In antenna engineering, a dipole is the most basic type of antenna and serves as basic framework for all other antennas. Dipoles consist of a metal rod that acts as a conductor with a radio feed line at its core. The conductor splits the signal and creates a positive electrical charge on one end of the dipole and a negative electrical charge on the other end. Thus, a dipole is an antenna with two (di) poles. This allows the dipole to create an electromagnet wave that can be picked up Read More

This OFDMA-based air interface feature of the CDMA2000 mobile phone allows users to work within OFDMA technology standards by implementing various antenna strategies that are used within several applications. These techniques provide potential peak rates upward of 280 million bits per second. With a bandwith of nearly 20MHz, Ultra Mobile Broadband works to improve a system's capacity by increasing the amount of data that runs throughout it. UMB offers data speed capabilities of nearly 275 M bits per second downstream as well as 75 upstream. UMB 101 Ultra refers to Read More

Netgear routers are some of the most popular routers in the world, providing both residential and commercial users with wireless networks that are accessible from a wide variety of mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and even desktop computers that are outfitted with a wireless adapter (which Netgear also sells). Netgear routers are available in 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n standards, each of which is backwards compatible with previous standards. Netgear routers are very easy to use and are able to convert a standard coaxial Internet connection into a powerful Read More

Ultra wideband is a unique type of wireless technology that uses an inconstant pulse transmission on a very wide bandwidth base to send a large amount of data over relatively small distances. UWB was originally developed for military communications and radar, but has since been declassified and become a developing consumer electronics technology. Specifically, ultra wideband is defined as pulsed communications that use a broadcast bandwidth of over 500 MHz, or 20% of the center frequency, and operates between 3.1 and 10.6 GHz at limited transmit powers. For the most Read More

Wireless networks are those computer networks that use electromagnetic waves instead of wires in order to carry signals over the various parts of the network. Wireless networks which run over other wireless networks often utilize the lower layer networks to provide security and encryption. Stand-alone wireless networks either provide their own security and encryption features or rely upon VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to provide those features. In many cases, multiple layers of security and encryption may be desirable. Need for Wireless Networks and their Benefits Wireless networks belong to the Read More

One of the most popular router brands on the market is the Linksys router. Despite this popularity; however, end-users are commonly challenged to setup the device in the home, office, or other locations. There are a number of types of Linksys routers on the market to include the WRT54G, WRT610n, and the Linksys e4200 which support both wired and wireless network configurations using an omnidirectional antenna. Popular Types of Linksys Routers Linksys WRT54G The WRT54G has been one of the most popular models of Linksys routers sold supporting the 802.11g, Read More

Netopia is a popular broadband product company that produces Internet routers and other WiFi devices. Motorola acquired the company in 2007 and made partnerships with wireless providers around the world. Such providers include AT&T, Swisscom, and NextGen Tel in Norway. Unlike other router brands, Netopia’s default password is the 6 digit serial number located on its rear panel. If you have changed the password, but you want to restore the default password, you can reset the Netopia router to the factory settings and have the default password again. How to Read More

TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) is part of a draft standard from the IEEE 802.11i working group. TKIP utilizes the RC4 stream cipher with 128-bit keys for encryption and 64-bit keys for authentication. TKIP is an enhancement to WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) security. TKIP enhances WEP by adding a per-packet key mixing function to de-correlate the public initialization vectors (IVs) from weak keys. TKIP also enhances WEP by adding a rekeying mechanism to provide fresh encryption and integrity keys. This makes TKIP protected networks more resistant to cryptanalytic attacks involving Read More

802.11i is a draft IEEE standard for 802.11 wireless network security. 802.11i defines several new standards, and also relies heavily on many existing standards. New Protocols in 802.11i 802.11i introduced the RSN (Robust Secure Network) protocol for establishing secure communications. 802.11i also introduced the WRAP (Wireless Robust Authentication Protocol) and CCMP encryption protocols. WRAP and CCMP are both based upon the AES encryption algorithm. 802.11i utilizes EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) as the end-to-end transport for authentication methods between the wireless NIC (Network Interface Card) and the WAP (Wireless Access Point). Read More

There are many different products and services available, especially via the Internet, that allow users to detect and crack wireless computer networks. The majority of these programs are illegal, extremely complicated to use, or both. The WiFi Scanner, however, is easy to use and allows the user to detect networks that are further away while increasing signal strength for those networks. This article will explore the WiFi Scanner and define what it does. What is WiFi Scanner The WiFi Scanner, unlike other wireless network detection devices, is an external device Read More