next step.

Step:4

Connecting to the internet. On the bottom of your modem You'll see a label with all the information you need to connect to the internet Make note of the network name or SSID and the password Access the Wi-Fi settings on your internet-enabled device select your network name or SSID and enter the password Then open an internet browser and go to any website You will be automatically redirected to a network setup page where you can customize your network name and password Note if you are not automatically redirected type 10.0.0.1 in your Web browser address bar to get to the network setup page. 

Step:5 

Your new Shaw modem has built-in Wi-Fi, but if you're connecting your computer directly to the modem You'll use the Ethernet cable provided plug the ethernet cable into the Ethernet cable out jack Then plug the other end into the computer port labeled Ethernet in.

Step:6 

The final step is to reboot your modem Once the lights on the modem stop alternating between green and yellow wait for the light to turn white and remain white for 60 seconds Then unplug the power for 10 seconds and plug it back in The power cycle will ensure that the latest updates take effect right away and when the modem LED light is solid white. You're ready to go,

That's it now You're ready to connect all your wireless devices to the internet using your network name and password.

What is WiFi Alliance certification?

WiFi Alliance certification: Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that promotes Wi-Fi technology and certifies Wi-Fi products if they conform to certain standards of interoperability. Not every IEEE 802.11-compliant the device is submitted for certification to the Wi-Fi Alliance, sometimes because of costs associated with the certification process.

What is WiFi Alliance certification? 

The lack of Wi-Fi logo does not necessarily imply a device is incompatible with Wi-Fi devices. The Wi-Fi Alliance owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand certified products that have been tested for interoperability.

History Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems because of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers had no provision for testing equipment for compliance with its standards. In 1999, pioneers of a new, higher-speed variant, endorsed the IEEE 802.11b specification to form the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance and branded the new technology Wi-Fi.

The group of companies included 3Com, Aironet, Harris Semiconductor, Lucent, Nokia and Symbol  Technologies. As key sponsors, the alliance lists Apple inc., Comcast, Samsung, Sony, LG, Intel, Dell, Broadcom, Cisco, Qualcomm, Motorola, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, and T-Mobile. The charter for this independent organization was to perform testing, certify interoperability of products, and to promote the technology.

WECA renamed itself the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2002. It is based in Austin, Texas. Most producers of 802.11 equipment became members, and as of 2012, the Wi-Fi Alliance had over 550 member companies. Wi-Fi Alliance extended Wi-Fi beyond wireless local area network applications into point-to-point and personal area networking, and enabled specific applications such as Miracast.

Wi-Fi certification The Wi-Fi Alliance owns and controls the "Wi-Fi Certified" logo, a registered trademark, which is permitted only on equipment which has passed testing. Purchasers relying on that trademark will have greater chances of interoperation than otherwise.

Testing is rigorous because the standards involve not only radio and data format interoperability, but security protocols, as well as optional testing for quality of service and power management protocols.

From a Wi-Fi Alliance paper on Wi-Fi Certification A focus on user experience has shaped the overall approach of the Wi-Fi Alliance certification program: Wi-Fi Certified products have to demonstrate that they can perform well in networks with other Wi-Fi Certified products, running common applications, in situations similar to those encountered in everyday use.

This pragmatic approach stems from three tenets, around which certification is centered: Interoperability is the primary target of certification. Rigorous test cases are used to ensure that products from different equipment vendors can interoperate in a wide variety of configurations. Backward compatibility has to be preserved to allow for new equipment to work with existing gear.

Backward compatibility protects investments in legacy Wi-Fi products and enables users to gradually upgrade and expand their networks. Innovation is supported through the introduction of new certification programs as the latest technology and specifications come into the marketplace.

These certification programs may be mandatory or optional. Equipment vendor differentiation and inventiveness are preserved in areas that are not covered by certification testing. The Wi-Fi Alliance definition of interoperability goes well beyond the ability to work in a Wi-Fi network.

To gain certification under a specific program, products have to show satisfactory performance levels in typical network configurations and have to support both established and emerging applications.

A user that purchases a Wi-Fi enabled laptop, for instance, would not be satisfied if the laptop established a connection with the home network, only to get the throughput of a dial-up connection. Similarly, subscribers using a Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phone would be disappointed, if a voice the call could not go through or was dropped. The Wi-Fi Alliance certification process includes three types of tests to ensure interoperability.

Wi-Fi Certified products are tested for: Compatibility: certified equipment has been tested for connectivity with other certified equipment. Compatibility testing has always been, and still is, the predominant component of interoperability testing, and it is the element that most people associate with "interoperability".

It involves tests with multiple devices from different equipment vendors. Compatibility testing is the program component that helps to ensure devices purchased today will work with Wi-Fi Certified devices already owned or purchased in the future. Conformance: the equipment conforms to specific critical elements of the IEEE 802.11 standard.

Conformance testing usually involves standalone analysis of individual products and establishes whether the equipment responds to inputs as expected and specified. For example, conformance testing is used to ensure that Wi-Fi equipment protects itself and the network when the equipment detects evidence of network attacks.

Performance: the equipment meets the performance levels required to meet end-user expectations in support of key applications. Performance tests are not designed to measure and compare performance among products, but simply to verify that the product meets the minimum performance requirements for good user experience as established by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Specific performance test results are not released by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Certification types The Wi-Fi Alliance provides certification testing in two levels: Mandatory: Core MAC/PHY interoperability over 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n.

Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 security, which aligns with IEEE 802.11i. WPA2 is available in two types: WPA2-Personal for consumer use, and WPA2 Enterprise, which adds EAP authentication.

Optional: Tests corresponding to IEEE 802.11h and 802.11d.

WMM Quality of Service, based upon a subset of IEEE 802.11e.

WMM Power Save, based upon APSD within IEEE 802.11e

Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a specification developed by the Alliance to ease the process of setting up and enabling security protections on small office and consumer Wi-Fi networks. Application Specific Device, for wireless devices other than Access Point and Station which has specific application, such as DVD players, projectors, printers, etc.

Converged Wireless Group – Radio Frequency, to provide performance mapping of Wi-Fi and cellular radios in converged devices. Wi-Fi Direct In October 2010, the Alliance began to certify Wi-Fi Direct, that allows Wi-Fi-enabled devices to communicate directly with each other, without going through a wireless access point or hotspot.

Since 2009 when it was first announced, some suggested Wi-Fi Direct might replace the need for Bluetooth on applications that do not rely on Bluetooth low energy. References External links Official website.

How Wifi Network Works?

How Wifi Network Works? How many of us really understand what goes on when you text your friend across the ocean and they get the ping, almost instantaneously! Allow me to entertain you with a little thought experiment. When you press send” on your favorite messaging app, where’s your message really going?

How Wifi Network Works?

How Wifi Network Works?

“Into the air,” you’d say, “like radio waves..”But let’s back up a bit. When you press send on WhatsApp, you’re essentially sending instructions to your mobile processor via tiny copper wires on a printed circuit board on your smartphone.

Now, these instructions are essentially electrical impulses, right? And electrical impulses are just electrons flowing along with the potential difference.

How exactly does your message “jump” into thin air from being electron flows in copper wires? At one the stage you had a circuit board that you could touch and feel (and even smell) and then suddenly you have radio waves in the invisible part of the spectrum, flying away into thin air at light speed.

What’s in between?

What’s in between is this odd-looking device: It’s an antenna, which translates to a “pole” in Latin. An antenna is a metal-tongued voodoo a device that swallows electrical impulses and spits out radio waves.

It is silent as the dead, but its screams can be heard for miles. Specifically, a Wi-Fi antenna like in the picture, screams at 2.4 GHz (2 billion beats per second!) and spits out waves of length 12.5 centimeters. Unlike visible light, these waves can pass through walls, and even bend around the corners!

How does an antenna produce radio waves?

Before we answer this question, let’s take a small detour. Do you remember the recent buzz in pop-science about gravitational waves?

They’re basically fluctuations in the gravitational field, propagating as radiant energy. Einstein’s general relativity predicted their existence a hundred years ago, and we’ve only recently discovered them. Just like gravitationalwaves, electromagnetic waves are fluctuations in the electromagnetic field, propagating as radiant energy.

And, not much unlike the story of gravitational waves, the existence of invisible electromagnetic waves was predicted by Maxwell’s equations well before their discovery by Heinrich Hertz!

So, to produce radio waves, you need to create fluctuations in the electromagnetic field. And to create those fluctuations, you need electrons moving around in a conductor! The act of radio wave synthesis is a carefully choreographed, rhythmic dance of electrons in tiny copper wires.

Like perturbations in still, water that radiates outward from the point of disturbance, the electron flows in antenna cause perturbations in electromagnetic field which radiate out into space like electromagnetic waves.

When you press “send” on your favorite messaging app, your mobile OS sets off a chain of events that ultimately encode the message as a careful choreography of electron dance. This dance results in rhythmic ebbs and flows in the electromagnetic field in the surrounding space, which radiates outward towards a cell tower.

The receiving antenna on the cell tower feels these ebbs and flows on its conducting surface, inducing an electron dance very similar to the one at the transmitter. This electron dance is again a set of electric impulses in tiny copper wires, which are decoded by the hardware at the cell tower.

The decoded information is then carried on high-throughput cables for thousands of miles across countries, continents and even oceans through Transatlantic communicationscables or some other Submarine communications cables, to a cell tower near your a friend across the ocean.

From the tower to your friend’s phone is another wireless jump. And finally, your friend hears the familiar ping. How does the phone know where the cell tower is? It doesn’t, and it doesn’t need to! Your phone broadcasts your message in all directions for anyone to listen to. But don’t worry, your message will be encrypted and only the cell tower can decode your message. 

How does the cell tower know that the message is from me?

With every message you transmit, you also include a code that uniquely identifies your device. That is how the cell tower knows it’s you.

How does the cell tower differentiate between messages from different phones?

The phones all agree on a protocol to send messages to the tower either at different times, different frequencies, different locations, or using different codes. The best analogy I have for this is that of a classroom.

Imagine a classroom with 100 students and just one teacher. Now, if all the students start speaking at once, the teacher cannot understand any of them. So, they agree on a protocol. If a student wants to speak, they raise their hand and wait for the teacher to point to them.

The student does not speak unless they are asked by the teacher to speak. If multiple students raise their hands at once, the teacher picks them out one by one so that only one student is speaking at any point in time. The cell tower is the teacher, and the devices are students.

While students can speak at different times to avoid interference, devices can speak at different times, different frequencies or different codes to avoid interference. So, you’re telling me that the majority of the communication is not really wireless?

Yes! Unless you’re using a Satellite phone, wireless communication is only used for two steps along the road: sender to tower-1, and tower-2 to a receiver. The communication between the cell towers happens through ultra high-speed communication cables underground.

But, aren’t cables so out of fashion for the 21st century? Why not use wireless all the way?

Well, the cables we’re talking about here like the Transatlantic communications cable are definitely very high-tech. They can carry terabytes of data every second, and do not face the problem of interference nearly as much as their wireless counterparts. Also, you’ll need a lot of satellites to cater to billions of users and their data needs if you want to go wireless all the way. And, launching satellites are really really expensive.