Wireless Networking

If you would like to build a wireless network from the scratch, it is recommended to use the best wireless network based devices, using the current wireless technologies available at the marketplace today.

The best wireless network should consist of wireless devices and standards which can provide the best technologies in three main areas. Firstly, the wireless devices and standards should provide the fastest wireless network. Secondly, wireless devices and technology used should provide the farthest network coverage. Thirdly, the wireless security standard should provide the most secured network to protect the private network against any types of network threats.

The Best Wireless Network in Speed

The fastest and the best wireless network available at the market today is the 802.11n standards which can deliver the speeds up to 300 Mbps or even faster. This is the final version of the previous draft 802.11n version which was approved last Sept 2009 by IEEE. Basically there are lot of wireless devices which operate based on draft 802.11n standards. No hardware changing actually, but the wireless vendors release the firmware to comply with the newest version of the 802.11n standards.

The recent manufacturers ship their products and claimed that the wireless network can provide the speed up to 300 Mbps. However, this is all theoretical, in a sense, due to the fact that routers never achieve the maximum throughput they’re rated at (802.11b at 11 Mbps and 802.11g at 54 Mbps).

Now, the final version of the wireless 802.11n standards has approved by IEEE. The good news is that all the products with Wi-Fi Certified are guaranteed to be backward compatible with the legacy clients with 802.11g/b based standards. There are many wireless manufacturers ship their new lines of products based on this final 802.11n standards such as Belkin Surf / Share / Play / Max Play wireless routers and Linksys E Series.

See also list of the best wireless routers for your need.

The Best Wireless Network in Network Coverage

Selecting the best wireless network should provide the technology with the farthest network coverage. A current technology widely adopted by the manufacturers to provide the farther wireless network coverage is the Multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) antenna technology. MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to improve the system performance. MIMO technology relies on multipath signals. Multipath signals are the reflected signals arriving at the receiver some time after the line of sight (LOS) signal transmission has been received. MIMO technology creates robust signals for maximum range and speed with reduced dead spots.

Some manufacturers embedded their product with their own competitive technology for better network coverage. For example D-Link introduces Extreme –N technology to provide the speed up to 14x faster and provide 6x the range farther when compared to 802.11g wireless devices.

The Best Wireless Network in Security

Selecting the best wireless network, you should think about the best security the network can protect against any threats. As a general rule, you should employ a level of security that corresponds to the sensitivity of the data on your network. Unlike wired systems, which can be physically secured, wireless networks are not confined to the inside of buildings. They can be picked up as far as 1,000 feet outside of the premises with a laptop and a gain antenna. This makes WLANs inherently vulnerable to interception.

The latest industrial wireless security standard is WPA2. WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access which is a certification program created by the Wi-Fi Alliance to indicate compliance with the security protocol created by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks. This protocol was created in response to several serious weaknesses researchers had found in the previous system, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).

See also the wireless security system.

The other features you should consider in selecting the wireless devices for the best wireless network is the Quality of Services (QoS) feature which capable of providing the prioritization of the data stream.

With wireless routers (without the QoS feature), all wired and wireless traffic, including VoIP, Video Streaming, Online Gaming, and Web browsing are mixed together into a single data stream. By handling data this way, applications like video streaming could pause or delay. With Intelligent QoS Technology, wired and wireless traffic is analyzed and separated into multiple data streams. These streams are then categorized by sensitivity to delay, so applications like VoIP, Video Streaming, and Online Gaming are given priority over Web browsing. This enables multiple applications to stream smoothly to your TV or PC.

D-Link introduces Gamer Lounge DGL-4500 with intelligent QoS technology which is designed specifically for gamers in mind.

The last but not the least for the best wireless network you can also consider the dual-band feature of the wireless access point and also the wireless clients. With the dual band technology, the wireless devices support 2.4GHz & 5GHz wireless signals at the same time. This allows you to check e-mail and browse the Internet using the 2.4GHz band while simultaneously streaming High-Definition (HD) movies and other media on the 5GHz band.

See also list of the best wireless routers which have the best wireless network features as discussed above.

With the best wireless network, it is not perfect if you do not deploy the antivirus software for each of the computers on the network. See also the Internet threats and antivirus software.

Suggested readings:

• DAP-1350 Wireless access point with router feature
• USB Wireless adapters – perfect choice adapters
• Wireless router setup – general discussion in setting up the router
• USB Cable modems – Cable modem with USB port and Ethernet
• Wireless range extender DAP-1360 by D-Link