Talk:Wi-Fi
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This article was nominated for deletion on 15 June 2006. The result of the discussion was speedy keep. |
[edit] Wi-fi vs. Cellular section moved from article
This section currently reads like OR and needs editing and discussion before it is placed back in the main article - discuss below
Some argue that Wi-Fi and related consumer technologies hold the key to replacing cellular telephone networks such as GSM. Some obstacles to this happening in the near future are missing roaming and authentication features (see 802.1x, SIM cards and RADIUS), the narrowness of the available spectrum and the limited range of Wi-Fi. It is more likely that WiMax will compete with other cellular phone protocols such as GSM, UMTS or CDMA. However, Wi-Fi is ideal for VoIP applications e.g. in a corporate LAN or SOHO environment. Early adopters were already available in the late '90s, though not until 2005 did the market explode. Companies such as Zyxel, UT Starcomm, Sony, Samsung, Hitachi and many more are offering VoIP Wi-Fi phones for reasonable prices.
In 2005, low-latency broadband ISPs started offering VoIP services to their customers. Since calling via VoIP is free or low-cost, VoIP enabled ISPs have the potential to open up the VoIP market. GSM phones with integrated Wi-Fi & VoIP capabilities are being introduced into the market and have the potential to replace land line telephone services.
Currently it seems unlikely that Wi-Fi will directly compete against cellular in areas that have only sparse Wi-Fi coverage. Wi-Fi-only phones have a very limited range, so setting up a covering network would be too expensive. Additionally, cellular technology allows the user to travel while connected, bouncing the connection from tower to tower (or "cells") as proximity changes, all the while maintaining one solid connection to the user. Many current Wi-Fi devices and drivers do not support roaming yet and connect to only one access point at a time. In this case, once you are out of range of one "hotspot", the connection will drop and will need to be re-connected to the next one each time.
For these reasons, Wi-Fi phones are still best suited for local use such as corporate or home networks. However, devices capable of multiple standards, called converged devices, (using SIP or UMA) may well compete in the market. Top-tier handset manufacturers have announced converged dual-radio handsets. Converged handsets present several compelling advantages to mobile carriers:
- Efficient spectrum allocation, as more data-intensive services come online and bandwidth demands increase
- Improved in-building coverage in markets such as the US, where dropped calls are still a major cause of customer dissatisfaction
- Opportunities for mobile operators to offer differentiated pricing and services.
[edit] Discussion of Wi-fi vs. Cellular
Please discuss here what to be done with the above section. --Charlesknight 22:11, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Wi-fi business models - needs new article.
I have removed all of this content from the article (don't worry it's still there in the history, ready for moving!). As it was written, the article was too big and unfocused.
This article needs to be about the technology, the business model material needs to go in an article called.... em... what shall we called it? Let's try and come to some concensus and get that article up and running as soon as possible.
--Charlesknight 22:25, 11 October 2006 (UTC) --203.190.164.114 03:01, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Comparison of Different Operating Systems
The article seems to endorse Apple's implementation of Wi-Fi over Windows, especially this sentence in the Mac OS X section: "The built-in configuration and management is integrated throughout the operating system. " Besides sounding like an advertisement, it does not convey any meaningful information. It has been removed.
Sbenton 05:14, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
That's because Apple's implementation is inarguably better. It may sound like an endorsement because MacOSX's implementation of WiFi is so far ahead of all other major operating systems. "The built-in configuration and management is integrated throughout the operating system." that you speak of is true. Many of the included utilities and applications are aware of and directly tied to control of AirPort. For example, the sharing preference pane allows one to control how the integrated WiFi adapter can act as an AP. I do not understand how you can not beleive it to be a meaningful statement. It is. I am adding it back in. --65.24.117.190 11:50, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Solaris (SPARC & x86) & Irix?
What is the support level for WiFi in Sun Solaris and SGI Irix? I think we should add something to that effect.
[edit] Wifi measurement
I have red a lot of article on Wifi but nothing on signal measurements. Is there a way to qualify and quantify the RF signal propagation. I have an application (Network Stumbler) running on my laptop to indicate the strength of the signal How reliable is it? what is the characteristic of the "antenna" on my laptop (where is it located? I suppose it is omnidirectionnal! what is the acuracy of the receiver?), I also use an HP iPaq PDA, accuracy does not seems to be too high when I compare between different units. An other solution would be to use a spectrum analyser with a directional antenna (quite expensive...). What I am trying to do is to find dead spot during an installation of Wifi networks. Any solution? Normy59 18:29, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
What you're doing is usually known in the industry as a site survey. Wikipedia doesn't have much on it, but web searching on that term should net you some more comprehensive information.
As far as "signal strength" (more properly, RSSI), Network Stumbler is only reporting a value given to it by the device driver. This value is affected by the radio hardware and the antenna in addition to the actual radio signal hitting the antenna, and is usually scaled to a vendor-dependent range. So you certainly will see wide device-to-device variations.
Besides, the absolute strength of the signal isn't really what you want to measure--you really want to know how good your network connection is at a given location, which is affected by more than signal strength. For that, you need higher-level measurements like goodput. Tlesher 22:37, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Removed Ad from See Also Links
This:
... is just an ad, not a useful resource. Removed it. --Kynn 19:50, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Frequency
How many hertz is the average wi fi signal??? I linked here from a physics article, and it says nothing about the frequency. My cordless phone screws up my wireless internet, so this information would be useful.
- From the article "Except for 802.11a, which operates at 5 GHz, Wi-Fi uses the spectrum near 2.4 GHz" --agr 13:09, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
Wi-Fi have two module, 802.11a is used 4.9 to 5.9GHz, and 802.11b/g is used 2.4 to 2.485GHz.
[edit] Wikinews links
What's up with the {{wikinewshas}} template near the bottom? It doesn't render with any relevant links, and the Wi-Fi category on wikinews only has one article in it (even though I found other Wi-Fi related articles on the site.) I'm not familiar with how things work over there but this seems kind of sketchy. -Fadookie Talk 23:55, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Merge?
Someone nominated this article to be merged with Wi-Fi. Please discuss here Ka5hmir 07:31, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Relevant link removal
Hi, I got some nastygrams here because I posted a highly-related link -- which has been considered spam. the link in question is to WiFiMaps.com, which is a public-access map of where actual Wi-Fi has been deployed, as seen from wardriving. This is highily related to wi-fi in the existing context. Drew from Zhrodague 20:01, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
- Yup, and just as I thought, even after finalizing a discussion with one of the moderators, the link is now removed. Would someone please put the external link to WiFiMaps.com back? I am apparently not allowed to do so, since that is my project. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.23.102.249 (talk) 15:41, 7 March 2007 (UTC). Oops! Drew from Zhrodague 22:09, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] There is also a music band in the UK called Wi-Fi.
That's probably notable.--Occono 11:56, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
