Why Wi-Fi? Getting a better connection

Wireless fidelity, a technology that allows multiple computers to share data and a single high-speed Internet connection, is rapidly becoming mainstream.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. April 14, 2003.

Wireless fidelity is playing in Peoria.

Although the wireless networking technology known as Wi-Fi is used most often at hospitals and universities, physicians -- including a group in Peoria, Ill. -- are beginning to implement it in their offices. Why? Because Wi-Fi is based on open standards (systems made by different manufacturers can work together), it's becoming easier to install, it keeps getting cheaper and it suits physicians' need for mobility and speed.

Here's everything you ever wanted to know about Wi-Fi -- plus a few things you didn't even know you wanted to know.

How does Wi-Fi work? Users need an access point and a network interface card or wireless card. The access point is mounted on a wall and hardwired to the local area network. The access point has a transmitter that beams radio waves throughout the office, even through walls. Laptops, desktops, notebooks, tablets and handheld computer devices equipped with wireless cards receive and send radio signals to the access point. Data are transmitted or accessed over those signals, enabling a computer to maintain a wireless connection to the network as long as it is within range of the access point. Depending on the size of the office and strength of the radio signal, users may have to install more than one access point. Most wireless cards are bought as external and internal add-ons for portable computers and desktops, but increasingly these are built-ins.