WiFi ... Hotspot ...

What is WiFi? WiFi is a way to wirelessly connect terminals to the Internet in a small area. A wireless router or modem is needed in addition to the wireless cards in your computer/smart phones/pdas. These days most of these cards are inbuilt in laptops and a few very smart phones and pda say – WiFi connectivity – this means they have the card inbuilt.

So all you need is a wireless router connected to the dsl modem -- and your house is WiFi enabled. Of course you need the laptop with WiFi card built into it or you need to buy a WiFi card as well.

WiFi is actually a common name for the 802.11 standard. Dot 11 - rings any bells? Dot 11a, Dot11b and Dot11g are the WiFi standards. These standards define the protocol that defines how the wireless card in your terminal (laptop, computer, phone) communicates with the wireless router.

So what can WiFi do?
- Provide wireless connectivity in a small area (local area)
- if you are too far from the wireless router, you get no signal and hence you are not connected to any network including the Internet.
- to be wirelessly connected in a larger area using WiFi - there needs to be many routers so that your terminal is in the range of one of the routers at all times.

What is a hot spot?
A hotspot is an area which provides you connectivity. Most hotspots use WiFi. They have one or many wireless routers installed in their premises. And a user connects to the internet using their router. Many hotspots charge you some fee. Some are free hotspots.

Google, headquartered in Mountain View, is trying to make Mountain View a big hotspot. They have partnered with the city government to install wireless routers on street lights to provide wireless connectivity anywhere in the city.

Now comes the question - so what is WiMax? [Coming up ...]