Why has 802.11 flourished while Bluetooth has essentially failed? Should we even care about Bluetooth? The crux of the problem is that 802.11 represents the Internet and Bluetooth represents the faux ...

It used to be the case that the ability to communicate wirelessly was a unique specialty among computing systems. These days it is rapidly becoming an expected feature, something that is assumed. An ...

Look, Wi-Fi still kind of sucks. And marketing excesses aside, its worst problems all revolve around airtime distribution among multiple devices. Unlike LTE (the protocol cellular data uses), 802.11 ...

When wireless networking based around the 802.11b standard first hit consumer markets in the late nineties, it looked pretty good on paper. Promising “11 Mbps” compared to original wired Ethernet’s 10 ...

The wireless medium has fundamentally different characteristics from a wired medium. When providing QoS, we should remember that the MAC endeavors to provide QoS service guarantees within this ...

The 802.11n standard operates in the 2.4-GHz, the 5-GHz radio band, or both bands, offering backward compatibility with preexisting 802.11a/b/g deployments. Wireless solutions based on the 802.11n ...

In response to reader requests for a refresher in basic wireless LAN operations, I’ll finish up a discussion I began last time of 802.11 WLAN channel assignments and user access. Some of you have ...

The Killer Wireless-N 1202 is a worthwhile upgrade for gamers and others who require low-latency wireless network connectivity. Gamers are always hunting for a competitive edge, and the folks at ...

Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D ...

I've been writing about WiMAX and the 3G/4G cellular technologies lately and every now and then I see references to the IEEE 802.20 standard. In case you are not familiar with it, it is a mobile ...

In a mysterious outbreak of common sense, the Wi-Fi Alliance has dumped the traditional 802.11 naming scheme for Wi-Fi technologies and is pushing ahead with a naming scheme based on numbers. Under ...