802.11 b Antennas

In 2000 a standard was set for wireless Ethernet networking technology. It was 802.11b, and was meant to be used in the home or in the office. 802.11b antennas greatly increase the efficiency of a wireless system, and it is critical to choose the right one.

First, let's talk about the 802.11b. Basically wifi-802.11b is a type of wireless network. 802.11 is used to describe a family of specifications set by the IEEE in 1997 for wireless LAN technology. It means there is an over-the-air interface between a wireless piece of equipment and a base station or between two wireless pieces of equipment.

The 802.11 family includes:

• 802.11 - wireless LANs using 1 or 2 Mbps transmissions in the 2.4 GHz band. The transmissions use either FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum) or DSSS (direct sequence spread spectrum). Uses two operating modes: infrastructure and ad hoc. Allows for Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption.
• 802.11a - wireless LANs providing 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz band. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is used for encoding rather than DSSS or FHSS.
• 802.11b - wireless LANs providing 11 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band. Only uses DSSS and is often called Wifi.
• 802.11g - wireless LANs providing 20+ Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band.

Now there has been some concern about security with 802.11 b. Strangers can use 802.11b wireless network cards to plug into networks. There is quite an extensive article on the subject at Extremetech.com. For more information on antennas for 802.11b, go to Oreillynet.com.

Where do you get an 802.11b antenna? The antennas 802.11 products use are readily available to the public. Check Hyperlinktech.com and NexTag at Nextag.com.

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