Access Points and WiFi WiFi is a cute, catchy, and perhaps even hip name for Wave LAN or WLAN. WiFi uses an Access Point (AP) to communicate with a network. An AP transmits and receives WiFi signals through a wave NIC and converts them to and from Ethernet and onto the network via a RJ-45 port. An AP is not considered a bridging device because there is no dual medium conversion. Access Points can take many physical forms. Some look similar to a gateway router. Some are circular and look like smoke detectors suitable for wall or ceiling mount. Still others are ruggedized for use outdoors. The first WiFi proposal was assigned the letter ‘a’, was to operate at the 5 GHz waveband, be single carrier, and have a throughput of 11Mb/s. Being the first proposal manufacturers, hobbyists, field experts, and everyone with the names Smith or Jones piled on with comments and ideas about how it should work. While most were arguing over the minutia of the ‘a’ specifications, a small group fed up with the bickering broke away and proposed ‘b’. It operated at the 2.4 GHz waveband, was a single carrier, and had a throughput of 11Mb/s. Sound familiar! Anyway, given that group ‘b’ really wanted a ‘build to’ standard they actually passed it in a relatively short time. It wasn’t perfect but it worked and millions of products were built to it. Eventually the ‘a’ standard was approved but by then no one cared because ‘g’ was on its way. It was a 2.4 GHz single carrier 54Mb/s standard. Then came ‘n’, WiFi 4, and that changed the landscape considerably. Instead of one carrier there could be up to three with each transmitting up to 150Mb/s and it operated on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. So if a device had three transmitters/receivers (TRs) on the same band, 450 Mb/s could be achieved. Of course most clients such as tablets and laptops have only one TR so 150 Mb/s is likely the highest speed achievable and that is only under perfect conditions. ‘ac’ was the next standard, WiFi 5, to be approved. It operated at 5 GHz, could use up to 8 TRs. It transmitted up to 433 Mb/s per TR. The specification only allowed four TRs to connect with any single client. The maximum throughput for a single device was therefore limited to 1.69 Gb/s out of the total available of 3.39 Gb/s. ‘ax’ is the latest standard, sometimes referred to as WiFi 6 (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) AND WiFi 6e (6 GHz). AX has 12 TR channels at up to 1.3 Gb/s per channel or 14 Gb/s total throughput. A total of 8 channels can be dedicated to one user but do not expect the theoretical 10.4 Gb/s. Given the number of computer and non-computer devices using the 2.4 GHz band if 5 GHz is available use it. How do you know if your device is capable? Look at the literature for both the access point and device. If it states ‘dual band’ or if it complies with ‘abgn’ or ‘abgn,ac’ standards then it can use both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. If it states it is ‘single band’ or that it complies with ‘bg’ or ‘bgn’ then it is 2.4 GHz only.