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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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Try This! 802.11ac Products

802.11ac is the standard for any new Wi-Fi rollout. You need to

understand variations, so try this! Head out to a big box electronics retail

store, like Microcenter, Fry’s, or even Best Buy (or go online to Newegg).

What variations of 802.11ac products do you see? Note the letters and

numbers associated with the products. The base models—the least

expensive—might say AC1200. Products listed as AC1900 might be twice

as much.

The differences among the 802.11ac routers and WAPs boil down to

the radio frequencies, the number of antennas used, and the number of

radios employed within the device. The speed differences claimed are

pretty astonishing. An AC1200 module offers 867 Mbps throughput on the

5-GHz band, for example, whereas an AC3100 module can crank 2167

Mbps throughput. Real-world experiences aren’t so extreme.

Other Wireless Standards

While Wi-Fi dominates the wireless networking market, it isn’t the only

standard. A lot of smaller networks (we’re talking two computers small) use

infrared or Bluetooth to connect devices. Mobile devices, such as

smartphones, wearables, and tablets, connect wirelessly via cellular networks.

They often use other standards to connect with each other or to other

technologies such as car stereos, GPS devices, smart televisions, flying

drones, and an endless litany of wireless-enabled products.

Infrared Wireless Networking

Wireless networking using infrared technology is largely overlooked these

days, probably because of the explosion of interest in newer, faster wireless

and cellular standards. But it is still a viable method to transfer files on some

older devices.

Communication through infrared devices is implemented via the Infrared

Data Association (IrDA) protocol. All versions of Windows and pretty much

the whole computing industry support the IrDA protocol stack as an industry

standard.

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