Internet Connection with a USB WiFi

Connection to Internet is one of the most important requirements of any computing device in todays connected world. The Internet started with the desktop computers being connected to the Dial-up connections or to Local Area Networks (LANs) through cables. As the need to be connected to the Internet grew, the cables were replaced by a wireless link and hence Wireless Area Network or WiFi was born.

The WiFi technology traditionally uses an access point to which laptops and other handheld devices connect wirelessly within a small area. Mostly, access points are connected to the Internet through a cable. These devices receive the data from the wired cables and then transmit wirelessly to the devices connected to this access point. Hence for your laptop to receive and send data over WiFi connection, it should be able to communicate with the Access Point. This communication can be achieved by using a WiFi card, which come in-built in the latest laptops. Laptops which do not have an in-built WiFi card are required to install a separate card for wireless WiFi communication. This installation is performed by opening the laptop and fixing the card at the location provided. This process is quite cumbersome and requires some technical knowledge of laptops.

photo credit: CC BY 2.0

USB port is one of the best means of establishing communication between a laptop and external device. USB communication is used by many devices, for e.g. flash memories, external modems, usb toys, external hard disks etc. Therefore, one of the easiest ways to connect the laptop to the WiFi is to use a USB WiFi adapter, also known as the USB WiFi dongle. This device connects to the standard USB port provided in the laptop and no opening of the laptop is required. It also comes with an extension cable so that the USB WiFi antenna (in-built within the dongle) can be placed at a place with best signal reception. The communication with the laptop is through the USB port making is easy to use and transport.

The WiFi USB dongle is sometime called as IEEE 802.11b adapter. In simple terms, this just represents which wireless communication standards does the device follow. The term “IEEE 802.11″ is the reference to the standard and the letter “b” signifies the data rates supported. So the IEEE 802.11b USB WiFi adaptor will support a wireless data rate of 11Mbps and the IEEE 802.11g will support a data rate of 54Mbps. Moreover, the final Internet speed would also depend on the data rates supported by the WiFi USB dongles. They can either support USB2.0 or USB1.1, with the former having much higher data rates than the latter.

Since WiFi connections can be used for video streaming, chatting, internet surfing, file transfer etc, it is important that the connection is secure even at public places like airports or internet cafes. Hence most of the available wireless USB WiFi connectors use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption for protecting your data from eavesdropping. They support an encryption with 64-bit or 128-bit, where higher bits mean stronger encryption.

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