Wi-Fi 

(or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for "Wireless Fidelity", is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently

based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. New standards beyond the 802.11 specifications, such as 802.16 are currently in the

works, they offer many enhancements, anywhere from longer range to greater transfer speeds.

Wi-Fi was intended to be used for wireless devices and LANs, but is now often used for Internet access. It enables a person with a

wireless-enabled computer or personal digital assistant to connect to the Internet when in proximity of an access point called

a hotspot.

Certified products can use the official Wi-Fi logo, which indicates that the product is interoperable with any other product also

showing the logo.

A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a local area, like a home, office or small group of buildings such as a

college. The topology of a network dictates its physical structure.

The generally accepted maximum size for a LAN is 1000m2. LANs are different from personal area networks (PANs), metropolitan

area networks (MANs) or wide area networks (WANs). LANs are typically faster than WANs

A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network used for communication among computer devices

(including telephones andpersonal digital assistants) close to one person. The devices may or may not belong to the person in

question. The reach of a PAN is typically a few meters. PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices

themselves (intrapersonal communication), or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet (an uplink).

Personal area networks may be wired with computer buses such as USB and Firewire. Wireless PANs can also be made possible

with network technologies such as IrDA and Bluetooth.

A Bluetooth PAN is also called a piconet, and is composed of up to 8 active devices in a master-slave relationship (up to 255

devices can be connected in 'parked' mode). The first Bluetooth device in the piconet is the master, and all other devices are slaves

that communicate with the master. A piconet typically has a range of 10 meters, although ranges of up to 100 meters can be

reached under ideal circumstances.

Metropolitan area networks or MANs are large computer networks usually spanning a campus or a city. They typically use optical fiberconnections to link their sites.

For instance a university or college may have a MAN that joins together many of their local area networks (LANs) situated around site of a fraction of a square kilometer. Then from their

MAN they could have several wide area network (WAN) links to other universities or theInternet
A wide area network or WAN is a computer network covering a wide geographical area, involving vast array of computers. This is

different from personal area networks (PANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs) or local area networks (LANs) that are usually

limited to a room or a building. The best example of a WAN is the Internet.

WANs are used to connect local area networks together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users

and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private, others, built by Internet

service providers provide connections from an organization's LAN to the Internet. WANs are most often built of leased lines. At each

end of the leased line, a router connects to the LAN on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other. A number of

network protocols may use the basic physical transport mechanism including TCP/IP. Other protocols

including X.25, ATM and Frame relay can also be used for WANs.

Now that the Internet provides a high speed WAN, the need for a private network made up of leased lines owned by the

organization which wants to connect the sites has decreased. Virtual private networks are often used instead. These

use encryption and other techniques to make it appear that the organisation has a dedicated network while making use of the

shared infrastructure of the WAN.

Academic research into wide area networks can be broken down into three areas: Mathematical models, network

emulation and network simulation