Wireless Protocols

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To get up to speed in the wireless world, you should first be aware of the three wireless protocols commonly in use today: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, which are collectively referred to as Wi-Fi (short for wireless fidelity). In case you are wondering, a protocol is basically a data transmission format that has been generally agreed upon, in this case by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Of these three 802.11 protocols, average home users need only concern themselves with 802.11b and 802.11g, as the hardware for these protocols is considerably less expensive than that for 802.11a, which is primarily used in large office environments.

The faster of the two protocols is 802.11g, which has a transmission speed of 54 Mbps compared to the 11 Mbps speed of 802.11b. Linux support for 802.11g wireless cards, however, is still developmental at best, which means that for now you had better stick to the 11 Mbps 802.11b protocol when selecting a wireless card. Although this may sound like an undesirable limitation, it is pretty much irrelevant in the real-world scheme of things. The somewhat lower speed of the 802.11b devices will most likely matter very little to you unless you are forking out an awful lot of money to your Internet provider each month for some extreme bandwidth. After all, the average transmission speed of most home cable Internet connections is still less than the 11 Mbps speed of 802.11b, so don’t fret too much. Just remember that a traditional dial-up telephone modem has a transmission speed of 56 Kbps, or 56 thousand bits per second; 11 Mbps is 11 million bits per second. That is plenty fast for the average mortal.

Another reason you shouldn’t feel so hampered by having to use an 802.11b wireless card is that the 802.11b protocol is still more commonly used than the newer 802.11g. Most public wireless access areas (hot spots), such as airports, university campuses, and hotels still use the 802.11b protocol. Even if the 802.11g protocol is used in such places, or even if someone in your family has an 802.11g- based system up and running in your house, you can still connect to the Net over that system with your 802.11b network card, because the two protocols are compatible (though your 802.11b card won’t be able to use the extra speed of the 802.11g network).

Note 

An 802.11a card isn’t compatible with an 802.11b or 802.11g network.

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