TERMINOLOGY Define: WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) This is the smallest wireless network used to connect various peripheral devices such as mice, keyboards, headsets, PDAs and cellphones to a computer or each other. Usually IR or Bluetooth technology.

TERMINOLOGY Define: WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) This network is the most common and is usually used to extend or supplement a wired network’s coverage. WLANs allow many users to connect using a Wireless Access Point (WAP).

TERMINOLOGY Define: WWAN (Wide Wireless Area Network) This network provides coverage over an extremely large area. A good example of this type of network would be a cell phone network such as Code Division Muliple Access (CDMA) or Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). These network are typically regulated by government agencies.

TERMINOLOGY Define: IR (Infrared) This low powered, low energy technology cannot penetrate through walls or other obstacles but is useful in short line-of-sight applications such as connecting a PDA to a PC. This technology is used most often in TV remotes and is all but dead as a real networking technology.

TERMINOLOGY Define: RF (Radio Frequency) The electromagnetic waves in this range can penetrate through walls and other materials thereby making it the preferred choice in wireless networking technologies. Several RF bands have been set aside for various applications.

TERMINOLOGY Define: WAP or AP – (Wireless Access Point) The device for which wireless clients connect to gain access to the wired network.

TERMINOLOGY Define: Wireless Bridge Two wireless bridges are used to extend wireless coverage over large distances or to connect a single host where cabling is either not practical or not possible by having one unit at each end. Wireless bridges are usually directional and therefore carry signals further than a standard access point.

TERMINOLOGY Define: SSID (Service Set Identifier) The code assigned to packets that designate that the communication is part of a wireless network. SSID is also called the wireless network name.

TERMINOLOGY Define: STA An abbreviation for station which is a basic network device. Most common when referring to wireless networks.

TERMINOLOGY Define: Ad-hoc The simplest form of wireless networking where two or more wireless clients are linked together in a peer-to-peer network. This type of wireless network does not include an access point. The area covered by an ad-hoc network is called an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS).

TERMINOLOGY Define: Infrastructure Mode Is the most common configuration for wireless networks because it uses one or more devices to control communication. In this configuration, wireless clients cannot communicate directly with each other, but rather must request permission from the access point to communicate. This setup means that each wireless client has equal access to the network. A single access point in infrastructure mode has a coverage area known as Basic Service Set (BSS).

TERMINOLOGY Define: Wireless Cell This is the invisible sphere for which a single AP is the center and all connecting wireless clients are contained. Cells are used to describe the size and shape of a Basic Service Set (BSS). Multiple BSSs can be linked together to create an Extended Service Set (ESS). When linking BSSs, wireless cells should be overlapped by at least 10% so a client can connect to the approaching AP before disconnecting from the departing one. An example for this would be walking down a very long hallway which is made up of two wireless cells.

TERMINOLOGY Define: War-Driving Pronounced as (W•AIR) and (W•OR) driving, war is or was not originally an acronym. Today the terms is equated to seeking free and open access to a resource. In this case war-driving is seeking open and unprotected wireless networks while in a car.

TERMINOLOGY Define: War-Walking A variation of war-driving where the seeker uses an ultra-portable device and simply walks around seeking an open wireless network. The term is correctly spelled with or without the hyphen, i.e. warwalking, wardriving, warbiking.

TERMINOLOGY Define: PSK (Pre-Shared Key) A secret shared between the wireless AP and a client to control access on a network.

TERMINOLOGY Define: EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) An authentication framework, not a specific authentication mechanism. Most commonly used in wireless LANs, EAP provides common functions and negotiation of the desired authentication mechanism.

TERMINOLOGY Define: WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) Part of the IEEE 802.11 wireless standard that provides a low level of security by encrypting all traffic against a static WEP key of either 64 or 128 bits. Modern computers can break this cypher is less than an hour.

TERMINOLOGY Define: WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) Developed to address security issues with WEP. WPA provides a higher level of security in a wireless network by using a 128 bit per-packet encryption key. This means each packet transmitted has a different key and signature that is verified at the receiving end. There have been security flaws discovered in WPA and today it has been replaced with WPA2 .