Wireless networks have been an essential part of communication in the last century. Early adopters of wireless technology primarily have been the military, emergency services, and law enforcement organizations. But today, Wireless Networks are used everywhere including in home and in offices. There are many types of Wireless Network Hardware available in the market particularly for home or office wireless networking.

Wireless network hardware in a wireless infrastructure can be categorized into wireless access points; wireless network adapters; and wireless antenna.

Before discussing about the wireless network hardware, it is better to review to following wireless network infrastructure as in the diagram below.

In a wireless infrastructure network, a wireless access point will bridge between the wireless devices and wired devices. A wireless access point connects to an Ethernet network (or other cabled network) by network cable, but that also contains an 802.11b-compliant wireless transceiver. When there is another wireless network hardware coming into the range coverage of the wireless access point, they can communicate with other devices on wired network as if they were connected by cable themselves.

Wireless Network infrastructure

The wireless access point functions as a transparent bridge, effectively extending the cabled local area network (LAN) to include the wireless devices.

On an infrastructure network, wireless network hardware communicates only with the access point; they do not communicate with each other directly. Therefore, even if two wireless computers are within range of each other, they must still use the access point to communicate.

Wireless Access Point

The major device in wireless network hardware is the wireless access point (AP). A wireless AP connects the wireless clients to a wired network that usually has Internet connection from there. The wireless AP typically has at least two network connections and shuffles traffic between them. Typically the wireless interface is an on-board radio or an embedded wireless card. And the second network interface is usually an Ethernet port, a dialup modem, or even another wireless adapter. Read more detail here network access point.

Some Wireless access points can be found in the market from many vendors such as:

• DWL-7100 D-link Access Point is Dual Band WLAN Access Point 802.11a/G, 108Mbps – an ideal solution for creating a wireless backbone infrastructure. DWL-7100 can be configured in Access Point, Point-to-Point Bridge, Point-to-Multipoint Bridge, and Repeater.
• TRENDnet TEW-638 300Mbps Wireless N Access Point extends your network using Wireless Distribution System (WDS), Ethernet to Wireless Bridge or AP Client Modes
• WNDAP330 Netgear Prosafe Wireless –N Dual-band Netgear Access Point extending the wireless network at your growing business office with an Advanced Speed and Coverage with Comprehensive Internet Security.

In the market, some manufacturers ship the wireless access points integrated with the router / firewall which are designed to target home users for home wireless network. There are lots of Wireless routers you can found at the market with the newest wireless technology standard.

Wireless network adapters

The second type of wireless network hardware is Wireless network adapter. You have three basic choices when choosing a wireless network adapter. Depending on the wireless standard and type of computer you are using. The options are a PC Card, USB, or PCI Card and the new version is PCI Express-Card.

PC Card

PC cards slide into one of two PC card slots you’ll find on a laptop. Note that the PC card slot is sometimes called a PCMCIA slot (PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association). PC card wireless adapters are great for notebooks because they are small and easy to install. For examples: WPC600N Linksys (a dual-band wireless -N version), or DWA-642 RangeBooster adapter.

USB Wireless Adapter

USB Wireless Adapter is very portable, easy to install and remove from the desktop computers or laptops without you need to open the desktop computer cashing. The USB ports are hot-swappable, meaning you can plug in equipment and unplug it without rebooting the machine. Check for a list of well known wireless USB network adapters here.

Wireless PCI Card adapter

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) cards are sometimes used to connect wireless network adapters to desktop computers. Connecting a PCI card to a computer is slightly trickier than using a USB network adapter. You must open the computer case and install the card in an open PCI slot inside the computer. It’s not terribly complicated, but it takes more time, especially compared to installing a USB network adapter.

Check a list of popular wireless PCI network adapters here.

Wireless PCI Express Card

The major benefit of ExpressCard technology over the previous PCMCIA Card-Bus is a dramatic increase in bandwidth, afforded by the fact that the ExpressCard has a direct connection to the system bus over a PCI Express x1 lane and USB 2.0, whereas Card-Bus utilizes an interface controller that only interfaces with PCI. The ExpressCard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gigabits per second through PCI Express and 480 Mbps through USB 2.0 dedicated for each slot, versus Card-Bus’s shared 1.06 Gigabits per second bandwidth. In addition, the ExpressCard standard uses lower voltages than the previous Card-Bus slots (1.5V and 3.3V versus 3.3V and 5.0V).

Some Wireless Express-Card you can find in the marketplace such as:

• Linksys WEC-600 Dual-Band Wireless-N ExpressCard for Your ExpressCard Slot enabled computers
• DWA-643 D-Link wireless express card adapter
• Belkin Wireless express card

Setting Up Hardware

Now we’ll look at the basic steps for installing your wireless network hardware. Keep in mind that the equipment you purchase might dictate that you vary the order of these steps, so follow the instructions that come with your networking equipment. This, however, will give you a quick idea of how the process works.

1. Plug in your network adapter.
2. Install the drivers for your network adapter.
3. Reboot your computer.

Your hardware vendor might recommend that you install software for your network adapter before installing the network adapter, or the other way around. It’s important to follow the instructions that come with your card. Your equipment might not work otherwise.

Suggested readings:

• XBOX Wireless routers, a list of wireless routers compatible with XBOX console
• Setting up wireless router
• Wireless troubleshooting
• Home wireless network setup a guidelines in setting up home network
• WDS Bridge – basic knowledge about Wireless distribution bridge