A technology that uses radio signals to connect a device to an access point.

Wireless access points: what are they exactly? Like plumbing, most of us don’t really think about Wi-Fi—until it stops working. But that unassuming little box blinking away on your bookshelf—or café counter, or office ceiling—is doing some amazing things. Pull up a chair. It’s time for wireless access points 101.

What's inside a wireless access point?

The Wi-Fi networks we know and love all share some common components. First, there’s a router—the piece that physically connects to the wired network and Internet. Whenever you connect a device (your phone, laptop, smart TV), the router acts as postmaster for the network, making sure each data packet gets delivered to the right destination. Then, there’s the wireless access point. It broadcasts the network out over radio frequency (RF) signals, so wireless devices can connect over the air. In our home networks, we usually don’t have to worry about the different Wi-Fi components. If you’re using a “wireless gateway” from your Internet provider, you’ve got a router and wireless access point baked into one box. Bigger networks—like office buildings—break them out separately, with multiple access points extending the Wi-Fi over a larger space.

What makes wireless access points work well (or poorly)?

If you’ve spent any time on Wi-Fi, you know staying connected can sometimes be a pain. Why? Because keeping a strong, reliable signal is really hard. Those blinky little boxes are dealing with:

• Interference: Ever been in a noisy restaurant with a big group, all talking at the same time? Hearing what any one person is saying gets tough. Well, that’s what your wireless access point deals with every day. In a home network, you may have a dozen devices (or more), all constantly yammering away. In a larger network, different wireless access points can even interfere with each other. It takes sophisticated intelligence to “hear” and “talk to” each device clearly. The Beamflex+™ adaptive antenna systems baked into Ruckus wireless access points do this better than any other system on the market.
• Unlicensed RF: The great thing about Wi-Fi is that anybody can use it. You don’t need a special license to broadcast over Wi-Fi like you do over cellular or FM radio. The bad thing about Wi-Fi? Anybody can use it. And everybody does. Have a cordless phone? Baby monitor? Bluetooth headset? Microwave? They all produce RF signals over the same frequencies as your wireless access point, clogging up the airspace with even more “noise.”
• Signal strength: Great Wi-Fi is all about having a strong, reliable signal. Stronger signals can send and receive more data, faster. They also travel farther, so users can roam far from the wireless access point and keep a good connection. In larger Wi-Fi networks, this means fewer wireless access points are needed to cover the space. Put another way: wireless access points that can’t keep strong, clear signals aren’t just frustrating for users; they actually cost more, because you need more of them to get reliable coverage. Ruckus delivers the highest-performing wireless access points.

Tip your hat to the underappreciated wireless access point

Don’t want to get into the gory details of RF technology? That’s OK. At Ruckus, we’re always thinking about what makes great Wi-Fi, so our customers don’t have to. Years of engineering, multiple groundbreaking patents, it all adds up to wireless access points that are like the pipes in your walls: they just work. Check out the full story on Ruckus’ industry-leading wireless access points.

Have you ever stopped to consider exactly how e-mail or streaming video gets into your smartphone or tablet so quickly, seamlessly, and in real time? That's wi-fi in action. This week, Tech Talker delves into the technology behind wireless devices

• By Tech Talker Eric Escobar on July 15, 2015

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Credit: Kevin Clogstoun Getty Images

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Do you ever have that moment where you step back and think about how something you use every day actually works? More specifically have you ever wondered how the heck computers actually communicate wirelessly?

Well, that's exactly the question we're going to be tackling in today's podcast. 

What Is WiFi?
First, let's cover some of the basics. WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity and is the same thing as saying WLAN which stands for "Wireless Local Area Network."

See also: How to Boost Your WiFi Signal (Part 1)

WiFi works off of the same principal as other wireless devices - it uses radio frequencies to send signals between devices. The radio frequencies are completely different say from walky talkies, car radios, cell phones, and weather radios. For example your car stereo receives frequencies in Kilohertz and Megahertz range (AM and FM stations), and WiFi transmits and receives data in the Gigahertz range.

To break it down even further, Hertz (Hz) is simply a unit of frequency. Let's say you're standing on a pier watching waves come in. As you look down at the waves you can see the crest of each wave roll on by. If you counted how many seconds between each wave crest this would be the frequency of the waves. So if the time between each crest was 1 second that would meant the wave frequency was 1 hertz or one cycle per second.

Comparing sea waves to Mhz and Ghz, these waves are moving at 1 million and 1 billion cycles per second in the air! And to receive the information found in these waves, your radio receiver needs to be set to receive waves of a certain frequency.

For WiFi this frequency happens to be 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. These waves are very similar to the frequency found in your microwave! Your microwave uses 2.450Ghz to heat up food and your router uses 2.412 GHz to 2.472 GHz to transmit your data over WiFi. This is why some people with old or faulty microwaves experience a problem with their WiFi signal when they try to make popcorn.

Just to clear up a popular misconception: These microwaves are non-ionizing radiation. That means that they do not cause cancer. That’s right kids, microwaves will not make you radioactive and glow in the dark!

>>Continue reading on QuickAndDirtyTips.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Eric Escobar is a professional computer hacker and host of the Tech Talker podcast on Quick and Dirty Tips.

What uses radio signals to connect electronic devices to each other and to the internet?

Wi-Fi is a wireless technology used to connect computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices to the internet. Wi-Fi is the radio signal sent from a wireless router to a nearby device, which translates the signal into data you can see and use.

What are the devices that is used to connect into a wireless access point?

An access point connects to a wired router, switch, or hub via an Ethernet cable, and projects a WiFi signal to a designated area.

What type of wireless connection that uses radio waves to connect to other devices?

IEEE 802.11: WiFi WiFi uses radio waves (RF) to allow two devices to communicate with one another. The technology is most commonly used to connect Internet routers to devices like computers, tablets, and phones; however, it can be used to connect together any two hardware components.

Which of the following is a technology that uses radio signals to communicate with a tag placed in or attached to an object an animal or a person?

RFID is a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data from an electronic tag, called RFID tag or label, attached to an object, through a reader for the purpose of identifying and tracking the object.