"Hi, My name is Dave your friendly yet somewhat annoying electronics store associate. So you're looking for a wireless router? What sort of wireless router are you looking for today sir? Wireless G? Wireless N? Dual band or single? Are you looking for MIMO or wireless A for your games? Have you seen our new WPS models? Need some time to think? OK, I'll be over here by the printers if you need anything. My name is Dave."
Before finding yourself in the middle of a conversation like this and ending up paying for a wireless router with features you don't need its best to walk into a store knowing what you already want and what all those acronyms mean.
Five minutes from now you will.
A, B, G or N?
Wireless-A, B, G and N are all variations of the same 802.11X wireless protocol. Wireless-B was the earliest and is now considered outdated with the speed of only 11 megabits per second. Way too slow by todays standards. Having Wireless-B gear on a wireless-G network can actually slow other devices on that network to wireless-B speeds.
Next came Wireless-G and the rise in popularity of wireless networking. Wireless-G comes with far better security and a maximum speed of 54 megabits per second. Proprietary standards created by manufacturer's have doubled this to 108 megabits per second. Still even with this major increase in speed consumer interest in games and streaming multimedia created a need for an even faster wireless networking standard. Today we have a wireless-N routers which can reach speeds of up to 320 megabits per second.
The old Wireless-A standard had one redeeming feature. That was the fact that instead of running on the 2.4 gigahertz frequency band along with other wireless routers and popular wireless products such as cordless phones and baby monitors it ran relatively free of interference on the 5 gigahertz frequency band. Today wireless-N will run on both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz frequency bands. The option to use the 5 gigahertz frequency band allows us much more flexibility when trying to avoid interference from other wireless devices.
What is MIMO?
The government only allows a home networks wireless signal to reach a certain strength to prevent it from interfering with other broadcast frequencies. This makes the wireless protocol susceptible to different types of interference. A way of overcoming this interference is with the use of multiple input and output antennas called MIMO. MIMO actually uses the surfaces of a room to reflect off of and in effect increase a wireless routers signal strength.
Encryption - Good, Better and Best
The types of security available on a wireless router usually come in three flavors. WEP, WPA and WPA2. WEP was first introduced with 802.11 B. with the increase of computer processing speeds encryption in WEP has become easier and easier to crack. WPA uses encryption keys that are constantly changing which makes it very difficult to crack. WPA two uses a different type of encryption method called AES which makes it even more difficult to crack and WPA.
WPS - So Easy A 10 Year Old Can Do It?
In order to make setting up wireless security easier for consumers a new feature called WPS or "Wireless Protected Setup" has been developed. WPS makes setting up wireless encryption easy and has even been incorporated into the new Windows 7 operating system. WPS involves simply typing in a pin number or pressing a button. If both the wireless router and a device you're connecting to support WPS your encryption type and security key is randomly generated automatically for you on both devices. In theory this makes setting up a wireless network so simple even a 10-year-old can do it. (Whether that's a good idea are not still remains to be seen).
Hopefully this brief article has given you a better understanding as to what all those confusing letters and acronyms associated with wireless networking mean. When Dave approaches you and asks if you need any help you should be able to say "No thanks." and walk out with exactly what you came in for.
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