What is wifi and where can I find it?

Great question because it really highlights just how much us computer folk toss about jargon and buzzwords without really asking if everyone truly understands it or not. First off, to clear up the basic question, wifi is also known as wi-fi, short (confusingly enough) as "wireless fidelity". The official name for this is 802.11 and depending on what version of the wireless networking you're using, it's either 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or the newest, 802.11n. The basic difference? Speed. "g" is faster than "a" and "b" and "n" is faster than all of 'em.

Having said that, the two most common are 'b' and 'g', I have to say, and for the most part, devices that work with one of the protocols work with both. However, there are some wrinkles in this too. For example, the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) has wi-fi capabilities, but it's only 802.11b, which is a constant problem for people who are trying to access an 802.11g network, because they aren't interoperable. Translated, if you have a unit that only speaks 'b' and a transmitter that only works with 'g', you can't get them to work together.

Now, let's talk a bit about how wireless networking works. Best to think that it's like a radio, with a base station / transmitter and a receiver. In a typical configuration, the wireless base station is hooked up directly to the network connection via Ethernet cables (your cable modem, for example), and the receiver is a laptop with either built-in or card-based wireless capabilities.

Wireless has a typical range of 100-200 yards, depending on obstacles and interference, which means that in a typical house you can put the base station just about anywhere and get good coverage throughout. In my neighborhood, I can not only see my own wireless network, but I can also see about four other networks that our neighbors have running!

If you're paying attention, you should be realizing that you'll need to buy an additional unit to get your new Palm PDA hooked up to the Internet that you have coming into your house: you need a base unit.

Before you buy a wifi base unit, however, make double-sure that it's the same version of wi-fi ('b', 'g', etc.) as your PDA. Let's assume that you're talking about the nifty Palm LifeDrive, in which case you can quickly learn from the Amazon info page that it supports "Built-in WiFi 802.11b and Bluetooth 1.1 wireless". There ya go, it's only a 'b' (or 802.11b) device. Very important to know before you start base station shopping!

To find a compatible base station, you need to ensure that you narrow down your search to either those base stations that are only 'b' or, better, are both 'b' and 'g' compatible. (why better? Because when you get newer devices, you'll be able to use the same base station)

A quick search on Amazon produces tons of matches, so I'll suggest that your best option is to actually buy what's called a wireless router, which lets you hook up your local network thusly: cable --> cable modem --> ethernet cable --> wireless router --> your PC. This saves you having to end up hooking your PC to the Internet via the wireless network (and buying yet another piece of hardware). Narrow it down to 802.11b compatible wifi routers, they're sometimes called "A+G routers" to indicate that they support all of 11a, 11b and 11g, and you've still quite a few choices.

I'm partial to the Linksys product line and have had good results with their gear for years, but D-Link and Cisco also make great hardware, so you can't go wrong with any of those three brands. Again, just make sure you get one that states right on the box that it works with both 'b' and 'g': I'm sure you can no longer buy just an 802.11b base station.

Hopefully that sheds some light on this subject for you. Good luck with your new PDA and good luck getting everything hooked up. Also, you need to recognize that a wireless network that doesn't have a password set (either WPA or WEP, the two primary security protocol options) is tantamount to letting anyone who drives by your house be part of your LAN. That's a bad idea. My suggestion: buy a copy of the ConnectSafely wireless security ebook and learn how to get everything secured.