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Routers, Switches and Hubs - Can You Tell Them Apart?

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Routers, Switches and Hubs - Can You Tell Them Apart?

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Network routers, switches and hubs are all standard components of wired Ethernet networks. They may appear identical at first. Each

is a small plastic or metal box-shaped electronic device

allows computers to connect to it for the purpose of enabling communication among them via Internet Protocol

features a number of physical ports on the front or back of the unit that provide the connection points for these computers, a connection for electric power, and LED lights to display device status

Other key characteristics of these devices are what sets them apart.

Routers Forward Network Data More Intelligently

While hubs, switches and routers all share similar physical appearance, routers differ substantially in their inner workings and contain significantly more logic. Traditional routers are designed to join together multiple local area networks (LANs) with a wide area network (WAN). Routers serve as intermediate destinations for network traffic. They receive incoming network packets, look inside each packet to identify the source and target network addresses, then forward these packets where needed to ensure the data reaches its final destination. Neither switches nor hubs can do these things.

Routers Help Connect Home Networks to the Internet

Routers for home networks (often called broadband routers) are designed specifically to join the home network to the Internet for the purpose of Internet connection sharing.

In contrast, switches (and hubs) are not capable of joining multiple networks or sharing an Internet connection. A network with only switches and hubs must instead designate one computer as the gateway to the Internet, and that device must possess two network adapters for sharing, one for the home facing connection and one for the Internet facing connection.

With a router, all home computers connect to the router as peers, and the router handles all such Internet gateway functions.

Routers Are Smarter In Other Ways, Too

Additionally, broadband routers contain several features beyond those of traditional routers such as integrated DHCP server and network firewall support. Wireless broadband routers even incorporate a built-in Ethernet switch for supporting wired computer connections (and enabling network expansion via connecting additional switches if needed).

Switches vs. Hubs

Switches are higher-performance alternatives to hubs. Both pass data between devices connected to them. Hubs do so by broadcasting the data to all other connected devices, while switches first determine which device is the intended recipient of the data and then sends it to that one device directly via a so-called "virtual circuit."

When four computers are connected to a hub, for example, and two of those computers communicate with each other, hubs simply pass through all network traffic to each of the four computers. Switches, on the other hand, are capable of determining the destination of each individual traffic element (such as an Ethernet frame) and selectively forwarding data to the one computer that actually needs it.

This behavior allows switches to generate less overall network traffic compared to hubs - a big advantage on busy networks.

What About Wi-Fi Switches and Hubs?

Home Wi-Fi networks utilize routers but technically do not have the concept of a wireless switch or hub. A wireless access point functions similarly (but not identically) to a wired switch.

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What are the differences among network routers, switches and hubs?

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Network routers, switches and hubs are all standard components of wired Ethernet networks. They may appear identical at first.

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Use this to learn about Network Design, Topologies. & Protocols

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Computer networking is the practice of interfacing two or more computing devices with each other for the purpose of sharing data. Computer networks are built with a combination of hardware and software.

Computer Network Classification and Area Networks

Computer networks can be categorized in several different ways. One approach defines the type of network according to the geographic area it spans. Local area networks (LANs), for example, typically span a single home, school, or small office building, whereas wide area networks (WANs), reach across cities, states, or even across the world. The internet is the world's largest public WAN.

Network Design

Computer networks also differ in their design approach. The two basic forms of network design are called client-server and peer-to-peer. Client-server networks feature centralized server computers that store email, web pages, files, and applications accessed by client computers and other client devices. On a peer-to-peer network, conversely, all devices tend to support the same functions. Client-server networks are common in business and peer-to-peer networks are common in homes.

A network topology defines the network layout or structure from the point of view of data flow. In bus networks, for example, all computers share and communicate across one common conduit, whereas in a star network, data flows through one centralized device. Common types of network topologies include bus, star, ring, and mesh.

Network Protocols

Communication languages used by computer devices are called network protocols. Another way to classify computer networks is by the set of protocols they support. Networks often implement multiple protocols and each network supports specific applications. Popular protocols include TCP/IP - the one commonly found on the internet and in home networks.

Computer Network Hardware and Software

Special purpose communication devices including network routers, access points, and network cables physically glue a network together. Network operating systems and other software applications generate network traffic and enable users to do useful things.

Home Computer Networking

While other types of networks are built and maintained by engineers, home networks belong to homeowners who often have little or no technical background. Various manufacturers produce broadband router hardware designed to simplify home network setup. A home router enables devices in different rooms to efficiently share a broadband internet connection, helps household members share files and printers within the network, and improves overall network security.

Home networks have increased in capability with each generation of new technology. Years ago, people commonly set up a home network to connect a few PCs, share documents, and perhaps share a printer. Now it's common for households to network game consoles, digital video recorders, and smartphones for streaming sound and video. Home automation systems have also existed for many years, but these have grown in popularity recently with practical systems that control lights, digital thermostats, and appliances.

Business Computer Networks

Small and home office (SOHO) environments use technology that is similar to home networks. Businesses often have additional communication, data storage, and security requirements that require expanding networks in different ways, particularly as the business gets larger.

Whereas a home network generally functions as one LAN, a business network tends to contain multiple LANs. Companies with buildings in multiple locations utilize wide-area networking to connect these branch offices together. Though also available and used by some households, voice over IP communication, network storage, and backup technologies are prevalent in businesses. Larger companies also maintain internal web sites, called intranets, to help with employee business communication.

Networking and the Internet

The popularity of computer networks sharply increased with the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the 1990s. Public web sites, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems, and various other services run on internet servers across the world.

Wired vs. Wireless Computer Networking

Many of the same protocols such as TCP/IP work in both wired and wireless networks. Networks with Ethernet cables predominated in businesses, schools, and homes for several decades. Wi-Fi has emerged as the preferred option for building new computer networks, in part to support smartphones and the other wireless gadgets that have triggered the rise of mobile networking.

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Everything You Need to Know About Computer Networking From the Start

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Computer networking is the practice of interfacing two or more computing devices with each other for the purpose of sharing data. Computer networks are built with a combination of hardware and software. Computer networks can be categorized in several different ways. One approach defines the type of network according to the geographic area it spans.

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The Difference Between Wireless-G, Wireless-N and Wireless-AC

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The Difference Between Wireless-G, Wireless-N and Wireless-AC

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People generally refer to all Wireless Internet as WiFi but, as with a lot of technical jargon, WiFi as a term is often misused. Are you one of those people constantly asking: Why is my Internet or my WiFi so slow??!?

Very often, it is not the Internet provider's fault. Rather, it all comes down to the type of router you are using and the speed it offers

Wireless-N and Wireless-G are terms referring to 802.11n and 802.11g wireless networking standards set by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the professional organization and standard bearers for electronics discussion and publication among working professionals.

By setting a wireless standard, the multitude of manufacturing entities creating wireless networking products (routers) and wireless networking devices ( PS4, Laptops, Tablets, SmartTVs, XboxOne, iPhones, Roku) can all start on the same page. Imagine if a given wireless networking device was only able to connect to certain routers at certain places. It would result in a major loss of continuity for users and would cause anything from minor headaches to mass frustration.

Wireless networking standards such as Wireless-N and Wireless-G go through many iterations/versions called drafts until they are finally settled upon for publication and mass use.

IEEE 802.11n is a wireless networking standard created to improve network throughput (maximum speed and transmission capabilities) over the two prior standards-802.11a and 802.11g. For example, most coffee shop hotspot routers run on Wireless-G (54 Mbps) or even Wireless-B (11 Mbps). They are constantly being shared by many people so it can be somewhat slow to connect and actually surf the web.

What made Wireless-N significant is that it increased the maximum data transmission rate more than tenfold from 54 Mbps to 600-900 Mbps. Wireless-N also opened up additional spectrum area for wireless transmission, allowing for the use of four spatial streams in at a channel width of 40 MHz. That is double the channel width of Wireless-G. 802.11n standardized support/technical specifications for multiple-input multiple-output (AKA MIMO). It also increased security and improved several additional features.

The most popular Wireless-N routers available include the Dark Knight Asus RT-N66U (above) and the

Watch this video for more insight into the upgraded features on the RT-N66U Tomato FlashRouter.

What is Wireless-AC?

Enhancements of 802.11n are currently being drafted and tested and may even included on certain brand new routers as 802.11ac or Wireless-AC.

Wireless-AC has increasingly become more formalized and is now included on many devices including Roku, iPhone & most newer streaming devices. We have added the Linksys WRT1900ACS DD-WRT and Netgear R7000 Nighthawk DD-WRT which are ready for max-performance Wireless-AC upgrades.

What is Wireless-AD?

Even more recently, there is now Wireless-AD. What separates Wireless-AD from most WiFi connections today is the use of the 60GHz spectrum instead of the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands. The max speed of Wireless-AD is 7Gbps. This is 4 Gbps higher than the max speeds of Wireless-AC.

However, Wireless-AD is not backward compatible. Simply put, there are few very Wireless-AD compatible devices, if any.....yet. This means that current devices cannot take advantage of Wireless-AD speed. Currently, that makes Wireless-AD a great future proofing feature on the routers that offer it, until Wireless AD replaces Wireless-AC to become the new standard. When it does, you will be ready.

Why You Should Upgrade to Wireless-AC from Wireless-N and Wireless-G?

Hanging onto an older Wireless-G router means you are sacrificing overall speed and security while actually hindering the wireless capabilities for newer devices.

Using a Wireless-G router with your iPad may feel like trying to catching a fish with a stick. It may eventually work, but it certainly not the most efficient way to get the job done. This is not an iPhone 6S to iPhone 7 type upgrade where you have a little bit sleeker device and a few new features to play with. When a wireless standard is jumped, you are talking MAJOR wireless connectivity improvements.

Want to see the differences between Wireless AC, Wireless-N and Wireless-G? Well, here's a quick breakdown for you.

Wireless G vs Wireless N Comparison
Max Throughput:
Wireless-B: 11 Mbps
Wireless-G: 54 Mbps
Wireless-N: 600-900 Mbps
Wireless-AC: 1200-5300
Wireless-AD: 1200-7200

Wireless Range (Radius): 75 ft vs up to 200-500 ft

Wireless Channel Width:
Wireless-G: 20 MHz
Wireless-N: 40 MHz
Wireless-AC: 20/40/80 MHz

Of course, these ranges are maximum distances in optimal conditions. Most of us don't live in a world where there are no other wireless interference. Even if you don't see any other wireless signals in your range, there is still a laundry list of devices that can cost you range, such as Cordless Phones, Baby Monitors and Microwaves.

Getting a high performing router Wireless-AC is the best way to overcome these issues. And here are some tips to make your Wireless-AC router perform better in our explainer video.

Here is a handy list of some of our most popular Wireless-N & Wireless-AC Router Routers and their manufacturer speed maximums:
Wireless-AC 2600 Mbps
Netgear R7800 X4S DD-WRT
Wireless-AC 3200 Mbps
Wireless-AC 5300 Mbps Wireless-AD7200 Mbps
Netgear R9000 DD-WRT - Most Powerful DD-WRT Router of 2018
Asus RT-AC5300 DD-WRT - Most Powerful DD-WRT Router of 2016 Linksys WRT3200ACM DD-WRT
Asus RT-AC3200 Tomato - Most Powerful Tomato Router
Netgear x6 R8000 AC3200 DD-WRT For more DD-WRT Router & VPN Service Provider info, product updates, and specials, follow us on Twitter @flashrouters or like us on Facebook.
If you are looking to get "faster wifi," these are the devices you want to buy.

Upgrading these router's firmware to the powerful DD-WRT or Tomato firmware platform on all of these routers, as FlashRouters does, allows you more control over the signal while improving signal strength and stability. Many of these routers have excellent hardware but the manufacturer's firmware actually hinders their abilities.

Buying one of these router with a DD-WRT upgrade or Tomato firmware enhancement can make a world of difference in their overall performance and create a new bedrock for your networking gateway.

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The Differences Between Wireless G, N and AC

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People generally refer to all Wireless Internet as WiFi but, as with a lot of technical jargon, WiFi as a term is often misused. Are you one of those people constantly asking: Why is my Internet or my WiFi so slow??!? Very often, it is not the Internet provider's fault.

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How to Build a Wi-Fi Wireless Home Network Tutorial

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How to Build a Wi-Fi Wireless Home Network Tutorial

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This tutorial will guide you through the process of planning, building, and testing a wireless home network. Although mainstream wireless networking has made amazing strides over the years, wireless technology and terminology remain a bit difficult for most of us to comprehend. This guide will help small business networkers, too!

Build a Wireless LAN, Step by Step

You can build any typical wireless home network, a wireless LAN (WLAN), using this simple three-step approach:

1. Identify the WLAN design that's best for your situation.
2. Choose good wireless gear.
3. Install gear and test the configured WLAN.

I'll break down each of these steps in more detail.

Ready to Go Wireless?

This article assumes you've already made an informed decision to go wireless rather than build a traditional cabled network. Prices have dropped dramatically from a few years ago, when wireless gear was quite expensive, so networking hardware is much more affordable now, but wireless networks still aren't for everyone (yet). If you're unsure that wireless will really meet your needs be sure to research the different capabilities to decide what's right for you.

Benefits of Wireless

Wireless offers tangible benefits over traditional wired networking. Ever tried to quickly look up a recipe on the Net while cooking in the kitchen? Do the kids need a networked computer in their bedroom for school projects?

Have you dreamed of sending email, instant messaging, or playing games while relaxing on your outdoor patio? These are just some of the things wireless can do for you:

Next Stop - Terminology

The field of computer networking once sat squarely in the domain of techies. Equipment manufacturers, service providers, and experts that study the field of networking tend to go quite heavy on technical jargon.

The wireless networking industry is gradually improving on this legacy, making products more consumer-friendly and easier to integrate into the home. But there is still much work for the industry to do. Let's take a quick look at the common jargon of wireless home networking and what it all means.

When researching wireless equipment to buy, or talking about wireless networking with friends and family, you should have a solid understanding of this basic terminology.

What is a WLAN?

We've already said that a WLAN is a typical wireless home network. That's because a WLAN is a wireless LAN, and a LAN is a related group of networked computers situated in close physical proximity to each other. LANs can be found in many homes, schools, and businesses. Though it's technically possible to have more than one LAN in your home, few do this in practice. In this tutorial, we explain how to build a single standard WLAN for your home.

What is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is an industry name used to market wireless networking products. You'll find a black-and-white Wi-Fi logo or certification emblem on virtually any new wireless equipment you buy. Technically speaking, Wi-Fi signifies conformance to the 802.11 family of wireless communication standards (described below).

But because all mainstream wireless home network gear uses the 802.11 standards today, basically the term "Wi-Fi" merely distinguishes wireless equipment from other network gear.

What is 802.11a/802.11b/802.11g?

802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g represent three popular wireless communication standards. Wireless networks can be built using any of the three, but 802.11a is less compatible with the others and tends to be a more expensive option implemented only by larger businesses.

What are WEP, WPA and Wardriving?

The security of wireless home and small business networks remains a concern for many. Just like we use radio or television receivers to tune into station broadcasts, it's almost as easy to pick up signals from a nearby wireless home network.

Sure, credit card transactions on the Web may be secure, but imagine your neighbors spying on every email and instant message you send!

A few years ago, some techies popularized the practice of wardriving to raise awareness of this vulnerability in WLANs. With the help of cheap, home-made equipment, wardrivers walked or motored through neighborhoods snooping the wireless network traffic emanating from nearby homes. Some wardrivers even logged their computers onto unsuspecting people's home WLANs, essentially stealing free computer resources and Internet access.

WEP was an important feature of wireless networks designed to improve their security. WEP scrambles (technically speaking, encrypts) network traffic mathematically so that other computers can understand it, but humans cannot read it. WEP technology became obsolete some years back and has been replaced with WPA and other security options. WPA helps protect your WLAN from wardrivers and nosy neighbors, and today, all popular wireless equipment supports it. Because WPA is a feature that can be turned on or off, you'll simply need to ensure it is configured properly when setting up your network.

Next - Types of Wireless Equipment

The five types of equipment found in wireless home networks are:

Some of this equipment is optional depending on your home network configuration. Let's examine each piece in turn.

Wireless Network Adapters

Each device you wish to connect to a WLAN must possess a wireless network adapter. Wireless adapters are sometimes also called NICs, short for Network Interface Cards. Wireless adapters for desktop computers are often small PCI cards or sometimes card-like USB adapters. Wireless adapters for notebook computers resemble a thick credit card. Nowadays, though, an increasing number of wireless adapters are not cards but rather small chips embedded inside notebook or handheld computers.

Wireless network adapters contain a radio transmitter and receiver (transceiver). Wireless transceivers send and receive messages, translating, formatting, and generally organizing the flow of information between the computer and the network. Determining how many wireless network adapters you need to buy is the first critical step in building your home network. Check the technical specifications of your computers if you're unsure whether they contain built-in wireless adapter chips.

Wireless Access Points

A wireless access point serves as the central WLAN communication station. In fact, they are sometimes called base stations. Access points are thin, lightweight boxes with a series of LED lights on the face.

Access points join a wireless LAN to a pre-existing wired Ethernet network. Home networkers typically install an access point when they already own a broadband router and want to add wireless computers to their current setup. You must use either an access point or a wireless router (described below) to implement hybrid wired/wireless home networking.

Otherwise, you probably don't need an access point.

Wireless Routers

A wireless router is a wireless access point with several other useful functions added. Like wired broadband routers, wireless routers also support Internet connection sharing and include firewall technology for improved network security. Wireless routers closely resemble access points.

A key benefit of both wireless routers and access points is scalability. Their strong built-in transceivers are designed to spread a wireless signal throughout the home. A home WLAN with a router or access point can better reach corner rooms and backyards, for example, than one without. Likewise, home wireless networks with a router or access point support many more computers than those without one. As we'll explain in more detail later, if your wireless LAN design includes a router or access point, you must run all network adapters in so-called infrastructure mode; otherwise they must run in ad-hoc mode.

Wireless routers are a good choice for those building their first home network. See the following article for good examples of wireless router products for home networks:

Wireless Antennas

Wireless network adapters, access points, and routers all utilize an antenna to assist in receiving signals on the WLAN. Some wireless antennas, like those on adapters, are internal to the unit. Other antennas, like those on many access points, are externally visible. The normal antennas shipped with wireless products provide sufficient reception in most cases, but you can also usually install an optional, add-on antenna to improve reception. You generally won't know whether you'll need this piece of equipment until after you finish your basic network setup.

Wireless Signal Boosters

Some manufacturers of wireless access points and routers also sell a small piece of equipment called a signal booster. Installed together with a wireless access point or router, a signal booster serves to increase the strength of the base station transmitter. It's possible to use signal boosters and add-on antennas together, to improve both wireless network transmission and reception simultaneously.

Both antennas and signal boosters can be a useful addition to some home networks after the basics are in place. They can bring out-of-range computers back into range of the WLAN, and they can also improve network performance in some cases.

WLAN Configurations

Now that you have a good understanding of the pieces of a wireless LAN, we're ready to set them up according to your needs. Don't worry if you haven't settled on a configuration yet; we will cover all of them.

To maximize benefit from the directions below, have your answers ready for the following questions:

Do you want to extend your wired home network with a WLAN, or are you building a completely new network?

How many wireless computers do you plan to network, and where in the home will be they be located?

What operating systems do/will you run on your networked computers?

Do you need to share your Internet connection among the wireless computers? how else will you use this WLAN? File sharing? Network gaming?

Installing a Wireless Router

One wireless router supports one WLAN. Use a wireless router on your network if:

You are building your first home network, or

You want to re-build your home network to be all-wireless, or

You want to keep your WLAN installation as simple as possible.

Try to install your wireless router in a central location within the home. The way Wi-Fi networking works, computers closer to the router (generally in the same room or in line of sight) realize better network speed than computers further away.

Connect the wireless router to a power outlet and optionally to a source of Internet connectivity. All wireless routers support broadband modems, and some support phone line connections to dial-up Internet service. If you need dial-up support, be sure to purchase a router having an RS-232 serial port. Finally, because wireless routers contain a built-in access point, you're also free to connect a wired router, switch, or hub.

Next, choose your network name. In Wi-Fi networking, the network name is often called the SSID. Your router and all computers on the WLAN must share the same SSID. Although your router shipped with a default name set by the manufacturer, it's best to change it for security reasons. Consult product documentation to find the network name for your particular wireless router, and follow this general advice for setting your SSID.

Last, follow the router documentation to enable WEP security, turn on firewall features, and set any other recommended parameters.

Installing a Wireless Access Point

One wireless access point supports one WLAN. Use a wireless access point on your home network if:

You don't need the extra features a wireless router provides AND

You are extending an existing wired Ethernet home network, or

You have (or plan to have) four or more wireless computers scattered throughout the home.

Install your access point in a central location, if possible. Connect power and a dial-up Internet connection, if desired. Also cable the access point to your LAN router, switch or hub.

You won't have a firewall to configure, of course, but you still must set a network name and enable WEP on your access point at this stage.

Configuring the Wireless Adapters

Configure your adapters after setting up the wireless router or access point (if you have one). Insert the adapters into your computers as explained in your product documentation. Wi-Fi adapters require TCP/IP be installed on the host computer.

Manufacturers each provide configuration utilities for their adapters. On the Windows operating system, for example, adapters generally have their own graphic user interface (GUI) accessible from the Start Menu or taskbar after the hardware is installed. Here's where you set the network name (SSID) and turn on WEP. You can also set a few other parameters as described in the next section. Remember, all of your wireless adapters must use the same parameter settings for your WLAN to function properly.

Configuring an Ad-Hoc Home WLAN

Every Wi-Fi adapter requires you to choose between infrastructure mode (called access point mode in some configuration tools) and ad-hoc wireless (peer-to-peer) mode. When using a wireless access point or router, set every wireless adapter for infrastructure mode. In this mode, wireless adapters automatically detect and set their WLAN channel number to match the access point (router).

Alternatively, set all wireless adapters to use ad hoc mode. When you enable this mode, you'll see a separate setting for channel number. All adapters on your ad hoc wireless LAN need matching channel numbers.

Ad-hoc home WLAN configurations work fine in homes with only a few computers situated fairly close to each other. You can also use this configuration as a fallback option if your access point or router breaks.

Configuring Software Internet Connection Sharing

As shown in the diagram, you can share an Internet connection across an ad hoc wireless network. To do this, designate one of your computers as the host (effectively a substitute for a router). That computer will keep the modem connection and must obviously be powered on whenever the network is in use. Microsoft Windows offers a feature called Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) that works with ad hoc WLANs.

Now let's cover some of the finer points you need to know about home wireless networks.

Wireless Signal Interference within the Home

When installing a Wi-Fi router (or access point), beware of signal interference from other home appliances. In particular, do not install the unit within 3-10 feet (about 1-3 m) from a microwave oven. Other common sources of wireless interference are 2.4 GHz cordless phones, baby monitors, garage door openers, and some home automation devices.

If you live in a home with brick or plaster walls, or one with metal framing, you're may encounter difficulty maintaining a strong network signal between rooms. Wi-Fi is designed to support signal range up to 300 feet (about 100 m), but physical barriers reduce this range substantially. All 802.11 communications (802.11a and other 5 GHz radios more than 2.4 GHz) are affected by obstructions; keep this in mind when installing your devices.

Wireless Routers / Access Point Interference from Outside

In densely populated areas, it's not uncommon for wireless signals from one person's home network to penetrate a neighboring home and interfere with their network. This happens when both households set conflicting communication channels. Fortunately, when configuring a router (access point), you can (except in a few locales) change the channel number employed.

In the United States, for example, you may choose any Wi-Fi channel number between 1 and 11. If you encounter interference from neighbors, you should coordinate channel settings with them. Simply using different channel numbers won't always solve the problem. However, if both parties use a different one of the channel numbers 1, 6 or 11, that will guarantee elimination of cross-network interference.

MAC Address Filtering

Newer wireless routers (access points) support a handy security feature called MAC address filtering. This feature allows you to register wireless adapters with your router (access point) and force the unit to reject communications from any wireless device that isn't on your list. MAC address filtering combined with strong Wi-Fi encryption (ideally WPA2 or better) affords very good security protection.

Wireless Adapter Profiles

Many wireless adapters support a feature called profiles that allows you to set up and save multiple WLAN configurations. For example, you can create an ad hoc configuration for your home WLAN and an infrastructure mode configuration for your office, then switch between the two profiles as needed. I recommend setting up profiles on any computers you plan to move between your home network and some other WLAN; the time you spend now will save much more time and aggravation later.

Wireless Security

Among the options you'll see for activating wireless security on home networks, WPA2 is considered best. Some gear might not support this higher level of protection, though. Ordinary WPA works well on most networks and is a suitable fallback alternative to WPA2. Try to avoid using older WEP technologies whenever possible except as a last resort. WEP helps prevent casual people from logging into your network but offers minimal protection against attackers.

To set up wireless security, choose a method and assign a long code number called a key or passphrase to the router and all of your devices. Matching security settings must be configured on both the router and the client device for the wireless connection to work. Keep your passphrase secret, as others can easily join your network once they know the code.

General Tips

If you've finished installing the components, but your home network isn't functioning correctly, troubleshoot methodically:

Can't reach the Internet? Temporarily turn off your firewall to determine whether you have a firewall configuration problem, or some other issue. More - Can't Connect to the Internet?

Likewise, turn on and test your wireless adapters one by one, to determine if problems are isolated to a single computer or common to all.

Try an ad hoc wireless configuration if infrastructure mode networking isn't functional, and perhaps you'll identify a problem with your access point or router

To help you work methodically, as you build your network, write down on paper the key settings like network name, security key or passphrase, MAC addresses, and Wi-Fi channel numbers (then eat the evidence afterward!).

Don't worry about making mistakes; you can go back and alter any of your WLAN settings any time

Finally, don't be surprised if your network's performance doesn't match numbers quoted by equipment manufacturers. For example, although 802.11g equipment technically supports 54 Mbps bandwidth, that is a theoretical maximum never achieved in practice. A significant amount of Wi-Fi network bandwidth is consumed by overhead that you cannot control. Expect to see more than about one-half the maximum bandwidth (about 20 Mbps at most for a 54 Mbps link) on your home network.

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What Gear is Needed for a Wireless Home Network?

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This tutorial will guide you through the process of planning, building, and testing a wireless home network. Although mainstream wireless networking has made amazing strides over the years, wireless technology and terminology remain a bit difficult for most of us to comprehend. This guide will help small business networkers, too!

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Hubs, Switches, Routers: What's the Difference?

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Hubs, Switches, Routers: What's the Difference?

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Supplement to Bandwidth/Throughput differences

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Hubs, Switches, Routers: What’s the Difference? - Small Business Computing

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More on Small Business Networking Originally posted on April 18, 2005. Updated on July 25, 2011 I have a small business network that’s been in

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How Can I Get 300 Mbps (or Higher) Speed on My 802.11n Network?

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How Can I Get 300 Mbps (or Higher) Speed on My 802.11n Network?

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An 802.11n Wi-Fi network connection supports up to 300 Mbps of rated (theoretical) bandwidth under best case conditions. Unfortunately, an 802.11n link will sometimes operate at much lower speeds like 150 Mbps and below.

For an 802.11n connection to run at its maximum speed, Wireless-N broadband routers and network adapters must be linked and running in what's called channel bonding mode.

802.11n and Channel Bonding

In 802.11n, bonding utilizes two adjacent Wi-Fi channels simultaneously to double the bandwidth of the wireless link compared to 802.11b/g.

The 802.11n standard specifies 300 Mbps theoretical bandwidth is available when using channel bonding. Without it, about 50% of this bandwidth is lost (actually slightly more due to protocol overhead considerations), and in those cases, 802.11n equipment will generally report connections in the 130-150 Mbps rated range.

Channel bonding substantially increases the risk of interfering with nearby Wi-Fi networks due to the increased spectrum and power it consumes.

Setting up 802.11n Channel Bonding

802.11n products normally do not enable channel bonding by default but instead, run in traditional single channel mode to keep the risk of interference low. Both the router and wireless N clients must be configured to run in a channel bonding mode together to achieve any performance benefit.

The steps to configure channel bonding vary depending on the product. The software will sometimes refer to single channel mode as 20 MHz operations (20 MHz being the width of a Wi-Fi channel) and channel bonding mode as 40 MHz operations.

Limitations of 802.11n Channel Bonding

802.11n equipment can ultimately fail to run in the maximum (300 Mbps) performance range for these reasons:

Some 802.11n gear cannot support channel bonding. For example, this mode of wireless signaling is government regulated in certain countries like the UK

If the 802.11n network includes any 802.11b/g clients, the performance of the entire network might be negatively affected, depending on the router's capabilities. Because 802.11b/g clients do not support channel bonding, these must be set up properly with a mixed mode Wireless N router to minimize performance impact.

Interference from other 802.11n networks nearby can prevent a Wireless N router from sustaining channel bonded connections. In fact, some Wireless N routers automatically fall back to single channel operation when they detect wireless interference on the channels

Even if a connection is capable of running at 300 Mbps, it doesn't mean that devices can download and upload data that fast. One major reason for this is that the ISP subscription doesn't allow for speeds that high (like if you're only paying for 100 Mbps)

As with other networking standards, applications running on an 802.11n network will typically see substantially less actual bandwidth than the rated maximums imply even with channel bonding in place. A 300 Mbps rated 802.11n connection will often yield 200 Mbps or less of user data throughput.

Single Band vs. Dual Band 802.11n

Some Wireless N routers (so-called N600 products) advertise support for 600 Mbps speeds. These routers do not provide 600 Mbps of bandwidth on a single connection but rather 300 Mbps channel bonded connections on each of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands.

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Can You Achieve 300 Mbps Speeds on an 802.11n Network?

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An 802.11n Wi-Fi network connection supports up to 300 Mbps of rated (theoretical) bandwidth under best case conditions. Unfortunately, an 802.11n link will sometimes operate at much lower speeds like 150 Mbps and below. For an 802.11n connection to run at its maximum speed, Wireless-N broadband routers and network adapters must be linked and running in what's called channel bonding mode.

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802.11ac vs 802.11n - What’s the difference between the Wi-Fi standards?

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802.11ac vs 802.11n - What’s the difference between the Wi-Fi standards?

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b, g, n, ac... wireless standards haven't had the most logical of alphabetical progressions, but it has just had the most important.

Last week governing body the Wi-Fi Alliance certified the '802.11ac' standard, paving the way for the mass roll-out of 'wireless ac' devices. As this standard is built into routers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, televisions and much more we look at what enhancements it will bring over its predecessor, 802.11n, and whether it is worth getting excited about.
Video: How to improve your home's Wi-Fi network
802.11ac Compatibility
The first thing to get out of the way is - like past Wi-Fi standards - 802.11ac is backwards compatible with 802.11b, g and n. This means you can buy an 802.11ac-equipped device and it will work just fine with your existing router. Similarly you can upgrade to an 802.11ac router and it will work happily with all your existing devices. That said you will need both an 802.11ac router and an 802.11ac device to enjoy the standard's biggest benefits. And those begin with...
802.11ac Speed
With any new wireless technology speed is always the headline-grabbing feature but, as with every wireless standard to date, the figures tossed around can be highly misleading.

1.3 gigabits per second (Gbps) is the speed most commonly cited as the 802.11ac standard. This translates to 166 megabytes per second (MBps) or 1331 megabits per second (Mbps). It is vastly quicker than the 450Mbit per second (0.45Gbps) headline speeds quoted on the highest performing 802.11n routers.

SEE ALSO: Best routers 2015
So wireless ac is roughly 3x as fast as wireless n? No.

These figures are 'theoretical maximums' that are never close to being realised in real world scenarios. In our experience wireless n performance tends to top off around 50-150Mbit and our reviews of draft 802.11ac routers have typically found performance to be closer to 250-300Mbit. So 2.5x faster when close to your router is a good rule of thumb (though far more at distance, which we'll come to shortly).

Happily this gain is likely to increase as 802.11ac devices advance. Wireless 802.11n supports a maximum of four antennas at roughly 100Mbit each, where 802.11ac can support up to eight antennas at over 400Mbit each.

Smaller devices like smartphones tend to fit only a single antenna, but it gets even bigger in tablets (typically two to four antennas) and laptops and televisions (four to eight). In addition no 802.11ac router released so far has packed more than six antennas.

A final point: beware routers claiming speeds of 1,750 Gigabits. It is a marketing ploy where the manufacturer has added the 1.3Gbit theoretical maximum speed of 802.11ac to the 450Mbit theoretical maximum speed of 802.11n. Sneaky.

802.11ac Range
While speed is what will likely sell 802.11ac routers, range is equally important. Here wireless ac excels.

The first point to make is the 802.11ac standard lives entirely in the 5GHz spectrum. While some more modern routers broadcast 802.11n in 5GHz as well as 2.4GHz they remain relatively rare.

Consequently, the 5GHz spectrum tends to be 'quiet', meaning much less interference from neighbourhood Wi-Fi. This more than counters the fact that, in lab conditions, 5GHz signals do not actually broadcast as far as 2.4GHz signals. 5GHz is also necessary to support the faster speeds of wireless ac.

The second key factor is 802.11ac makes 'beamforming' a core part of its spec. Rather than throw out wireless signal equally in all directions, WiFi with beamforming detects where devices are and intensifies the signal in their direction(s).

This technology has been around in proprietary form (it made a huge impact in the D-Link DIR-645), but now it will be inside every 802.11ac router and every 802.11ac device.

The combination of these two technologies is profound. This was most clearly seen with the Linksys EA6500 which hit speeds of 30.2MBps (241.6Mbit) when connecting to a device just two metres away, but still performed at 22.7MBps (181.6Mbit) when 13 metres away with two solid walls in the way. By contrast Linksys' own EA4500 (identical except being limited to 802.11n) managed 10.6MBps (84.8Mbit) dropping to 2.31MBps (18.48Mbit) under the same conditions.

The real world result is 802.11ac not only enables you to enjoy the fastest 100Mbit (and beyond) fibre optic broadband speeds all over the house, but to enjoy it along with multiple streams of Full HD content, super low latency gaming and blazing fast home networking all at the same time.

802.11ac Availability
Here comes the first caveat. The announcement of the Wi-Fi Alliance's 802.11ac certification programme means 802.11ac equipped products can now be certified, but that process will take time as thousands of chipsets need to be tested.

Of course some manufacturers have jumped the gun. The 802.11ac routers we have tested are sold as 'Draft 802.11ac' products and while many may become certified through a firmware update, it is not guaranteed. Draft 802.11ac products are also not guaranteed to perform optimally with other Draft 802.11ac products - especially between different manufacturers. Certified products are.

The good news is the first certified chipsets are already creeping out and they come from the likes of Intel, Qualcomm, Cisco, Realtek, Marvell, Broadcom and Samsung - manufacturers with extensive networking expertise and who licence their chipsets to others. For example Intel has only one chipset certified - the 'Dual band Wireless 7260' - but it is expected to be at the heart of most Haswell-powered Ultrabooks.

A full list of 802.11ac certified chipsets can be found here.

Furthermore, adoption should be fast. The first 802.11ac routers carried a hefty premium, but this has dropped quickly to the point where price shouldn't be a barrier to anyone keen to hop onto the bandwagon. In addition 802.11ac is extremely efficient and it brings power savings compared to 802.11n, meaning it is ideal for mobile devices.

As such, while 802.11ac products are only trickling out at present, it will turn into a tidal wave by early 2014.

Should I wait for 802.11ac?
All of which begs the question: should I now buy any device that isn't 802.11ac compatible? The short answer is no. If you live alone in a small flat where you have no signal problems 802.11n may serve all your needs, but in larger, multi-user homes and homes with network attached storage the benefits of 802.11ac are simply too good to miss out on. Especially when buying devices you expect to keep for a number of years.

The longer answer is 802.11ac is a revolution that will be hard to actively avoid. Wireless ac will be built into most laptops and phones within the next 12 months and routers will increasingly come with it (though ISPs are typically slow to adopt new standards in the routers they give out, so plug an ac router into theirs and switch off their wireless to get around it).

It will take time and money for your home to be fully 802.11ac compatible, but it will be worth it.

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802.11ac vs 802.11n - What's the difference between the Wi-Fi standards? | Trusted Reviews

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b, g, n, ac... wireless standards haven't had the most logical of alphabetical progressions, but it has just had the most important. Last week governing body the Wi-Fi Alliance certified the '802.11ac' standard, paving the way for the mass roll-out of 'wireless ac' devices.

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What is the actual real-life speed of wireless networks SG FAQ

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What is the actual real-life speed of wireless networks SG FAQ

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There are many wireless standards in use today, and newer technologies can bond multiple channels/frequencies together to achieve higher throughput.

First, keep in mind that in data communications, speed is measured in kilo bits (or mega bits) per second, designated as kbps, or Mbps. You can check our bits/bytes conversion calculator for reference.

Below is a breakdown of the various 802.11 WiFi standards and their corresponding maximum speeds. Theoretical wireless speeds (combined upstream and downstream) are as follows:

802.11b - 11 Mbps (2.4GHz)
802.11a - 54 Mbps (5 GHz)
802.11g - 54 Mbps (2.4GHz)
802.11n - 600 Mbps (2.4GHz and 5 GHz) - 150Mbps typical for network adapters, 300Mbps, 450Mbps, and 600Mbps speeds when bonding channels with some routers
802.11ac - 1300+Mbps (5 GHz) - newer standard that uses wider channels, QAM and spatial streams for higher throughput

Actual wireless speeds vary significantly from the above theoretical maximum speeds due to:
distance - distance from the access point, as well as any physical obstructions, such as walls, signal-blocking or reflecting materials affect signal propagation and reduce speed
interference - other wireless networks and devices in the same frequency in the same area affect performance
shared bandwidth - available bandwidth is shared between all users on the same wireless network.

In addition, net IP layer throughput of WiFi is typically 60% of the air link rate due to WiFi being half- duplex with ACKs, and being CSMA/CA. The number of simultaneous connections, and even the type of wireless security can affect and slow down some older routers with inadequate processors/memory.

Below is a breakdown of actual real-life average speeds you can expect from wireless routers within a reasonable distance, with low interference and small number of simultaneous clients:

802.11b - 2-3 Mbps downstream, up to 5-6 Mbps with some vendor-specific extensions.
802.11g - ~20 Mbps downstream
802.11n - 40-50 Mbps typical, varying greatly depending on configuration, whether it is mixed or N-only network, the number of bonded channels, etc. Specifying a channel, and using 40MHz channels can help achieve 70-80Mbps with some newer routers. Up to 100 Mbps achievable with more expensive commercial equipment with 8x8 arrays, gigabit ports, etc.
802.11ac - 70-100+ Mbps typical, higher speeds (200+ Mbps) possible over short distances without many obstacles, with newer generation 802.11ac routers, and client adapters capable of multiple streams.

See also:
Is 5GHz Wireless better than 2.4GHz ?
Wireless Network Speed Tweaks

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What is the actual real-life speed of wireless networks ?

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There are many wireless standards in use today, and newer technologies can bond multiple channels/frequencies together to achieve higher throughput. First, keep in mind that in data communications, speed is measured in kilo bits (or mega bits) per second, designated as kbps, or Mbps. You can check our bits/bytes conversion calculator for reference.

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This Padlet is designed to be read from Left-Right, Top-Down. Extra and supplemental information is available  on the sticky to the right. 

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This Padlet is designed to be read from Left-Right, Top-Down. Extra and supplemental information is available  on the sticky to the right. 

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Each new Wi-Fi standard has brought significant improvements in performance, with the most recent, 802.11ac, offering an impressive theoretical maximum rate of 1.3Gbps. Unfortunately, these gains have not been enough to keep pace with demand, leading to that exasperated cry heard across airports, malls, hotels, stadiums, homes and offices: "Why is the wireless so slow?"

The IEEE is taking another crack at boosting Wi-Fi performance with a new standard called 802.11ax or High-Efficiency Wireless, which promises a fourfold increase in average throughput per user.
RELATED:
802.11ax, which is known as Wi-Fi 6 under a new naming convention, is designed specifically for high-density public environments, like trains, stadiums and airports. But it also will be beneficial in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, in heavy-usage homes, in apartment buildings and in offices that use bandwidth-hogging applications like videoconferencing.

802.11ax is also designed for cellular data offloading. In this scenario, the cellular network offloads wireless traffic to a complementary Wi-Fi network in cases where local cell reception is poor or in situations where the cell network is being taxed.

Excitement surrounding the new standard is high. Even though the 802.11ax is not expected to be finalized until early 2019, the vendor community is chomping at the bit. Pre-standard chipsets have been shipping since last year and the first 802.11ax routers are currently hitting the market. In a typical Wi-Fi deployment scenario, early adopters are comfortable using pre-standard products, which readily win certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance after they fully comply with the standard with a firmware upgrade.

What problem is 802.11ax trying to solve?

The fundamental problems with Wi-Fi are that bandwidth is shared among endpoint devices, access points can have overlapping coverage areas, especially in dense deployments, and end users can be moving between access points.

The current solution, based on a technology from the old shared Ethernet days called Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), requires endpoints to listen for an all-clear signal before transmitting. In the event of interference, congestion or collision, the endpoint goes into a back-off procedure, waits for the all-clear, then transmits.

In a crowded stadium, a busy airport or a packed train with hundreds, even thousands, of end users attempting to stream video at the same time, the system loses efficiency and performance suffers.

The good news is that 802.11ax promises improved performance, extended coverage and longer battery life. 802.11ax can deliver a single stream at 3.5Gbps, and with new multiplexing technology borrowed from the world of LTE cellular, can deliver four simultaneous streams to a single endpoint for a total theoretical bandwidth of an astounding 14Gbps.

How does 802.11ax work?

The 802.11ax standard takes a variety of well-understood wireless techniques and combines them in a way that achieves a significant advance over previous standards, yet maintains backward compatibility with 802.11ac and 802.11n.

802.11ax delivers a nearly 40 percent increase in pure throughput thanks to higher order QAM modulation, which allows for more data to be transmitted per packet. It also achieves more efficient spectrum utilization. For example, 802.11ax creates broader channels and splits those channels into narrower sub-channels. This increases the total number of available channels, making it easier for endpoints to find a clear path to the access point.

When it comes to downloads from the access point to the end user, early Wi-Fi standards only permitted one transmission at a time per access point. The Wave 2 version of 802.11ac began using Multi-User, Multi-Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), which allowed access points to send up to four streams simultaneously. 802.11ax allows for eight simultaneous streams and makes use of explicit beamforming technology to aim those streams more accurately at the receiver's antenna.

Even more importantly, 802.11ax piggybacks on MU-MIMO with an LTE cellular base station technology called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). This allows each MU-MIMO stream to be split in four additional streams, boosting the effective bandwidth per user by four times.

The way Network World columnist Zeus Kerrevala explains 802.11ax, early Wi-Fi was like a long line of customers in a bank waiting for one teller. MU-MIMO meant four tellers serving four lines of customers. OFDMA means each teller can simultaneously serve four customers.

How is 802.11ax different from 802.11ac?

802.11ac operates in the 5Ghz range only, while 802.11ax operates in both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz ranges, thus creating more available channels. For example, early chipsets support a total of 12 channels, eight in the 5Ghz and four in the 2.4Ghz range.

With 802.11ac, MU-MIMO is limited to downlink transmissions only. 802.11ax creates MU-MIMO connections so that with downlink MU-MIMO an access point may transmit concurrently to multiple receivers and with uplink MU-MIMO an endpoint may simultaneously receive from multiple transmitters.

802.11ax supports up to eight MU-MIMO transmissions at a time, up from four with 802.11ac. OFDMA is new with 802.11ax, as are several other technologies, like trigger-based random access, dynamic fragmentation and spatial frequency re-use, all aimed at improving efficiency.

Finally, 802.11ax introduces a technology called "target wake time" to improve wake and sleep efficiency on smartphones and other mobile devices. This technology is expected to make a significant improvement in battery life.

When will we see 802.11ax products and adoption?

Quantenna Communications was first out of the gate, announcing the first 802.11ax silicon in October 2016. The chipset supports eight 5GHz streams and four 2.4 GHz streams. In January 2017, Quantenna added a second chipset to its portfolio with support for four streams in both bands.

Other Wi-Fi chipset vendors have followed suit. Qualcomm announced their first 802.11ax silicon in early 2017, followed by Broadcom and Marvell.

The first 802.11ax router was introduced by Asus last August. Using Broadcom silicon, the Asus router has 4×4 MIMO in both bands and achieves a maximum throughput of 1.1Gbps on 2.4 GHz and 4.8 Gbps on 5 GHz.

Huawei has announced an 802.11ax access point that uses 8×8 MIMO and is based on Qualcomm hardware. And in January, Aerohive Networks announced its first family of 802.11ax access points based on Broadcom chipsets. These are expected to start shipping mid-2018.

The IEEE approved 802.11n in 2007 and 802.11ac in 2013, so they're sticking with the six-year interval when it comes to 802.11ax. A draft 802.11ax standard is expected to be published in the first quarter of 2018, with the final standard wrapping up in Q1 2019.

Interim Wi-Fi certification of 802.11ax gear by the Wi-Fi Alliance will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, with volume production of 802.11ax products expected to ramp up next year.

In terms of mass adoption, we're probably talking 2020, but forward-thinking IT execs, especially those running high-density Wi-Fi networks, should launch 802.11ax pilot projects this year.
(Neal Weinberg is a freelance technology writer and editor. He can be reached at neal@misterwrite.net.)
Copyright © 2018 IDG Communications, Inc.

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What is 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), and what will it mean for 802.11ac

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Each new Wi-Fi standard has brought significant improvements in performance, with the most recent, 802.11ac, offering an impressive theoretical maximum rate of 1.3Gbps. Unfortunately, these gains have not been enough to keep pace with demand, leading to that exasperated cry heard across airports, malls, hotels, stadiums, homes and offices: "Why is the wireless so slow?"

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Use this article to better understand Geographical {types} Networking

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One way to categorize the different types of computer network designs is by their scope or scale. For historical reasons, the networking industry refers to nearly every type of design as some kind of area network. Common types of area networks are:

LAN and WAN are the two primary and best-known categories of area networks, while the others have emerged with technology advances.

A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings. In TCP/IP networking, a LAN is often but not always implemented as a single IP subnet.

In addition to operating in a limited space, LANs are also typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also tend to use certain connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring.

As the term implies, a WAN spans a large physical distance. The internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth.

A WAN is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. A network device called a router connects LANs to a WAN. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN address and a WAN address.

A WAN differs from a LAN in several important ways. Most WANs (like the internet) aren't owned by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and management.

WANs tend to use technology like ATM, Frame Relay, and X.25 for connectivity over the longer distances.

All computers on the home LAN can communicate directly with each other but must go through a central network gateway, typically a broadband router, to reach the ISP and beyond.

While LAN and WAN are by far the most popular network types mentioned, you may also see references to these others:

Wireless Local Area Network: A LAN based on Wi-Fi wireless network technology.

Metropolitan Area Network: A network spanning a physical area larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN, such as a city. A MAN is typically owned and operated by a single entity such as a government body or large corporation.

Campus Area Network: A network spanning multiple LANs but smaller than a MAN, such as on a university or local business campus.

Personal Area Network: A network that surrounds an individual. A wireless PAN (WPAN) might be created between Bluetooth devices.

Storage Area Network: Connects servers to data storage devices through technology like Fibre Channel.

System Area Network (also called Cluster Area Network, or CAN): Links high-performance computers with high-speed connections in a cluster configuration.

Passive Optical Local Area Network: A POLAN serves fiber by using fiber optic splitters to allow a single optical fiber to serve multiple devices.

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Understanding LANs, WANs, and Other Area Networks

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One way to categorize the different types of computer network designs is by their scope or scale. For historical reasons, the networking industry refers to nearly every type of design as some kind of area network. Common types of area networks are: LAN and WAN are the two primary and best-known categories of area networks, while the others have emerged with technology advances.

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Feeling clueless about Wi-Fi and home networking? Here's where you start. - CNET

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Feeling clueless about Wi-Fi and home networking? Here's where you start. - CNET

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Editors' note: This story was originally published on Dec. 9, 2014, and has been updated frequently with latest information.

When it comes to home networking, there's a soup of technical terms, LAN, WAN, broadband, Wi-Fi, CAT5e, just to name a few. If you're having a hard time with these basic terms, you're reading the right post. Here I'll (try to) explain them all so that you can have a better understanding of your home network and hopefully a better control of your online life. There's a lot to explain so this long post is just the first of an evolving series.

Advanced and experienced users likely won't need this, but for the rest, I'd recommend reading the whole thing. So take your time, but in case you want to jump to a quick answer, feel free to search for what you want to know and chances are you will find it within this post.

1. Wired networking

A wired local network is basically a group of devices connected to one another using network cables, more often than not with the help of a router, which brings us to the very first thing you should know about your network.

Router: This is the central device of a home network into which you can plug one end of a network cable. The other end of the cable goes into a networking device that has a network port. If you want to add more network devices to a router, you'll need more cables and more ports on the router. These ports, both on the router and on the end devices, are called Local Area Network (LAN) ports. They are also known as RJ45 ports or Ethernet ports. The moment you plug a device into a router, you have yourself a wired network. Networking devices that come with an RJ45 network port are called Ethernet-ready devices. More on this below.

Note: Technically, you can skip the router and connect two computers directly together using one network cable to form a network of two. However, this requires manually configuring the IP addresses, or using a special crossover cable, for the connection to work. You don't really want to do that.

Josh Miller/CNET

There are currently two main speed standards for LAN ports: Ethernet (also called Fast Ethernet,) which caps at 100 megabits per second (or about 13 megabytes per second), and Gigabit Ethernet, which caps at 1 gigabit per second (or about 150 MBps). In other words, it takes about a minute to transfer a CD's worth of data (around 700 MB or about 250 digital songs) over an Ethernet connection. With Gigabit Ethernet, the same job takes about five seconds. In real life, the average speed of an Ethernet connection is about 8 MBps, and of a Gigabit Ethernet connection is somewhere between 45 and 100 MBps. The actual speed of a network connection depends on many factors, such as the end devices being used, the quality of the cable and the amount of traffic.

Rule of thumb: The speed of a single network connection is determined by the slowest speed of any party involved.

For example, in order to have a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection between two computers, both computers, the router they are connected to and the cables used to link them together all need to support Gigabit Ethernet (or a faster standard). If you plug a Gigabit Ethernet device and an regular Ethernet device into a router, the connection between the two will be capped at the speed of Ethernet, which is 100 Mbps.

In short, LAN ports on a router allow Ethernet-ready devices to connect to one another and share data.

Dong Ngo/CNET

Switch vs. hub: A hub and a switch both add more LAN ports to an existing network. They help increase the number of Ethernet-ready clients that a network can host. The main difference between hubs and switches is a hub uses one shared channel for all of its ports, while a switch has a dedicated channel for each one. This means the more clients you connect to a hub, the slower the data rate gets for each client, whereas with a switch the speed doesn't change according to the number of connected clients. For this reason, hubs are much cheaper than switches with the samenumber of ports.

However, hubs are largely obsolete now, since the cost of switches has come down significantly. The price of a switch generally varies based on its standard (regular Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet, with the latter being more expensive), and the number of ports (the more ports, the higher the price).

You can find a switch with just four or up to 48 ports (or even more). Note that the total of extra wired clients you can add to a network is equal to the switch's total number of ports minus one. For example, a four-port switch will add another three clients to the network. This is because you need to use one of the ports to connect the switch itself to the network, which, by the way, also uses another port of the existing network. With this in mind, make sure you buy a switch with significantly more ports than the number of clients you intend to add to the network.

Broadband modem: Often called a DSL modem or cable modem, a broadband modem is a device that bridges the internet connection from a service provider to a computer or to a router, making the internet available to consumers. Generally, a modem has one LAN port (to connect to a router's WAN port, or to an Ethernet-ready device) and one service-related port, such as a telephone port (DSL modems) or a coaxial port (cable modems), that connects to the service line. If you have just a modem, you'll be able to connect just one Ethernet-ready device, such as a computer, to the internet. To hook up more than one device to the internet, you will need a router. Providers tend to offer a combo device that's a combination of a modem and a router or wireless router, all in one.

Network cables: These are the cables used to connect network devices to a router or a switch. They are also known as Category 5 cables, or CAT5 cables. Currently, most CAT5 cables on the market are actually CAT5e, which are capable of delivering Gigabit Ethernet data speeds (1,000 Mbps). The latest network cabling standard currently in use is CAT6, which is designed to be faster and more reliable than CAT5e. The difference between the two is the wiring inside the cable and at both ends of it. CAT5e and CAT6 cables can be used interchangeably, and in my personal experience their performance is essentially the same. For most home usage, what CAT5e has to offer is more than enough. In fact, you probably won't notice any difference if you switch to CAT6, but it doesn't hurt to use CAT6 if you can afford it to be future-proof. Also, network cables are the same, no matter how they shape, round or flat.

Now that we're clear on wired networks, let's move on to a wireless network.

2. Wireless networking

A wireless network is very similar to a wired network with one big difference: Devices don't use cables to connect to the router and one another. Instead, they use radio wireless connections called Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), which is a friendly name for the 802.11 networking standards supported by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Wireless networking devices don't need to have ports, just antennas, which are sometimes hidden inside the device itself. In a typical home network, there are generally both wired and wireless devices, and they can all talk to one another. In order to have a Wi-Fi connection, there needs to be an access point and a Wi-Fi client.

Basic terms

Dong Ngo/CNET

Access point: An access point (AP) is a central device that broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal for Wi-Fi clients to connect to. Generally, each wireless network, like those you see popping up on your phone's screen as you walk around a big city, belongs to one access point. You can buy an AP separately and connect it to a router or a switch to add Wi-Fi support to a wired network, but generally, you want to buy a wireless router, which is a regular router (one WAN port, multiple LAN ports and so on) with a built-in access point. Some routers even come with more than one access point (see discussion of dual-band and tri-band routers below).

Wi-Fi range: This is the radius an access point's Wi-Fi signal can reach. Typically, a good Wi-Fi network is most viable within about 150 feet from the access point. This distance, however, changes based on the power of the devices involved, the environment and (most importantly) the Wi-Fi standard. The Wi-Fi standard also determines how fast a wireless connection can be and is the reason Wi-Fi gets complicated and confusing, especially when considering the fact there are multiple Wi-Fi frequency bands.

Frequency bands: These bands are the radio frequencies used by the Wi-Fi standards: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The 2.4 GHz and 5 Ghz bands are currently the most popular, collectively being used in all existing network devices. Generally, the 5 Ghz band delivers faster data rates but a little less range than the 2.4 Ghz band. Note that a 60 GHz band is also used but only by the 802.11ad standard, which is not yet commercially available.

Depending on the standard, some Wi-Fi devices use either the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz band, while others that use both of these are called dual-band devices.

Wi-Fi standards

Wi-Fi standards decide the speed and range of a Wi-Fi network. Generally later standards are backward compatible with earlier ones.

802.11b: This was the first commercialized wireless standard. It offers a top speed of 11 Mbps and operates only on the 2.4 GHz frequency band. The standard was first available in 1999 and is now totally obsolete; 802.11b clients, however, are still supported by access points of later Wi-Fi standards.

802.11a: Similar to 802.11b in terms of age, 802.11a offers a speed cap of 54 Mbps at the expense of much shorter range, and uses the 5 GHz band. It's also now obsolete, though it's still supported by new access points for backward compatibility.

802.11g: Introduced in 2003, the 802.11g standard marked the first time wireless networking was called Wi-Fi. The standard offers the top speed of 54 Mbps but operates on the 2.4 GHz band, hence permitting better range than the 802.11a standard. It's used by many older mobile devices, such as the and the . This standard is supported by access points of later standards. 802.11g is also becoming obsolete.

On each band, the Wireless-N standard is available in three setups, depending on the number of spatial streams being used: single-stream (1x1), dual-stream (2x2) and three-stream (3x3), offering cap speeds of 150 Mbps, 300 Mbps and 450 Mbps, respectively. This in turns creates three types of true dual-band routers: N600 (each of the two bands offers a 300 Mbps speed cap), N750 (one band has a 300 Mbps speed cap while the other caps at 450 Mbps) and N900 (each of the two bands allows up to 450 Mbps cap speed).

Note: In order to create a Wi-Fi connection, both the access point (router) and the client need to operate on the same frequency band. For example, a 2.4 GHz client, such as an , won't be able to connect to a 5 GHz access point. Also, a Wi-Fi connection takes place on just one band at a time. If you have a dual-band capable client (such as the ) with a dual-band router, the two will connect on just one band, likely the 5 Ghz.

802.11ac: Sometimes referred to as 5G Wi-Fi, this latest Wi-Fi standard operates only on the 5 GHz frequency band and currently offers Wi-Fi speeds of up to 2,167 Mbps (or even faster with latest chip) when used in the quad-stream (4x4) setup. The standard also comes with the 3x3, 2x2, 1x1 setups that cap at 1,300 Mbps, 900 Mbps and 450 Mbps, respectively.

Technically, each spatial stream of the 802.11ac standard is about four times faster than that of the 802.11n (or Wireless-N) standard, and therefore is much better for battery life (since it has to work less to deliver the same amount of data). In real-world testing so far, with the same amount of streams, I've found that 802.11ac is about three times the speed of Wireless-N, which is still very good. (Note that the real-world sustained speeds of wireless standards are always much lower than the theoretical speed cap. This is partly because the cap speed is determined in controlled, interference-free environments.) The fastest peak real-world speed of an 802.11ac connection I've seen so far is around 90 MBps (or 720 Mbps), which is close to that of a Gigabit Ethernet wired connection.

On the same 5 GHz band, 802.11ac devices are backward-compatible with Wireless-N and 802.11a devices. While 802.11ac is not available on the 2.4 GHz band, for compatibility purposes, an 802.11ac router can also serve as a Wireless-N access point. That said, all 802.11ac chips on the market support both 802.11ac and 802.11n Wi-Fi standards.

Josh Miller/CNET

802.11ad or WiGig: First introduced in 2009, the 802.11ad wireless networking standard became part of the Wi-Fi ecosystem at CES 2013. Prior to that, it was considered a different type of wireless networking. 2016 marked the year when the first 802.11ad router, the TP-Link Talon AD7200, became available.

Operating in the 60 Ghz frequency band, the 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard has an extremely high speed -- up to 7 Gbps -- but a disappointingly short range (about one-tenth of 802.11ac.) It can't penetrate walls very well, either. For this reason, the new standard is a supplement to the existing 802.11ac standard and is intended for devices that sit within a close proximity of the router.

It's an ideal wireless solution for devices at a close range, with a clear line of sight (no obstacles in between) such as between a laptop and its base-station, or a set-top box and a big screen TV. All 802.11ad routers will also work as 802.11ac routers and support all existing Wi-Fi clients, but only 802.11ad devices can connect to the router at high speed over the 60 Ghz band.

802.11ax: This is the next generation of Wi-Fi, set to supersede 802.11ac. Like 802.11ac, the new 802.11ax is backward compatible with previous Wi-Fi generations. However, it's the first standard that focuses not only on faster speed but also on Wi-Fi efficiency, especially in crowded air space. In other words, 802.11ax aims to maintain network capacity even during less than ideal conditions. Ultimately, this means it allows for higher ratio of real-world speed versus theoretical ceiling speed. It's also said to reduce energy consumption by two thirds compared to 802.11ac, which is great news for mobile users.

On paper, 802.11ax can be four times faster than 802.11ac, up to some 5 Gbps. Also, an 802.11ax router can boost existing pre-802.11ax Wi-Fi devices' real-world speeds thanks to its ability to manage traffic diversity in dense, overlapping networks. 2017 is the year that networking chip makers, such as Qualcomm, introduced their first 802.11ax chips. That said, consumer devices that support 802.11ax are predicted to be available by the end of 2017 or early 2018.

Wi-Fi designations

Wi-Fi designations are the way networking vendors market their Wi-Fi routers in an effort to differentiate between them. Since there are so many Wi-Fi standards and tiers, the designations can be confusing and don't always accurately indicate the speeds of the routers.

600 Mbps 802.11n: As mentioned above, the top commercial speed of 802.11n is 450 Mbps. However, in June 2013, Broadcom introduced a new 802.11ac chipset with TurboQAM technology that raises the speed of 802.11n to 600 Mbps. And also for this reason, 802.11ac routers are now generally marketed as AC2500 (also known as AC2350 or AC2400,) AC1900, AC1750 or AC1200 and so on. This designation basically means it's an AC-enabled router that offers a combined wireless speed on both bands equal to the number. For example, an AC1900 router is capable of providing up to 1,300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and up to 600 Mbps on the 24 GHz band. With more and more advanced Wi-Fi chips being developed, 802.11ac has many more designations below.

That said, let me state the rule of thumb one more time: The speed of a single network connection (one pair) is determined by the slowest speed of any of the parties involved. That means if you use an 802.11ac router with an 802.11a client, the connection will cap at 54 Mbps. In order to get the top 802.11ac speed, you will need to use a device that's also 802.11ac-capable. Also right now, the fastest 802.11ac clients on the market have the top speed on paper of 1,300 Mbps, which is equally to the speed of the AC1900 designation. This means getting routers of higher designations are unlikely to bring you benefits in Wi-Fi speeds.

AC3200: In April 2014, Broadcom introduced the 5G XStream Wi-Fi chip that allows for a second built-in 5 Ghz band on the three-stream 802.11ac standard, thus ushering in a new type of tri-band router. This means that, unlike a dual-band AC1900 router that has one 2.4 Ghz band and one 5 Ghz band, a tri-band router -- such as the Netgear R8000 or the Asus RT-AC3200 -- the tri-band router will have one 2.4 Ghz band and two 5 Ghz bands, all of which operate at the same time. In other words, a tri-band router, for now, is basically an AC1900 router with an additional 803.11ac access point built in. With two separate 5 Ghz bands, both high- and low-end clients can operate in their own band at their respective top speeds without affecting each other. On top of that, two 5 Ghz bands also help reduce the stress each places on the band when there are many connected clients fighting for the router's bandwidth.

AC5300: Also known as AC5400, this designation was introduced in 2015. An AC5300 router is a tri-band router (two 5 Ghz bands and one 2.4 GHz band). Each of the 5 Ghz bands have a peak Wi-Fi speed of 2,167 Mbps and the 2.4 GHz band has a cap of 1,000 Mbps.

AC3100: Also known as AC3150, this new designation shares the same Wi-Fi chip as the AC5300 above but in a dual-band setup, the router has one 5 Ghz band (2,167 Mbps cap) and one 2.4 Ghz band (1,000 Mbps cap).

AD7200: This is the latest designation starting with the availability of the 802.11ad routers. This means the router has the top speed on the 60 Ghz band (802.11ad) of 4,600 Mbps, on the 5 Ghz band of 1,733 Mbps and on the 2.4Ghz band of 800 Mbps.

3. More on wireless networking

In wired networking, a connection is established the moment you plug the ends of a network cable into the two respective devices. In wireless networking, it's more complicated than that.

Since the Wi-Fi signal broadcast by the access point is literally sent through the air, anybody with a Wi-Fi client can connect to it, and that might pose a serious security risk. So only approved clients can connect, the Wi-Fi network should be password-protected (or in more serious terms, encrypted). Currently, there are a few methods used to protect a Wi-Fi network, called "authentication methods": WEP, WPA and WPA2, with WPA2 being the most secure while WEP is becoming obsolete. WPA2 (as well as WPA) offers two ways to encrypt the signal, which are Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The former is for compatibility, allowing legacy clients to connect; the latter allows for faster connection speeds and is more secure but works only with newer clients. From the side of the access point or router, the owner can set the password (or encryption key) that clients can use to connect to the Wi-Fi network.

If the above paragraph seems complicated, that's because Wi-Fi encryption is very complicated. To help make life easier, the Wi-Fi Alliance offers an easier method called Wi-Fi Protected Setup.

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS): Introduced in 2007, Wi-Fi Protected Setup is a standard that makes it easy to establish a secure Wi-Fi network. The most popular implementation of WPS is via push-button. Here's how it works: On the router's (access point) side, you press the WPS button. Then, within two minutes, you must press the WPS button on your Wi-Fi client and you'll be connected. This way you don't have to remember the password (encryption key) or type it in. Note that this method works only with devices that support WPS. Most networking devices released in the last few years do, however.

Wi-Fi Direct: This is a standard that enables Wi-Fi clients to connect to one another without a physical access point. Basically, this allows one Wi-Fi client, such as a phone, to turn itself into a "soft" access point and broadcast Wi-Fi signals that other Wi-Fi clients can connect to. This standard is very useful when you want to share an internet connection. For example, you can connect your laptop's LAN port to an internet source, such as in a hotel, and turn its Wi-Fi client into a soft AP. Now other Wi-Fi clients can also access that internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is actually most popularly used in phones and tablets, where the mobile device shares its cellular internet connection with other Wi-Fi devices, in a feature called personal hotspot.

Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output

Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) is a technology first introduced with the Qualcomm MU/EFX 802.11AC Wi-Fi chip. It's designed to handle Wi-Fi bandwidth efficiently, hence iy is capable of delivering better data rates to multiple connected clients simultaneously.

Specifically, existing 802.11AC routers (or Wi-Fi access points) employ the original MIMO technology (aka single-user MIMO) and that means they treat all Wi-Fi clients the same, regardless of their Wi-Fi power. Since a router typically has more Wi-Fi power than a client in a particular wireless connection, the router is hardly used at full capacity. For example, a three-stream 802.11ac router, such as the Linksys WRT1900AC, has a max Wi-Fi rate of 1,300 Mbps, but the has a max Wi-Fi rate of just 833 Mbps (dual-stream). When the two are connected, the router still uses the entire 1,300 Mbps transmission to the phone, wasting 433 Mbps. This is similar to going to a coffee shop to get a small cup of coffee and the only option is the extra large.

With MU-MIMO, multiple simultaneous transmissions of different Wi-Fi tiers are sent to multiple devices at the same time, enabling them to connect at the speed each client needs. In other words, having a MU-MIMO Wi-Fi network is like having multiple wireless routers of different Wi-Fi tiers. Each of these "routers" is dedicated to each tier of devices in the network so that multiple devices can connect at the same time without slowing one another down. To continue the earlier analogy, this is like having multiple coffee attendants in the shop, each of whom gives out different cup sizes so that customers can get the exact size they need, and faster.

In order for MU-MIMO to work at its best, the technology needs to be supported by both the router and the connected clients. There are many clients on the market supporting MU-MIMO now, and it's predicted that by the end of 2016, all new clients will support this technology.

4. Power line networking

When it comes to networking, you probably don't want to run network cables all over the place, making Wi-Fi a great alternative. Unfortunately there are some places, such as that corner of the basement, that a Wi-Fi signal won't reach, either because it's too far away or because there are thick concrete walls in between them. In this case, the best solution is a pair of power line adapters.

Power line adapters basically turn the electrical wiring of your home into cables for a computer network. You need at least two power line adapters to form the first power line connection. The first adapter is connected to the router and the second to the Ethernet-ready device elsewhere in the building. More on power line devices can be found here.

Currently a power line connection in top condition can deliver the real-world speed equal to about half that of a Gigabit wired connection.

That's it. Want to learn more about how to best optimize your Wi-Fi network? Check out Part 2 of this series.

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Feeling clueless about Wi-Fi and home networking? Here's where you start.

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Editors' note: This story was originally published on Dec. 9, 2014, and has been updated frequently with latest information. When it comes to home networking, there's a soup of technical terms, LAN, WAN, broadband, Wi-Fi, CAT5e, just to name a few. If you're having a hard time with these basic terms, you're reading the right post.

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Faster Speeds With Tri-Band Wi-Fi Routers? Not Exactly | PCMag.com

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Faster Speeds With Tri-Band Wi-Fi Routers? Not Exactly | PCMag.com

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You are going to hear a lot in the next few months about tri-band Wi-Fi routers. Netgear just announced its Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router (R8000), which starts shipping on July 11, and other vendors are sure to follow. What's likely to jump out most for consumers about these routers are the advertised speeds: 3 Gbps and higher.

Yes, that is crazy fast throughput, far exceeding the 1Gbps wired speed of most consumer networking devices. But don't get too excited.

Boosted Speeds Not Entirely the Goal
Upcoming marketing campaigns from router manufacturers will likely focus heavily on the beyond-Gigabit speeds. However, the real benefit of triple-band routers is to efficiently handle multiple devices connected to a wireless network, not to significantly boost throughput beyond 1300Mbps at 5GHz.

A dual-band router offers two wireless networks: one operating on the 2.4GHz band and the other on 5GHz. The highest-tiered dual-bands support speeds of up to 450Mbps at 2.4GHz and 1300Gbps at 5GHz.

Tri-band routers have three wireless signals: one at 2.4GHz and two on the 5GHz band. The Nighthawk X6 supports up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, and 1300Mbps on both 5GHz signals. Hence, the "AC3200" in the product name: 1300+1300+600. That 3200 is the combined speed of the signals, not the potential throughput of a connected client to the router.

False Expectations
That's somewhat sneaky advertising. And Netgear is not the only router manufacturer guilty of it-they all do it. Of course, when a router is cited as supporting up to 1300Mbps or 450Mbps, that is throughput you will never see in your apartment or home. That's speed clocked by engineers in environments with zero wireless interference; it's not a real-world figure.

Then there is the issue of giving customers false expectations. It's not a stretch of the imagination to think that while browsing at Best Buy, a customer is likely to reach for the router with the package that has "AC3200" over "AC1750," thinking that means they are getting a better, faster router.

Not necessarily. First, as Netgear made explicit in its presentation about the X6 (kudos to them): If you connect two devices to a dual-band AC1750 router that supports up to 450Mbps at 2.4GHz and 1300Mbps at 5GHz, and then connect the same two devices to the X6, an AC3200 router, you are unlikely to see any performance gains.

Second: There will probably be the assumption among a few customers that higher numbers mean faster overall Internet connectivity. No, no, no, no! Remember, your Internet bandwidth is fixed based on your service terms with your provider. That said, I have seen a good router help bump up and optimize an Internet connection. Still, the priciest most tricked-out wireless router will not turn your 10Mbps down Internet speed into 25Mbps.

Lack of Supported Mobile Devices
Lastly, there is the issue that there still aren't wireless clients with sophisticated enough wireless adapters to support the newest 802.11ac routers. Sure, more and more mobile devices are shipping with 802.11ac support. However, these clients have 2x2 wireless adapters. That means their chipsets support double stream transmit and receive signals. These high-end 802.11ac routers, including Netgear's X6, support 3x3, or triple spatial streams for transmitting and receiving. That means that client-side technology is not yet as evolved as the router-side. The law of computer networking is that your network is only as fast as the slowest link. If you drop hundreds on upgrading to the best routers, switches, and any other networking equipment, your 2x2 wireless clients are still not going to be able to connect at the faster speeds of those devices.

My sources tell me 3x3 supported wireless clients will start coming to market by end of this year. I for one, want to test how well the first batch of these clients work with the 802.11ac routers already on the market for over a year before getting excited about how they work with tri-beam routers.

However, don't let me stop you from eagerly anticipating the latest generation of Wi-Fi routers. We will be getting them in the PC Labs and testing them. Just know what you will or won't get with these new devices before dropping a couple hundred dollars on them.

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Faster Speeds With Tri-Band Wi-Fi Routers? Not Exactly

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You are going to hear a lot in the next few months about tri-band Wi-Fi routers. Netgear just announced its Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router (R8000), which starts shipping on July 11, and other vendors are sure to follow. What's likely to jump out most for consumers about these routers are the advertised speeds: 3 Gbps and higher.

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802.11ax - WiFi6 takes over where 802.11ad was supposed to.

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802.11ax - WiFi6 takes over where 802.11ad was supposed to.

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Wi-Fi networking is poised for a major update: The transition from 802.11ac to 802.11ax promises a modern networking hub that can cope with the burgeoning number and diversity of wireless devices that need access to your broadband connection.

At the dawn of the modern smartphone era in 2007, even a highly unplugged home might have only a handful of hardware connecting to its wireless router. Now-if you use tablets, smart-home devices, media streamers, smart TVs, gaming gear and security cameras-you could have 20, 30, or many more. And that number won't get smaller in the future.

With 802.11ax, the IEEE engineering group that drives standards like wireless local area networking (WLAN) has pushed hard in several directions to make these complicated environments work. There are a lot of benefits for dense corporate networks that need massive throughput and could have tens of thousands of roaming and fixed Wi-Fi clients, but there's no shortage of upsides for home users or small offices, especially when it comes to video streaming and file transfers.

Corporations also control the wireless networks in their buildings and throughout their campuses, while home users and small businesses can face several to dozens of networks within radio earshot. Several techniques in 802.11ax will reduce the effects of interference and increase throughput in crowded urban and suburban environments, reducing typical frustrations that are hard to troubleshoot or fix.

The standard hasn't been completed yet, but manufacturers are jumping the gun as they have with every new flavor of Wi-Fi for more 15 years. As a result, some equipment could be on the market as early as June, and more is coming later in the year. But the advantages of being an early adopter might pale in favor of waiting for a fully baked version that's stable and is supported by the client adapters onboard phones, laptops, and other gear.

How 802.11ax makes gains

To explain the advantages of 802.11ax, we must drill down briefly to review how Wi-Fi works. The airwaves are regulated nearly everywhere in the world, and in the U.S. and in most countries, two chunks of frequencies are allotted to uses compatible with Wi-Fi: the 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) band and the 5GHz band. These bands are further divided into channels that have a set starting and ending frequency.

Senders and receivers, like a Wi-Fi router and laptop, agree to use the same channel to communicate back and forth, and dozens (or even hundreds) of devices can use the same channel at the same time to relay data via an access point. In cities and suburbs, dozens to hundreds of networks might also be contending for the same channel in relatively close proximity.

Way back in 1999, the 802.11a standard for 5GHz and 802.11b for 2.4GHz started the WLAN revolution, offering data rates of 54- and 11Mbps, respectively. These rates were always the maximum possible and included network overhead, so devices saw often 40- to 90-percent less throughput.

Wi-Fi advanced through 802.11g (2.4GHz), 802.11n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), and two releases of 802.11ac (5GHz) Wave 1 and Wave 2. The 802.11ax standard improves performance in both spectrum bands, and will deliver potentially several gigabits per second of throughput to dozens of devices at once on a single channel. That's incredibly helpful if you're streaming compressed HD and 4K HDR video or transferring multi-gigabyte files around a network. An increasing number of people worldwide have 100Mbps to 1Gbps broadband connections, which can be constrained by slower Wi-Fi networks.

Each successive update to Wi-Fi has pushed data rates higher, but 802.11ax offers a huge boost by adding several varied techniques, each of which adds a unique advantage. Taken together, the maximum raw data rate across an 802.11ax base station (e.g., a Wi-Fi router) could be a whopping 14Gbps compared to just 3.5Gbps for the best similarly configured 802.11ac router. In practice, you will never see that maximum potential speed, but 802.11ax is still poised to offer multiple times the rates of 802.11ac, and will better meet solid requirements for video with many people streaming or transferring files at once.

Here's a top-level rundown of how 802.11ax pulls this off:

Denser data encoding

Wi-Fi encodes data into radio waves, and there are calculable limits to how much data can be carried at a given frequency. WLAN standards, however, are still working toward that upper maximum. Over time, the chips that process signals have become more powerful, allowing more efficient cramming of data into the same space, especially over very short distances between a base station and a receiving device, typically in the same room and with line of sight, which is perfect for video streaming.

802.11ac started down this path, allowing encodings with 33 percent more data than 802.11n; 802.11ax bumps that up another 25 percent. As an analogy, consider egg cartons made up of squares with an inset circle for eggs, arranged in rows and columns. Now, replace the square with a hexagonal grid with less cardboard between each egg. That might result in more broken eggs, just at these densely packed wireless signals can suffer some loss via error, but you typically wind up with many more eggs.

Adding 2.4GHz back into the mix

The 2.4GHz band is often given shorter shrift, because it's crowded full of other so-called unlicensed uses that rely on wireless data-like baby monitors, wireless doorbells, cordless phones, and the like-that don't play well with high-speed Wi-Fi networks. Many of those non-Wi-Fi uses have shifted to other bands or now rely on Wi-Fi. 802.11ax is the first standard in more than a decade that improves performance in 2.4GHz, which opens up as many as gigabits per second more data while also taking advantage of that band's long wavelengths compared to 5GHz: longer wavelengths better penetrate solids objects, like walls, floors, and furniture.

This is especially useful for mesh networks, in which current mesh nodes typically have two radios, one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz, one of which is used to communicate among nodes. With much higher data rates on the better-penetrating 2.4GHz band, mesh networking with 802.11ax will result in better throughput across a whole network.

Talking and listening to multiple devices at once

The 802.11n standard added a spatial multiplexing technology known as MIMO (multiple in, multiple out). MIMO is a means of sending multiple streams of data across different physical paths, like playing billiards with radio waves. This required multiple sending and receiving antennas and the equivalent of additional radios for each stream. But many devices, especially small mobile and smart-home units, didn't have multiple radios. A wireless router with MIMO thus wastes much of its potential bandwidth at any given time when it's constrained to a single stream.

Starting with 802.11ac, routers gained the ability to talk simultaneously with different devices at the same time (multiple-user or MU-MIMO), improving efficiency. In 802.11ax, client devices can now also respond simultaneously. That's extremely helpful for streaming media players, allowing more reliable audio and video playback to first pass from the player to the router, and then from the router to your viewing or listening device (e.g., your smart TV, media streamer, smartphone, or digital audio player). 802.11ax also doubles the number of possible streams from four to eight, but that feature is likely to be seen only on expensive enterprise equipment, not home devices.

Subchannels

Borrowing a trick from 4G LTE and a few earlier standards, 802.11ax adds a way to break a Wi-Fi channel down into as many as a couple thousand tightly spaced "subcarriers" or subchannels. Each of these subchannels can carry various combined payloads of data for different devices, and interference or noise in one subchannel is isolated from the rest, reducing the need to retransmit or slow down the entire conversation to a lower data rate that can be received clearly. (This tech is called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access or OFDMA.)

You might think of this as the difference between having one giant truck with a single large packing container inside occupying an entire highway, and many smaller trucks with very thin dividers between lanes carrying a variety of boxes traveling on the same highway. Analysts and manufacturers say that in the right circumstances, OFDMA could allow four times the throughput as with current networks.

Better discrimination of other networks

In many cities and suburbs, dozens to hundreds of Wi-Fi networks overlap. 802.11ax includes a technique that will let the standard discriminate between the network you're on and weakly received signals from other networks, which in turn allows greater throughput.

A host of smaller technical improvements

While the elements above might seem technical enough, a number of other small improvements add up, including letting 802.11ax break up data for a single destination into different sized chunks to fit into available slots, using longer runs of encoded data, and better focusing energy for " beamforming " to target receiving devices more exactly. 802.11ax is also better at avoiding conflicts where devices talk over one another, called contention.

Improved client battery performance

Here's one more bonus that's not related to speed: Various mobile-targeted improvements, including one that tells network client devices that put their Wi-Fi radios to sleep to conserve power when exactly to wake them up. This could dramatically reduce Wi-Fi-related power consumption, extending battery life.

The risks for early adopters

While the standard is still under development at the IEEE task group, some manufacturers are prepping for the near-term release of Wi-Fi routers that will be labeled 802.11ax, even though they're using a preliminary version of the spec as interpreted by a single manufacturer or chipmaker. D-Link and Asus announced routers at CES in January, and as chipmakers get close to finalizing 802.11ax chipsets, we'll see more manufacturers start to make their plans.

Buying early could come with a cost. With the last few rounds of standards, changes were significant but constrained, and few routers had issues with obtaining updates to bring them into full compliance. 802.11ax, however, has so many substantive improvements and differences that it's possible early routers won't be as robust and compliant as ones created using later generations of chips. Manufacturers and chipmakers sit on the IEEE committee making decisions and are part of the Wi-Fi Alliance that certifies products as interoperable, but it's still a risk.

Few of 802.11ax's advantages can accrue without new client adapters in phones, tablets, computers, and other devices, and those always come more slowly as new generations of equipment are introduced. While 2019 will likely be the year that 802.11ax starts to appear in hundreds of millions of new devices, it will still easily be two or three years before you have enough new equipment to take full advantage of the new technology.

Backward compatibility is always a concern for new generations of hardware, but the history of Wi-Fi has largely encompassed all previous standards without too much compromise. Routers that declare themselves as supporting 802.11ax will also seamlessly handle every previous 802.11 standard, typically back to 802.11g, the first version to support more modern network security methods. With few exceptions, you can keep using all the devices you used in the past.

You won't need to configure anything special to enable backwards compatibility, although some routers may have modes you can turn on that disable older forms of Wi-Fi. Compatibility comes with an overhead cost, and turning off older modes can boost performance somewhat.

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Wi-Fi gets quicker with 802.11ax, but buying early might offer few advantages

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Wi-Fi networking is poised for a major update: The transition from 802.11ac to 802.11ax promises a modern networking hub that can cope with the burgeoning number and diversity of wireless devices that need access to your broadband connection.

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How Fast Is Your Network? Five Ways To Measure Network Speed - SmallNetBuilder

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How Fast Is Your Network? Five Ways To Measure Network Speed - SmallNetBuilder

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Knowing how fast your network can move data is a question for more than just tweakers and speed demons. It's a key skill to have when testing out wireless, powerline, MoCA and other "alternative" (to Ethernet) networking technologies.

Fortunately, it's pretty easy to see how fast the bits fly and it even the pay-for options are easy on anyone's wallet.

For all the methods, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Start by making a benchmark measurement on your Ethernet LAN. That way, if you're testing something other than Ethernet, you have a standard for comparison. While you might get 90+ Mbps from an 100 Mbps Ethernet connection, you might only measure ~600 Mbps on a Gigabit Ethernet LAN.

Don't use an Internet-based test unless you are trying to test your Internet connection speed. There are just too many variables involved for this to be an accurate measurement of your LAN's performance.

1. LAN Speed Test

Totusoft's LAN Speed Test is the quickest and easiest way to test network speed. The only thing it needs besides a Windows machine to run on is a target network share. LST runs from memory on the computer it's running on, so won't be limited by hard (or solid state) drive speed. And it clears cache between writes and reads to ensure that the file actually gets read.

Figure 1: Totusoft LAN Speed Test

Here's what it does (from the LST Help file):

1. Create a 1 MB random test packet file in memory
2. Start the Write Timer
3. Write the file to the network folder you chose
4. Stop the Write Timer
5. Clear the Windows File Cache
6. Start the Read Timer
7. Read the file from the network folder
8. Stop the Read Timer
9. Delete the file from the network folder
10. Repeat this process the number of times you
entered in 'Test Packets'

I like it for quick "am-I-in-the-ballpark" measurements without the hassle of setting up client and server machines as other methods require. All you need to do is browse to a network share, select the test file size, select the output units (Kbps, Mbps, KBps, MBps) and start the test.

Unfortunately, LAN Speed Test isn't as accurate as other methods, as you can see when you compare its 441 Mbps (Figure 1) to the 736 Mbps that IxChariot measured (Figure 3) for the same Gigabit connection. It did better with a 100 Mbps connection between the two test machines, coming up with 81 Mbps vs. IxChariot's 93 Mbps. Even with this inaccuracy, it beats the manual method of copy, measure and calculate and it's fine for relative measurements.

Although there is a free V1.1 version, spring for the $5 that V2.0 costs and help support a useful program.

2. NetStress

Nuts About Nets produces a whole line of commercial Wi-Fi diagnostic tools. But they have two free tools: NetSurveyor, which is like MetaGeek's inSSIDer and NetStress.

NetStress beats jperf hands down for getting a throughput vs. time look at what your connection is doing. It's a client / server based tool, so you need to install it on the two machines that will be at each end of the LAN connection you're testing.

Figure 2: Nuts About Nets NetStress Gigabit connection test

I loaded it on Windows XP SP3 and Win 7 Home Premium (64 bit) systems and it ran fine on both. When you launch the program, it prompts to select a network interface if your system has more than one.

You then get a nag to choose a remote adapter via a system notification and a flashing Remote Server IP menu bar item. Clicking on the Remote Server IP shows you available partners running Net Stress and you just click to select.

You can run up to eight each of TCP and UDP streams and set the segment size for TCP and UDP separately. You also set data direction, display units and MTU. While you can run TCP and UDP streams concurrently, you can test in only one direction at a time.

NetStress' key weakness is that it isn't up to testing Gigabit connections. Figure 2 shows NetStress measured 174 Mbps vs. IxChariot (Figure 3) coming up with 700+ Mbps for the same Gigabit connection. When I forced port speed on the switch to 100 Mbps, though, Net Stress correlated just fine.

Figure 3: IxChariot Gigabit connection test

NetStress' other annoyance is that it's a screen hog, automatically expanding to take up your entire screen and not providing any way to resize it.

3. NetMeter (ReadError)

The other way to measure network performance is to monitor what's going on while you transfer a file or folder or stream audio or video. You'll want to use this method to get a profile of video content you intend to stream wirelessly.

Once you know the bandwidth your content requires, you then know what your network has to deliver. When you profile, make sure you do it for long enough and especially for scenes with fast motion, which spike bandwidth.

ReadError's NetMeter is a free network monitor that gives you the basics. You can select adapters to monitor, set the display units and play with display colors and other visual niceties. But as Figure 4 shows, the info displayed is pretty sparse.

Figure 4: ReadError NetMeter

NetMeter is plenty accurate, though, and able to keep up with a Gigabit connection. And since it's a monitor, it can be used to track bandwidth consumption and throw an alarm when a limit you set is reached.

The price is right (free). But for my taste, the display and features are a bit sparse.

4. Net Meter (Hoo Technologies)

The other Net Meter, which I think preceeded ReadError's, comes from Hoo Technologies and costs $25 after a 30 day trial. It has tons more display options (Figure 5), better reports and, my favorite, lets you clear the display without having to quit the app.

Figure 5: Hoo Technologies NetMeter

It has a mode, which I didn't try, that works with TCPview to plot bandwidth use for all TCP and UDP connections in use. And it also has no problem keeping up with a Gigabit connection.

5. iperf / jperf

Even though all the previous options are much easier to use, iperf and jperf still have their fans. Doug Reid did a good job of describing both in his iperf and jperf articles, so I'll just point you there for the details.

Be forewarned that the defaults of both programs can seriously understate what your network is really capable of. There are lots of network parameter knobs you can twiddle, which is a strength to some, but has always put me off using them.

Don't like any of these? Check this newer article for three more free options.

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How Fast Is Your Network? Five Ways To Measure Network Speed - SmallNetBuilder

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Knowing how fast your network can move data is a question for more than just tweakers and speed demons. It's a key skill to have when testing out wireless, powerline, MoCA and other "alternative" (to Ethernet) networking technologies. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to see how fast the bits fly and it even the pay-for options are easy on anyone's wallet.

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How Fast Can Your Wi-Fi Go? - SmallNetBuilder

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How Fast Can Your Wi-Fi Go? - SmallNetBuilder

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Updated 2/8/15: Added AC2600 and higher classes; other changes
Updated 11/3/14: Added AC3200 class, rename AC2300
Updated 1/13/14: Added AC1900 and AC2300 to tables

One of the biggest reasons that people consider trading up to a new wireless router is the hope of faster connections. But is this really possible, or is it just more hype from manufacturers trying to move new products off the shelves?

The purpose of this article is to provide an easy way to understand the speeds you get from all combinations of wireless routers and access points and client devices. So you can know what to expect before you spring for that cool new $300 router.

Speed vs. Throughput

Let's first define terms. People tend to talk about "how fast" their wireless connection is or its "speed". What they typically mean is the number that Windows reports in its Wireless Network Connection Status window as shown below.

This number is only distantly related to the actual throughput of your wireless connection. What it shows is the link rate of the connection. Link rate is also referred to as PHY (or physical layer) rate, which is the maximum rate that bits can theoretically move across the network link.

Throughput has many definitions, but I like Wikipedia's:

I n communication networks, such as Ethernet or [Wi-Fi], throughput or network throughput is the average rate of successful message delivery over a communication channel. (emphasis mine)

In wireless communication, there are two main mechanisms working against successful delivery of the email, web page, YouTube video or game controller movement (the "message" in the above definition) you want. First, there are lots of bits used for communicating information other than the actual data you are trying to send or receive, or overhead. Then there is the inherent unreliability of a wireless connection causing data to be resent, i.e. retransmission.

Both of these mechanisms use bandwidth that otherwise would be available to you. The result is that you are lucky if your actual usable throughput is half the "speed" that Windows shows you. To restate and oversimplify, "speed" is what is theoretically possible, "throughput" is what you actually get to use.

Link Rates

In the early days of Wi-Fi, the number of possible speeds or link rates was quite small. Today, the number of link rates has grown considerably and depends on multiple factors. In a rare nod toward reducing buyer confusion, the Wi-Fi industry has adopted a product class nomenclature that is becoming almost consistently used when describing products.

We have taken the industry's lead and adopted this wireless device classification system, which is described in this article. Table 1 is the Class table we use that applies to both routers / access points and wireless devices.

Alert readers will note that there are different link rates for each band when you get to AC classes. This is due to AC's primary way of producing higher link rates: using more channels. There are more non-overlapping channels available in the 5 GHz band (typically eight in consumer Wi-Fi gear) than in the 2.4 GHz band (only three). So AC rates are available only in 5 GHz.

The second notable point in Table 1 are the two rows for N750 devices. N750 devices support maximum 450 Mbps link rates in either 2.4 or 5 GHz and 300 Mbps rates in the other band. The only way you know which is which for your device is to check its spec...carefully!

Finally, the 2.4 GHz link rates shown above assume the use of 40 MHz bandwidth mode. This is getting harder to achieve in the real world. The reason is that the 2.4 GHz band is extremely overcrowded and products are more consistently implementing 40 MHz coexistence and fat channel intolerant protection mechanisms that prevent 40 MHz mode operation in most cases.

Maximum 5 GHz Link Rates

The fun begins when you try to figure out the link rate you get with different device class combinations. So we've made it easy by generating two tables. Table 2 shows maximum link rates you can expect for devices in the 5 GHz band.

To use it, find your router or access point's class in the left-hand column. Then find your client device (including wireless bridges and extenders) across the top. Where the row and column intersect, you'll find the maximum link rate that combination of devices can provide.

Table 2: 5 GHz maximum client link rates (Mbps)

Maximum 2.4 GHz Link Rates

As noted earlier, most of us can't really use 40 MHz mode in the overcrowded 2.4 GHz band. So rather than set your expectation unrealistically high as the Wi-Fi product marketing guys do, I'm using the more real-world assumption that your 2.4 GHz connection will be made in 20 MHz bandwidth mode.

If you don't like this assumption, make the following changes in Table 3: 65 to 150; 130 to 300; 217 to 450; 289 to 600; and 347 to 800.

Table 3: 2.4 GHz maximum client link rates

802.11a, b and g devices are not shown in the tables for clarity. The maximum link rate is 11 Mbps for 802.11b and 54 Mbps for 802.11a and g, no matter what class router or AP they are used with.

Closing Thoughts

Here are some final tips that may help.

Lowest Link Rate Wins - Think of this as the "weakest link" rule. Buying a router in any class greater than your client device's class provides no link rate gain. The inverse applies too. Upgrading your client's class without upgrading your router to the same class or better is just wasting money.

Link Rates May Vary - The link rates you see in Windows Wireless Connection Status, inSSIDer or your favorite wireless client utility might be different than those in the tables. This is due to options in the standards that different manufacturers use. That's why some N300 adapters will show only maximum link rates of 117 / 270 vs. 130 / 300, or why you may see only a 135 Mbps instead of 150 Mbps using N150 class devices.

It's Throughput That Counts - Don't get hung up trying to get the maximum link rate in normal use. Link rates drop even more quickly as signal levels decrease with AC class gear than they did with N. Different products also use different algorithms to maximize throughput and reliability. Lower link rates can produce higher throughput and more reliable connections. Use the tools and techniques in this article to measure and optimize throughput, not link rate.

The Half Rate Problem - The only thing you really need to be concerned about with link rate is if your client and router are in the same room and you are getting only half the rates shown. This can be caused by:

Not using the correct bandwidth mode in both client and router. You need 40 MHz mode for N and 80 MHz mode for AC to get the highest link rates in 5 GHz

A client that isn't the class you think it is. Smart phones and tablets are usually single-antenna (1x1) devices that are N150 or AC580 class. Even many laptops tend to cheap out and include only N150 clients. Ain't no router gonna make these link at higher rates.

In 2.4 GHz, 40 MHz coexistence mechanisms that are now required for Wi-Fi Certification can prevent devices from linking at the maximum rates that manufacturers advertise. That's why Table 3 uses 20 MHz mode rates you are most likely to see.

Stuck at 54 Mbps - Note that to get link rates above 54 Mbps with either N or AC class products, WMM has to be enabled and WPA2/AES security must be used.

Good luck and may all your wireless connections have the throughput you want!

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How Fast Can Your Wi-Fi Go? - SmallNetBuilder

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Updated 2/8/15: Added AC2600 and higher classes; other changes Updated 11/3/14: Added AC3200 class, rename AC2300 Updated 1/13/14: Added AC1900 and AC2300 to tables One of the biggest reasons that people consider trading up to a new wireless router is the hope of faster connections.

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What is the difference between Phishing vs Pharming? - Quora

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What is the difference between Phishing vs Pharming? - Quora

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What is the difference between Phishing vs Pharming?

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Answer (1 of 5): Thanks for A2A Phishing and Pharming are two forms of attacks to lure a victim to bogus websites in order to spread malware or collect his/her personal information. Phishing : It is technique based on social engineering , Victim is asked to supply his/her personal information (...

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Note: Mesh (Partial Mesh) and Fully Connected (Full Mesh)