Wireless LAN's ( WIFI)

Almost as soon as notebook computers appeared, many people had a dream of walking into an office and magically having their notebook computer be connected to the internet. Consequently, various groups began working on ways to accomplish this goal. The most practical approach is to equip both the office and the notebook computers with short-range radio transmitters and receivers to allow them to communicate. This work rapidly led to wireless LANs being marketed by a variety of companies.

The trouble was that no two of them were compatible. This proliferation of standards meant that a computer equipped with a brand X radio would not work in a room equipped with brand Y base station. Finally, the industry decided that a wireless LAN standard might be a good idea. so the IEEE committee that standardized the wired LANs was given the task of drawing up a wireless LAN standard. The standard it came up with was named 802.11. A common slang name for it is WIFI. Iy is an important standard and deserves respect. so we will call it by its proper name. 802.11