WiFi: Connecting computers without cables

WiFi (wireless fidelity) or 802.11 networking is a system which allows you to connect your computer or laptop or other devices to each other without using cumbersome cables.

Recently, the Centre for Communication, Languages and Culture (CCLC) at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, with the help of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, installed this system in their offices at a cost of Rs 2.25 lakh. All the computers within the CCLC are now interconnected with each other.

CCLC Additional Director PPS Gill told Business Standard, "By installing this system at our centre, we have benefited in many ways. We have also gone online. Now, we have a separate portal on the PAU website and we update it everyday. At CCLC, we have a course for post-graduate diploma of journalism and that's why we need to use the latest technologies here.''

"With the help of WiFi, we have connected multiple computers to each other, to peripherals and to the internet via a single high-speed connection. Now we can share hardware and software resources as printers and the Internet. Now everyone in the office can share stored files, photos and documents and print them out on a single printer attached to one desktop computer and all without cables running through the office,'' he added.

PAU Associate Professor AP Singh, who supervised the project, said that a wireless network uses Error! Reference source not found. waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios.

"In a wireless network the computer wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it through an antenna. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. It sends the information to the internet using a physical, wired ethernet connection.

These days, WiFi is being used as an alternative to wired Local Area Network (LAN) in many business houses, agencies, schools, and homes across the world.

Many airports and hotels offer public access to WiFi networks and these locations are known as 'Error! Reference source not founds'.