7. Wi Fi

At home, there may be single computer attached to a single modem by cable. This is fine. Not complicated at all.

Then maybe a second computer is used in the home - it is networked with the first one with a cable in order to share the internet connection. Again, this works fine.

But what if the computer is a laptop that you want to use in the living room or bedroom? It is not practical to have cables trailing everywhere. And what if you also have a tablet computer or e-book reader or music player that you want to download files from the internet?

The solution to this connection problem is 'Wi-Fi'. This is a radio-wave based system that connects your computer / pda / tablet / e-book to the home router / modem without any trailing wires.

A Wi-Fi router will send and transmit radio signals to any connected device within range.

Of course it is a poor idea to allow just any device to connect to the router and so the Wi-Fi is set up to require an username and password. This keeps the connection private.

Wi-fi is widely used in public areas as well such as cafes, libraries, schools and airports - in which case they called 'hot spots'.