Installation guide
6
Wireless Basics
D-Link wireless products are based on industry standards to provide easy-to-use and
compatible high-speed wireless connectivity within your home, business or public
access wireless networks. D-Link wireless products will allow you access to the data
you want, when and where you want it. You will be able to enjoy the freedom that
wireless networking brings.
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is a computer network that transmits and
receives data with radio signals instead of wires. WLANs are used increasingly in both
home and ofce environments, and public areas such as airports, coffee shops and
universities. Innovative ways to utilize WLAN technology are helping people to work
and communicate more efciently. Increased mobility and the absence of cabling and
other xed infrastructure have proven to be benecial for many users.
Wireless users can use the same applications they use on a wired network. Wireless
adapter cards used on laptop and desktop systems support the same protocols as
Ethernet adapter cards.
People use WLAN technology for many different purposes:
Mobility - Productivity increases when people have access to data in any location
within the operating range of the WLAN. Management decisions based on real-time
information can signicantly improve worker efciency.
Low Implementation Costs – WLANs are easy to set up, manage, change
and relocate. Networks that frequently change can benet from WLANs ease of
implementation. WLANs can operate in locations where installation of wiring may be
impractical.
Installation and Network Expansion - Installing a WLAN system can be fast and
easy and can eliminate the need to pull cable through walls and ceilings. Wireless
technology allows the network to go where wires cannot go - even outside the home
or ofce.
Scalability – WLANs can be congured in a variety of ways to meet the needs of
specic applications and installations. Congurations are easily changed and range
from peer-to-peer networks suitable for a small number of users to larger infrastructure
networks to accommodate hundreds or thousands of users, depending on the number
of wireless devices deployed.
Inexpensive Solution - Wireless network devices are as competitively priced as
conventional Ethernet network devices.