Using wireless technology to connect computers to the Internet has become commonplace. Airports, coffee shops, fast food restaurants, hotels, and now schools are finding the flexibility of wireless technology to be worth the investment. The increased use of 1-to-1 technologies (link to new page in Toolkit on 1-1) such as handhelds and laptops has also quickly ushered wireless networking into K-12 schools. However, even with the relative ease of setting up a wireless network, the novice or uneducated may be daunted by the hardware, lingo, and various standards that are involved with wireless technology.

What do you need to set up a wireless network? At the most basic level only two things: an access point and a wireless network adaptor. Access Points are connected to the Internet and broadcast signals to computers set up to receive them. Wireless Network Adaptors allow computers to send and receive the radio signals.

Wi-Fi

The most common type of wireless networking for schools is based on a standard known as 802.11 or Wi-Fi. There are several types of Wi-Fi wireless networks. For more information on Wi-Fi, visit the Wi-Fi Alliance.

802.11a	802.11b	802.11g
Not common Shortest range Speeds up to 54 Mbps Not compatible with b or g	Most common Longer range Speeds up to 11 Mbps Compatible with g	Becoming popular Longest range Speeds of 20+ Mbps Compatible with b

More Information

A Guide to Wireless LANs in K-12 Schools published by the Consortium for School Networking offers a up-to-date, concise description of wireless networks as well as some of the issues facing schools such as security and total cost of ownership.

In order to fully utilize a wireless network in a school, it's important that a Site Survey is performed to determine to optimal location for each access point. Beside the site survey tutorial, Wi-Fi Planet has many others that can help districts get started using wireless. Of note are Wireless LAN Deployment Steps and Wireless LAN Installation Steps.

Wireless networks bring up concerns involving security; mainly who will be able to access the network and what will they be able to do? Secure Your Wireless Network from Technology & Learning magazine takes a look at some of these concerns and what can be done about them.