IEEE 802.11 b/g
(Wi-Fi)
Michael DiDiego
IST
7040 Data Communications and Networking
Wilmington
College
January 30, 2007
This
report describes Wi-Fi and the needed components. Advantages including convenience and its
ubiquitous access are noted as well as its security disadvantages. The closing paragraphs address steps to help
reduce the security vulnerabilities.
Wi-Fi is an
evolutionary standard that is really being utilized more and more each
day. Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity
and is part of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard number 802.11. This standard makes wireless computing
possible and was considered a new technology in 1998. According to Lusa (1998, p. 324), IEEE 802.11
interoperability of wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) are foreseen as a
result of these standards. Today, the
wireless is a widely accepted reality with hundreds of million users (Gallegos,
2004, p19). Actually, IEEE introduced
802.11 in 1997 with the capability to initially support data rate up to 2 Mb/s
and allowed wireless workstations up to roughly several hundred feet (<100m)
away to communicate with an access point (White, 2007, p. 99).
Have
you heard of cities being promoted as going wireless? As of January 2006, 186 United
States cities had their networks up and
running or had definite plans to build one (How
Municipal Wi-Fi Works, 2007, p.2). Just what makes this all possible? The electromagnetic wave and standards for
common settings on computing devices make the wireless connection. The protocol established for IEEE 802.11 b/g
sets a standard for frequency and transmission speed. The frequency is the number of times a signal
makes a complete cycle within a given time frame. The unit of measurement for frequency is
Hertz (Hz), cycles per second.
Communications’ transmission speed is baud, number of signal changes per
second. These signals for the baud rate
convert depending of the protocol to data rate per second. The data rate is measured in bits per second
(b/s). The 802.11 b/g standards set the
frequency to 2.4GHz, which is 2.4 billion Hertz per second. The transmission speed ranges from 11 Mb/s
for 802.11(b) to 54 Mb/s for 802.11(g) which is often selected for its speed
and reliability. These are maximum
speeds depending on range, transmission and equipment conditions.
A wireless
networking card, also called a wireless adapter, receives the waves as a signal
and converts them to digital data. This
adapter is in the form of a computer circuit board with the integrated hardware
to receive the signals and the software to perform the conversion. The wireless adapter is sending and receiving
signals from the access point. A
wireless router has an antenna and functions as the access point. The router is also connected to the wired
portion of the LAN. Here the wireless router sends and receives
information to the internet using a physical wire, often a wired Ethernet
connection.
The ready
availability of the adapters, routers and other equipment makes assembling and
deploying a wireless network easy. To
take advantage of municipal hotspots, free public accessible LAN
connections, or start your own wireless network just buy a Wi-Fi compliant
notebook and a wireless router. It is
plug and play compatible. Make sure your
laptop computer specifies that it is 802.11 b/g
ready. However, for older computers a
wireless adapter can be plugged into the PC card slot or universal service bus
(USB) port.
A desktop computer can have an adapter for the wireless standard that
plugs into the peripheral component interconnect
(PCI). With these devices properly
integrated computers can automatically discover existing networks in a Wi-Fi
hotspot (How Wi-Fi Works, 2006, p.4).
Not only will it detect signals in a designated area but it will pick up
any unsecured access point in its range.
A Wi-Fi equipped computer can act as an access point itself and has the
vulnerability of becoming a rogue access point.
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