Wired and Wireless Networks

Wired and Wireless, What’s the Difference? The main difference between a wired and wireless data communication infrastructure is the existence of physical cabling. The same or similar techniques are employed for both types of data communication infrastructure in terms of the core elements of essential network services. The basic difference between a wired and a wireless network is self-explanatory. A wired network uses wires to communicate whereas a wireless network uses radio waves.

Another difference and how one technology gets an edge over the other. Wired networks are easy to set up and troubleshoot where wireless networks are comparatively difficult to set up, maintain, and troubleshoot. Wired networks make you immobile while wireless ones provide you with convenience of movement. A third difference, wired networks prove expensive when covering a large area because of the wiring and cabling while wireless networks do not involve this cost. Wired networks have better transmission speeds than wireless ones.

In a wired network, user does not have to share space with other users and thus gets dedicated speeds while in wireless networks, the same connection may be shared by multiple users. One of the most common questions we have to answer on a daily basis is the difference between wired and wireless networks. Wired is the communication between two devices via cables. Wireless is the communication between two devices without cables. Now, is it that simple? Each method of networking has its own pros and cons. Wireless networks do not use any form of cable.

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The transmission of data occurs over radio waves just like cordless phones or the Bluetooth headset that came with that phone you purchased . There are many advantages, but the major advantage of having a wireless device is the mobility and freedom that comes with it. There is less clutter and fewer wires to worry about. But, you sacrifice in most cases on speed and security. Wired networks on the other hand have been around for some time now. Officially known today as the Ethernet, the cables usually connect these devices using CAT5 cables.

The speed and security in this scenario are greatly enhanced. The latest Ethernet routers can support up to 1000Mb/s or a Gigabit/second, that’s ten times faster than the widely used 100 Mb/s router. However the overall cost of a wired network is lower and provides high performance and better security than wireless networks. As home users, wireless networks have become the choice. A wireless network saves your time and efforts in installing a lot of cables. Also, if you need to relocate a client machine in your office, you only need to move the computer with wireless network.

Wireless networking is very useful in the public places, libraries, hotels, schools, airports, train stations. A drawback in the wireless internet is that quality of service, it is not guaranteed if there is any interference. Then the connection may be dropped. Wireless local area networks allow users in local area, such as in a university or a library to join a network and gain wireless access to the internet. A temporary network can be formed by a small number of users without the need of access points.

Service Set Identifier acts a simple password by allowing WLAN network to be split up into different networks and each having a unique identifier. These identifiers are configured in multiple access points. To access any of the networks, a computer is configured in such a way that each is having a corresponding identifier for that network. If they match between the two computers or networks then access is granted. This is a good security method but it is mainly involved in the small wireless networks because there is more manual work is involved, entering the MAC address into the Access point.

Wireless networking is very popular in home networking and more than 20 percent of homes with broadband internet are using wireless networks and this number is increasing. In a general estimate worldwide hotspots have now reached more than 30,000 and will grow about 210,000 in the next few years. Most large hotels already offer Wi-Fi and the business travelers are willing to pay for the wireless access. 802. 11 is the next Wi-Fi speed standard. It is set to offer bandwidth around 108Mbps and is still under development. With the speed of 70 Mbps and a range up to 30 miles, the 802. 1 standard, known as Wimax is sure to give a boost to wireless networking. The term wireless networking refers to technology that enables two or more computers to communicate using standard network protocols, but without network cabling. Any technology that does this could be called wireless networking. This technology, fueled by the emergence of cross-vendor industry standards such as IEEE 802. 11, has produced a number of affordable wireless solutions that are growing in popularity with business and schools as well as sophisticated applications where network wiring is impossible, such as in warehousing or point-of-sale handheld equipment.

An ad-hoc, or peer-to-peer wireless network consists of a number of computers each equipped with a wireless networking interface card. Each computer can communicate directly with all of the other wireless enabled computers. They can share files and printers this way, but may not be able to access wired LAN resources, unless one of the computers acts as a bridge to the wired LAN using special software. Each computer with a wireless interface can communicate directly with all of the others. A wireless network can also use an access point, or base station.

In this type of network the access point acts like a hub, providing connectivity for the wireless computers. It can connect (or "bridge") the wireless LAN to a wired LAN, allowing wireless computer access to LAN resources, such as file servers or existing Internet Connectivity. That’s the different between wired and wireless network. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. http://computer. howstuffworks. com/home-network2. htm 2. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Wireless_network 3. http://www. broadbandbuddy. com. au/wireless-broadband/wireless-networks-vs-wired-networks

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