Palomar Faculty Federation

When people speak of "wireless" they're referring to an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard or set of rules that specifies exactly how information is to be sent wirelessly. If we didn't have standards, no manufacturer's device would be guaranteed to "play nice" with other manufacturers' devices. This makes it possible to buy a computer, any brand, and have it work with any wifi station by any other manufacturer (like Belkin, Cisco or D-Link: click here for a list) or virtually any monitor or external hard drive by other manufacturers.

Wifi is defined under the 802.11 IEEE standards. They, too, come in a variety of flavors, but the relevant ones are 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n. Each one is an improvement on the previous in terms of "throughput" (or speed) and "reach" (or how far the signal will carry). Within the past 2 years, most computers sold are capable of the "n" specification, which theoretically can reach about 200 feet, give or take a brick wall or two and has a theoretical speed well beyond average needs. Because the signal can reach much further than previous versions, you should make sure you use a password to access it (you can have your computer "remember" the password so it logs in automatically each time at start-up). Otherwise, neighbors can eavesdrop and use your connection.. not good. It used to be an issue only if you lived in an apartment, but houses now are often within range for the new "n" specification. The wireless device as you see in the image here, is known as a "router" and can handle quite a few devices simultaneously. So one of these could handle, say, 3 computers and 2 printers or even a cellphone (using a microcell) for boosting your cell system reception in your house with no trouble at all.

Bluetooth is a standard created in 1994 by Ericsson Electronics and is named for King Harald I of Denmark and Norway who united disparate tribes into one kingdom. The range on Bluetooth is generally about 30 feet under ideal conditions. It's commonly used in devices that are visible, and in the same room, to swap information. The practical transfer rate for Bluetooth 2.1 is around 2.1 Mbps. Most cellphones, laptops, desktop computers and mobile devices have include Bluetooth. If you're not using Bluetooth on your mobile device, you should turn it off, as it drains battery power.

Sorry, NFC doesn't stand for the National Football Conference. It stands for Near Field Communication and spans an even shorter distance than Bluetooth's 30 foot reach at only a few inches. NFC is designed to generally work in small purchases: vending machines, store check-out counters, public transportation and parking, etc.., acting like an electronic credit/debit device.

 
NFC can encrypt information for secure transactions, but not with RFID (RFID will eventually replace UPC barcodes on merchandise). It may become your credit card, your wallet, your car, house and room keys, your cell phone, your internet connection, your camera, your ..

For more information

• On the Marketing Plans for NFC
• How it might be marketed

3G is the common name given most cell phone service today. It's a fragmented market when you look at they types of systems there are, instead of the providers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. The two main systems are GSM which is used in most of the world and by AT&T and T-Mobile here in the U.S., and CDMA which was developed by Qualcomm and is used in a handful of countries. In the U.S., Verizon and Sprint/Nextel use CDMA. Both of these systems will remain around for a number of years, but they're no longer being developed. Instead, all cell phone providers have begun moving to the next evolving standard called LTE, sometimes misnamed as 4G.

15% AT&T Wireless Discount for Union Members

Late 2009, Verizon became the first company to begin rolling out the next generation cell phone system known as LTE. The term is preferred to 4G because even under 3G, systems continue to evolve within each generation. The moniker 4G is sometimes used, and LTE is about 95% of what's described as 4G by most people.

The most evident change most people will see is a much faster throughput or speed when downloading information from the Internet. There are very few phones as of Spring, 2011 that are LTE ready, but by late 2011/early 2012, it's expected that most of the major carriers will have their systems covering better than 80% of their service areas in LTE. If you own or just bought a new cell phone that doesn't have it, you'll still be able to use the full services of the 3G system for the foreseeable future.

BTW, Mbps stands for "MegaBITS per second," whereas MBps stands for "MegaBYTES per second." A BYTE is 8 BITS, meaning 8 Mbps = 1 MBps. Most advertising is done in Mbps simply because it's more impressive with higher numbers equaling faster downloading.

There are a number of annoyances with wireless systems

• dropped calls
  While sometimes due to the actual cell phone itself, it's almost always due to cell tower issues (location or speed and capacity). If you're with a carrier that constantly drops calls where you need to use your cell phone mostly, try finding people in your home/work locale that uses a different provider and see how their signal is.
• latency
  Stand next to someone with a cell phone and call that person on yours. You'll notice that your voice takes a moment, sometimes a full second, to reach the phone that's just a few feet away from you. All systems have latency. Some are worse than others.