you think you know all about Wifi !!! i don't think so

What is Wifi?

ASUS-router

Wifi, or WIFI, or Wi-Fi, or even WiFi refers to any local access wireless network that is based on the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 standards. Devices on a Wifi network exchange data through the airwaves using either a 2.4 GHz Ultra high frequency or 5 GHz Super high frequency (I'm not making these names up!) connection.

A typical Wifi setup consists of an Internet gateway (usually a modem) and an access point. The modem is connected to the Internet, and the access point has a dedicated connection to the modem. What the access point can do (at home, your router is your access point) is filter the things you send and receive from the Internet and distribute them wirelessly to the device that made the request.

There is a lot of complicated software at work on your access point, and even the administration interface can be a bit confusing. All we really need to know is that a properly setup WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) lets us connect our phone or tablet or Chromebook to the Internet through a Wifi connection. Leave the complicated stuff to nerds with lots of letters after their name.

Why do I see so many available Wifi connections on my phone?

When you open the Wifi settings on your phone, you see a list of every access point you've ever connected to, as well as every access point in range that broadcasts its presence. This can be a bit confusing because that little hamburger joint you connected to in Jacksonville will be listed, but you're not likely going to be able to connect if you're in Pittsburgh. It gets even more confusing when access points are named ATT488 instead of "AT&T Wifi on First St."

If you give your phone a few seconds, or scroll down and tell it to search again if you're the impatient type, this view will let you know which access points are in range (and how strong the signal is based on the little icon) and which ones you have saved but are out of range. You're able to try and connect to any access point that is in range. You can also delete old connections that you'll never want to use again.

Note that this may not be every access point in range. When you setup a Wifi network you're able to decide if the name is broadcast and visible or not. If the SSID (don't worry, we're going to cover all those acronyms down the page a bit) is not broadcast, it won't show up in your list and you'll have to setup a connection manually.

Basic Wifi terminology (what do all those letters and numbers mean?)

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac — 802.11 refers to the IEEE 802.11 specifications for wireless networking on the 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, 5 GHz and 60 GHz frequencies. Any device that's Wifi certified will follow these standards. The letter you see after stands for a specific protocol that determines things like range and speed. Generally speaking (that means as far we you, the layman is concerned), the "higher" the letter, the better the potential range and speed is. If you've got a newer phone, it probably supports at least through 802.11 n, and possible 802.11 ac. Most modern access points will support them, too.

Wifi — A trademarked (really, it's trademarked) term for a piece of wireless LAN equipment that supports the IEEE 802.11 specification. It's a play on Hi-Fi, a term that stands for high fidelity and was popular for audio systems hundreds of years ago when Phil and I were teenagers. If you see the word Wifi or WiFi or Wi-Fi on something, that means it meets the standards and will work with other equipment that bears the Wifi trademarked name. Believe it or not, there arecounterfeits out there that don't meet things like transmission power requirements. And you can buy home-made devices that break a butt-load of laws to extend Wifi way down the street. I might have one. None of these are going to be Wifi certified.

Access point — an access point (when talking about Wifi) is a device that allows other Wifi devices to connect to a wireless network. It can be a stand alone device, or it can be bundled into one piece of equipment with a router, or even have a modem added to it like the one you may have from your cable company.

SSID — The service set identifier. It's a human-readable string that can be up to 32 bytes long, and used as the network name you see in the list of Wifi access points on your phone.

MAC address — Short for Media Access Control address, the MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to any networking equipment by the manufacturer. On your phone, that means it's stored in the hardware for the Wifi radio itself. While a MAC address is assigned to the hardware and permanent, it's easy to spoof through software. But we're not going to tell you how to do that, because if you have a legitimate need you already know how or who to ask.

WPS — Wifi Protected Setup is a security standard designed to help home users have a secure wireless network without needing to adjust everything by hand. You need equipment that is compatible, and chances are your Android phone or tablet will work fine.

Wifi Direct — A means of getting one Android device to talk to another using Wifi, but avoiding having to go through an Access Point.    

What about WPS?

WPS stands for Wifi Protected Setup. The goal of WPS is to allow users who don't know a lot about wireless security to let their hardware set things up automatically. When it works, it's very easy and as secure as doing it by hand. The issue is that different manufacturers have different ways of initiating WPS, and it's a little clunky.

There are four ways to use WPS to add a device to a network — the push-button method, the PIN method, the NFC method and the USB method. NFC and USB are optional ways to set things up, so your Wifi certified device may not support one or both. Android devices typically use the Push Button or PIN method, but in theory could support NFC and USB as well.

To use WPS, you need it enabled on the router you want to connect to. Most Android users will then push a button on their router, then choose WPS Push Button from the menu if the Wifi settings. Alternatively, you can connect to your routers control panel interface and ues the PIN method. Do note that using a WPS PIN makes your network vulnerable to a very specific and very difficult to perform brute-force attack. If you have access, and know how, disabling PIN access for WPS is a good idea.

Of course, using WPS makes your network vulnerable to any physical intrusion. If I can get into your living room, I can push the button on your router or look at the network properties on a Windows computer and get the passphrase. (Never mind the other obvious implications.) So don't let anyone like me into your living room, m'kay?         

The advanced Wifi setup menu on Android

If you need to connect to a wireless network that doesn't broadcast it's SSID or requires special settings you will need to bring up the window to manually add a connection. There's nothing scary or complicated in here, but you will need to know a few things about the network you're going to connect to. The person in charge of administering the network will have all the answers you need.

To connect to a SSID that's hidden, you just enter the name of the network and choose the type of security it's using. The rest goes the same was as connecting to a network that's not hidden.

Under the advanced options setting (check the box and you'll see them) you have two new options: Proxy settings and IP settings. On Android, you will need to know the Proxy Hostname and port to setup a connection that uses one. You can get that information from whoever setup the network. This just tells any web browser you're using to connect to the Internet through a dedicated space that can do things like block certain sites, or cache data that doesn't often get updated.

The IP settings are a little more complicated, but again the person who set up the network has all the answers you need to set a static IP.

The router you're connecting to may have a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server that assigns all the required network info automatically. If it doesn't, you'll need to enter the information by hand.

While you'll rarely ever need to set your IP address settings by hand, there's nothing wrong with knowing what you're seeing here. Let's break it down.

• IP address — This is the IP (Internet Protocol) address you want your Android to use. It has to be in the right network range (private IPv4 networks typically use 10.0.0.X, 172.16.0.X, or 192.168.X.X) and use an available number. Remember — your network admin will tell you what to use here. Follow his or her instructions or you're not going to have a good time.
• Gateway — This is the IP address of a network node that acts can act as a router or proxy server both on the internal portion of the network as well as connecting it to the Internet-at-large. When you type http://www.androidcentral.com into your browser, by default the request goes to the gateway which then directs the IP traffic so that Lloyd appears in your browseer window. Again, your network admin will give you this address, and if you don't enter it correctly you're not going to be able to do much of anything.
• Network prefix length — This is the same thing as the subnet mask — a way to make sure all devices on the network have the same network prefix. A router can be used to bridge two subnets together, but that sort of thing is a bit more advanced that what we're going to cover here. For our purposes, unless your network admin tells you something different, the Network prefix length field should be 24, which equals a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.
• DNS — You'll probably see two entries here, labeled 1 and 2. DNS is the Internet's phone book. DNS servers translate a URL that you and I can read, into an IP address that computers can read more easily. There are different options you can use here if you like. Google DNS is one, and OpenDNS is another. If you don't know what those are, just use the numbers your network admin gives you.