Wifi repeater or wireless range expanders function by increasing or amplifying the signal originating from your wifi router so that it’s going to reach a a lot wider location. Normally, wireless routers can only transmit signals anywhere between 100-150 feet. This is fine as long as it can be utilized in a small place, but it will not operate when employed in a campus or any large area.

Specifically, wifi router antennas capture radio waves coming through the router and convert them back into understandable data that the PC could read. Wireless repeaters operate by taking the radio frequency released by the router and then bouncing them back or repeating them into the rest of the space.

An excellent attribute for range expanders is that they don’t need people to add an Ethernet cable. This will greatly do away with irritating wires running from one space to another. All it demands to run is to be able to identify the wireless signal from the router and it may work at improving these signals the proper away.

Range extenders are regarded as directional antennas. The nice factor about range extenders is the fact that they can be applied either as omni or directional antenna. It works by bouncing off the signal from the router so that the other wifi devices positioned in remote places can find the signal as well.

Increasing wireless speed and coverage at your residence or in the workplace doesn’t need to be tough any longer. All that is required is a reliable wifi range extender or repeater to ensure that every space area is turned into a wifi hotspot. These kinds of expanders usually cost close to $50-100 according to the quality and brand of the manufacturer.

To find more helpful info on getting one of these devices, go to this website: Wireless Range Extender.

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By Statler Waldorf

Wifi stands for wireless fidelity. This is a technology which allows users to access a network through the transmission and receiving of radio waves. Nearly all laptops and notebooks are now fitted with WiFi technology. If you are considering using an older laptop you can get adapters which will make wifi possible. Bear in mind that as more and more laptops are wifi compatible, the manufacturers will slowly phase out the adapters, so think forward and decide if that really is the sensible way forward.

If you are looking to use your laptop when you are out and about you will need to find some hotspots. These are usually in cafes, airports, hotels and other similar places. Hotspots are basically wifi networks which are open to the public. They are usually strategically placed by companies who are trying to get your business or are hoping that you will spend money with them while you are surfing the net; e.g. cafes and hotels.

So if you are sending information through the airwaves between your computer and the network is there any security or can someone simply catch your message and steal your information? Due to the location of most hotspots and the ulterior motive to get you to spend money with them, your security is not their primary concern. Wired equivalent privacy (WEP) was the original standard; this was a form of encryption. As with many security measures this was quickly and easily broken. Most wireless networks are open and hence have no encryption at all.

There are, however, a few tips which may help you to maintain a level or security. Firstly you must check that your firewall if activated. The firewall monitors information getting into your computer and will try to stop anything which is known to damage or compromise your computer. Secondly, you should disable the file sharing facility which Windows offers. This facility is great on a secure network, but if you are in a public network you do not want to share your files with anyone else using the same network.

Finally you can make the actually files slightly harder to access by marking the folders as private and by password protecting the documents. None of these are guaranteed to protect your data or computer from hackers or viruses, but they are all steps to help.

Hopefully this information will help any new wifi user to go out with confidence and log on to a public network. Once you start, you will suddenly find that you can work from anywhere, and work does not even have to know where you are! Or you can simply stay in touch with your friends and family while enjoying traveling the globe.

This Virtual Wi-Fi feature will make it easier to set up a mesh network where every system in the network act as a repeater i.e. one adapter grabs a signal and another passes it another.

The Virtual Wi-Fi (VWIFI) feature has been included in Windows 7 for the first time which is in its RC1 Phase of evolution. Although no drivers are reportedly available to take advantage of the feature so this feature is still waiting to come out and play.

Some users wonder why more than one wireless card would be needed inside your computer. There are a very few circumstances where multiple wireless adapters would be needed. For instance, users could connect to one wireless network and use the virtual adapter to turn their machine into a hot spot that other computers could connect to and share the internet access.

Another good usage scenario for the technology would be connecting to a wireless network while also connecting to a wireless ad hoc network at the same time. Istartedsomething reports that supporting Virtual Wi-Fi is going to be a requirement for WLAN drivers sporting the  Windows support Certification Logo. The drivers will be coming to add support for the feature.

The feature is described as, “On Windows 7 and later, the operating system installs a virtual device if a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is present on the machine. This virtual device normally shows up in the “Network Connections Folder” as ‘Wireless Network Connection 2’ with a Device Name of ‘Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter’ if the computer has a single wireless network adapter. This virtual device would be used exclusively for performing software access point (SoftAP) connections. The lifetime of this virtual device is tied to the physical wireless adapter. If the physical wireless adapter is disabled, this virtual device will be removed as well.”

The caveat to the technology is that only one virtual adapter can be created.