Wireless Internet Terms & Definitions

Wireless Internet services are becoming more and more common everyday. With fortune 500 firms now making the offerings, enormous marketing budgets are now being brought to bear against the new and exciting marketplace.

With this explosive growth comes new terms and acronyms that no one understands, or are used so many different ways that they could mean almost anything. Here we will discuss these new terms and TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) so we can keep everyone on the same page when it comes to discussing wireless Internet and its many new flavors.

Definition Of Wireless Technology

Wi-Fi - Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity and refers to wireless Internet services that utilize dual band networks. This differentiates Wi-Fi from traditional pager networks and offers the obvious advantage of two-way traffic. Current networks include 802.11, 802.11a, and 802.11b.

IEEE - This term stands for The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This group manages the standards in which wireless networks are held too, as well as other computer hardware standards. The IEEE makes sure that hardware made by different manufacturers is interoperable.

WEP - WEP is a type of encryption used to secure wireless networks. Wired Equivalent Privacy was initially designed to offer wireless networks the same inherent security wired networks have. Although never quite reaching the same level, WEP is still considered a good level of security.

WAN - WAN, or Wide Area Network, connects more than one site into a single network. An example would be three offices in three cities all accessing the same Intranet to do business.

LAN - LAN stand for Local Area Network. Similar to a WAN, this network is confined to a single physical site. Home networks are considered LANs.

PAN - Personal Area Network is a new term used to refer to a small network that serves a single user. An example of a PAN would be a single PC, a printer, and an Internet connection.

MAN - Another new term, MAN stands for Metropolitan Area Network and this type of network offers coverage to an entire city. Although cost prohibitive, this useful service can provide Internet access large areas.

WPA - Wi-Fi Protected Access is a replacement technology for WEP keys. WPA offers dynamic encryption methodology as well as hacker failsafe options to secure and shut down a network.

SSID - A Service Set Identifier attaches itself to all data packets that travel across a particular network. These identifiers are what will allow access to users over a secured network. With a particular SSID, users will be unable to connect or perhaps even locate a particular network. This type of security was designed to help combat Evil Twin attacks.

Evil Twin Attacks - This type of attack occurs when a hacker sets up a wireless access point within an existing wireless node. What this does is offer a confusingly similar option to users trying to log on to a particular network. An example would be if a hacker went into a coffee shop that is a well know Wi-Fi hot spot with a laptop configured to be a wireless access point. When users in the shop attempted to log on, they might be offered two network selections instead of one. Under available networks a user might see”

CoffeeShop Network
CoffeeShop Network1

An experienced hacker would of course make the choices more deceiving, but if a user chooses CoffeeShop Network1 then they are logging on the hacker's laptop wireless access point, and all data transfers can be captured.

WML - Wireless Markup Language was the first language used to send content to wireless devices. WAP devices are now more commonly processing XHTML, and standard HTML.

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Check our main section on Wireless Internet Providers to learn more Wi-Fi networks and how wireless Internet technology compares to other forms of broadband.