Wireless networking is one of the two common methods for networking, the other being the wired networking. Wen a small area makes a wireless network then it’s called the Wireless LAN or WLAN. In wireless networking, instead of implementing wires to connect different devices, radio waves are used.

Wireless networking for home is loved because in order to form of wireless network in a house you won’t need to run cables all through your house. On the hand, since it’s wireless, you won’t get as much speed as in wired networking. So you see, it’s a dual-edged sword that has pros as well as cons.

There are so many things involved in wireless networking that I think it would be useful to guide you through the basic terminologies/jargons of wireless networking.

Wi-Fi

The first thing that comes to our mind when we hear about wireless networking is WiFi. That is not completely true. WiFi is just a standard used to connect different devices without wires. The technical name of WiFi is IEEE 802.11 standard. There are different versions of the 802.11 standard such as 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac but more common standards are n and ac. In 2016, some new standards like 802.11ah and af were also introduced but aren’t finalized yet.

IP

IP (Internet Protocol) is a unique number assigned to each device that is connected to the internet. A common example of an IP address is 192.168.0.1 . There are two versions of IP. IPv4 and IPv6. IPv6 is still not very popular.

Access point

In networking, an access point is a device that transmits and receives data. An access point connects one user to the other users of that network. You can also extend your wireless network by implementing another access point instead of buying another wireless router.

Wireless Ad Hoc

As we know, different devices need a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers, access points etc, to connect with other devices in that network. Ad hoc is a contradiction of that theory. In simple terms, it is a LAN network which is built spontaneously as the devices wnat to connect. Every network nodes transfer data to and from other devices. In other words, devices in this network work ‘dynamically’.

Wireless Router

This is perhaps the most important device in wireless networking setup. It is a device which combines the functionalities of a typical router and a wireless access point. This device can work all the three scenarios: Wired Network, a Wireless network, and Hybrid Wired/Wireless Network.

Wireless Repeater

Also known as WiFi range extender, receives a signal from a WiFi router, reproduce it and transmit it again. As its name suggests it is used to extend the wifi range because many times we have dead zones in our houses where wifi signals are poor.

Wireless Bridge

There are many devices in our network that work in the wired-only mode such as TV, DVD player etc. Connect them to a wireless network can be a problem. You can use different powerline adapters but that can be expensive. On the other hand, this can be cheaply done by using a wireless bridge. In this technique, you can connect two wired network through WiFi. You can connect your wired devices to a second router and connect that router to your primary router. This way you can share the internet to those devices.