What is 802.11?

http://live.pirillo.com/ – Community member Mooreyameen Mohamad asks:

You know what I’m totally confused about? It’s the wireless standards… the g’s and n’s and 802.11… I mean, what the heck is "802.11" and where did it come from?

802.11x (also known as IEEE 802.11), but commonly known as WiFi, is a standard ratified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for wireless LAN applications.

You can think of 802.11 as a kind of constitution set forth by the IEEE as a way for devices to communicate with each other in a standard fashion. If a device is certified as 802.11x compliant then it should work with other 802.11x compliant devices. This means that instead of having several standards established by several companies – which may or may not work between each product – you have one set of standards that everyone follows.

For more detailed information, check out the 802.11 entry on Wikipedia.

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