802.11 What???

Understanding Wifi Standards is important, so that you purchase the most compatible wifi card for the scenario you are using.  There are over a dozen 802.11 standards, however this article will discuss only those standards that are in common use with home computer equipment..

The Standards:

• 802.11A
• 802.11B
• 802.11G
• 802.11N
• 802.11AC

If you connect your computer through your wifi card to connect to the internet one of these standards are used to get you connected to the internet.

What is 802.11? Well its IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)  set of Physical and Media Access Control specs to cover WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) connections.  What’s the letters?  Well those are the amendments to the original standard.  

Now that you know how they came up with the name, now lets dive into the capabilities of each.

802.11A

This came out with 802.11B standard in 1999. It operates in the 5ghz spectrum and allows for connections up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps) up to a distance of about 115ft in an indoor environment up to 390ft in an outdoor environment.  The great thing about this standard was that it operated in the 5GHz range where there aren’t as many common “cordless” devices that operate in that spectrum; cordless phones being the most common.

802.11B

The sister standard to 802.11A.  The big difference was it operated in the 2.4GHz spectrum and only allowed connection up to 11Mbps from distances up to 115ft indoors and 460ft outdoors.  This was the first wifi standard that swept the world, due to its cheaper cost and increased range.  The problem however was it operated in the same spectrum as phones and other house hold devices.

802.11G

Finalized in 2003 this standard was to keep the the cost low, but attain the connection speeds of 802.11A in the 2.4GHz spectrum.  This quickly replaced A & B because it was the best compromise between the two, with the range of B.  The plus of this standard was that G was backwards compatible with B.  The problem still lingered that it was on the 2.4 GHz band and still had interference issues.

802.11N

This was finalized in 2009, and was the first to use Mulitple Input and Output antennas or MIMO for short, this allowed greater throughput and operated in 2.4GHz but it also can use the 5GHz spectrum which allowed for some flexibility.  It also allowed for connection speeds up to 600Mbps.  This quickly replaced 802.11B/G and pretty much rendered A obsolete.  This standard also increased range to 230ft indoors and 860ft outdoors.  

802.11AC

The latest standard to be finalized at the end of 2013.  This standard provides connection speeds up to 78Mbps to 3.2Gbps speeds.and covers a range of 115ft.  The only real drawback of the standard. The range compared to N.  But the connectivity speeds more than makes up for the disadvantage.  It also operates only in the 5Ghz range to stay out of the way of the already over crowded 2.4Ghz spectrum.  Most modern flagship phones from manufacturers support this standard, and the cost of AC spec’d wireless adapters/cards/devices is not that much more over their N counterparts.

So with all that said what connectivity should you make sure you have, to be the most compatible with whatever type of wifi you may find out there.  The best card to get is one that covers them all to be honest.  With the exception of A, the others are still in pretty prevalent use.  Make sure your card is a B/G,N,AC card and you will pretty much have everything covered.  If you are setting up your own wireless network, be sure to take into account all your devices you want on your network.  It would be a shame to setup a G,N,AC network and have an older B only device that can’t get connected, especially if you still need that device.

I hope this helps with getting an understanding of what the wifi standards are, how they got their name, and what they are capable of providing.