This section of Transmission will be devoted to answering questions and providing general tips and tricks. The main focus of this section will be geared towards beginners as well as intermediate computer users.
Q. What are the differences between the wireless standards 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g?
A. 802.11a: Has a 54Mbits/sec link speed, and can deliver a maximum usable throughput of about 25Mbits/sec. 802.11a uses a 5GHz carrier frequency, which helps it avoid interference from other devices like cordless telephones or microwave ovens.
802.11b: 802.11b has a maximum link speed of 11Mbits/sec, and a peak usable throughput of around 5Mbits/sec.
It uses a 2.4GHz carrier frequency, which is in the same range as microwave ovens and cordless telephones. These devices can sometimes adversely impact 802.11b's performance.
One advantage that both 802.11b and 802.11g have is that their lower carrier frequency of 2.4GHz usually gives them a better coverage area than 802.11a. 802.11a's higher 5GHz carrier frequency signal strength degrades faster over distance.
802.11g: Combines the best of both 802.11b and 802.11a. It has 802.11b's coverage and carrier frequency (2.4GHz), but like 802.11a, 11g uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to increase the amount of data transmitted in a given time slice. It offers a maximum link speed of 54Mbits/sec, and maximum usable throughput of around 20Mbits/sec, four times better than 802.11b, and not much slower than 802.11a. Although 802.11g and 802.11b use the same carrier frequency, 802.11g's use of OFDM allows it to continue to operate even when a device such as a cordless phone or microwave oven gets used.
802.11g is also backward-compatible with 802.11b, although the overall throughput for all clients is reduced to the slower speed when an 802.11b client is on the network. 802.11g represents the best balance of price and performance for home networking needs.
Q. I was wondering why I can't connect to the Internet with my laptop which has a wireless feature built in.
A. To take advantage of the wireless feature of your laptop, you will need access to a special type of radio signal. The signal is often referred to as 802.11x. This wireless signal can be broadcast in your home using equipment that supports this feature. To access wireless connections outside of your home, again you need to be within range of a location that is broadcasting a wireless signal. XMission provides this free service to a number of places. You can find a full list of wireless “Hot Spots” that XMission provides here: http://www.xmission.com/wireless/index.html
Q. What does the term broadband mean?
A. It is a technology that refers to the transfer of multiple signals over a single medium. In general terms, broadband is any Internet connection that allows for higher transfer speeds than an analog modem, most often applied to cable modem or DSL access. It can be used to describe satellite and wireless Internet services as well.
Spyware
By definition spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer by visiting a web site while using Internet Explorer or installing software.
Most people agree that spyware is something that is unwanted on their computer system. If you are running a version of the Windows operating system you can download a program called Ad-Aware free of charge. You can get that program by visiting www.ad-aware.com. Another good program to have is called Spybot, a free down load for this program can be found at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html.
For more in depth information available on adware & spywear please visit our help pages at http://xmission.com/help/security/spyware/
Tips to improve browsing
A good way to improve your web browsing experience is to switch your browser to Mozilla’s Firefox, this is a favorite of XMission staff for a number of reasons: it offers pop up blocking, tabbed browsing and Google Search is built right into the toolbar.
For more information on the Firefox web browser please go to http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ Or download directly from our local mirror.