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Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey, there
Speaker 1: are kids, and welcome to tex stuff. My name is
Speaker 1: Chris Pellette, and I'm an editor here at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always is,
Speaker 1: is the smirking senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, you're
Speaker 1: smirking at my opening my kids thing, right, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know I mix it up a little. It was I
Speaker 1: never mix it up a little. That's well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's good to humorless. That's true. That's true. Chris kill
Speaker 1: Joy Pillette, that's what we call him here in the
Speaker 1: office at how stuff works dot com. It's said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would find some humor in it, but I don't
Speaker 1: never mind. Okay, it's better than Josh creepy hands Clark.
Speaker 1: So you know, we all got our own little monikers.
Speaker 1: I won't go into mind because you know, modesty forbids.
Speaker 1: But let's start this off with a little listener mail.
Speaker 1: This mail comes from Mark. Mark says, Dear tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: thanks for a great podcast. I was wondering about how
Speaker 1: wireless home networks work when my dad was talking about
Speaker 1: upgrading ours and didn't know what the different network types were,
Speaker 1: such as wireless G and wireless IN and how networking
Speaker 1: you and not so new computers work and if it
Speaker 1: will cause any problems. I think it would be an
Speaker 1: interesting topic for a podcast because so many people have
Speaker 1: home networks now. Anyway, thanks again for the great podcast
Speaker 1: your seventh grade fan, Mark, well Mark. We thought we'd
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about the different kinds of wireless
Speaker 1: networks out there are the ones that use the various
Speaker 1: standards set out by our good friends at the I
Speaker 1: Triple E, or as I always like to call them I. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, early early networks were sort of like tin
Speaker 1: cans with the string between them. This sort of makes
Speaker 1: the string virtual. Yeah, there you go. That's all you
Speaker 1: need to know. There's We're all right. So anyway, uh,
Speaker 1: we're talking about a set of standards that in general
Speaker 1: fall under the designation eight zero two point one one.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that easy? Yeah, well it's it's the most those
Speaker 1: are the most common frequency variations of wireless networking. So
Speaker 1: the way you uh, you'll see on things like routers
Speaker 1: and modems, and stuff. You'll see this number followed by
Speaker 1: a letter, and that tells you which of the specific
Speaker 1: sets of standards you're working with. Now you gotta understand
Speaker 1: what I was getting Ready to correct myself because I
Speaker 1: said frequency and that's not a frequency, it's just a designation.
Speaker 1: Is a designation? Yes, so so the I triple E.
Speaker 1: They they work on various designations for different UM networking solutions.
Speaker 1: And with the eight to two point one one, you
Speaker 1: have different working groups all working on different sets of
Speaker 1: standards to try and create the most stable and reliable
Speaker 1: form of wireless networking in this case wireless networking UM.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a little confusing because you have all
Speaker 1: these different groups working on working from the same basic
Speaker 1: set of standards, but they're all tweaking them in different
Speaker 1: ways to try and get different kinds of performance out
Speaker 1: of them. So let's try and go through some of these.
Speaker 1: It's really kind of complex, but um yeah. One of
Speaker 1: the things to uh that's kind of interesting about these
Speaker 1: different standards is, UH, as we start going through them,
Speaker 1: if we are going through them in alphabetical order, you
Speaker 1: will find that they do not necessarily uh go start
Speaker 1: from the bottom up like if we start with eight
Speaker 1: eight O two dot eleven A. Uh, this actually opera
Speaker 1: rates on the five gigga hurts frequency and can carry
Speaker 1: up to fifty four megabets of data per second. Uh.
Speaker 1: In contrast ATO two dot eleven B you'd figured to
Speaker 1: be faster. No, actually it's not. It operates at the
Speaker 1: two point four gigga hurts frequency and only can handle
Speaker 1: eleven megabets of data per second. And that's just one
Speaker 1: of those things that makes it so confusing, is you
Speaker 1: you'd figure there would be a logical progression there, and
Speaker 1: there's not necessarily one. Yeah, so uh, what do you
Speaker 1: think should we go by just by letter even though
Speaker 1: it's not logical progression necessarily, but just to make it
Speaker 1: easier to move from one to the other. Those two,
Speaker 1: those two do fit well together because they were the
Speaker 1: first two very common UM standards, at least in my experience. Well.
Speaker 1: ATO two point eleven B uses uh unregulated radio signal
Speaker 1: frequencies and the two point four gigga hurts range. So uh,
Speaker 1: here's something. Here's some things about the ATO two A
Speaker 1: point one one B set standards. It's single ranges is
Speaker 1: pretty good UM. In the two point four gigg, it
Speaker 1: hurts range, and it's not going to have problems with
Speaker 1: obstructions that some other frequencies do. So in other words,
Speaker 1: you might be able to use this kind of signal
Speaker 1: through walls things like that. You don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about losing signal as soon as you turn a corner
Speaker 1: some UH from the source of the UH. The frequency UM,
Speaker 1: and it's not very expensive. The range is pretty good, UM,
Speaker 1: but it's not a very it's not very fast, as
Speaker 1: you pointed out, you know, compared to eight oh two
Speaker 1: point eleven A. It's it's fairly slow. UM. And because
Speaker 1: it's an unregulated frequency, some other appliances that generate radio
Speaker 1: frequencies can cause interference within that wireless UH frequency because
Speaker 1: you have to remember the computer you're using whatever, Like
Speaker 1: if you have a wireless router that's broadcasting WiFi on
Speaker 1: this set of standards, if it's using unregulated radio frequencies,
Speaker 1: that means that it can fall within a wider range,
Speaker 1: and that things that also generate radio frequencies within that range.
Speaker 1: When you're using your computer, your computer doesn't know which
Speaker 1: one of those which of those signals are coming from
Speaker 1: your router and which are coming from other devices. So
Speaker 1: that's where you get your your interference. And if you're
Speaker 1: saying what kind of interference could you possibly be talking about, Well,
Speaker 1: we're talking about things like your cordless phone in your
Speaker 1: house for example, or UM perhaps an alarm system where
Speaker 1: you have UH wireless UM the devices that go above
Speaker 1: your windows and doors, if it you know it uses
Speaker 1: radio frequencies to talk to the main box, UM and
Speaker 1: baby monitors stuff like that. Those are all using you know,
Speaker 1: those radio frequencies in those ranges. And of course you
Speaker 1: can you can buy cordless phones and are not to
Speaker 1: over use that word range of different frequencies UM. So
Speaker 1: you could try to get to to get around that.
Speaker 1: But UM that's one of those things that UH I
Speaker 1: think they've been trying to improve is is cut down
Speaker 1: on some of the interference. And that's why um ATO
Speaker 1: two eleven A uses the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Basically,
Speaker 1: it's it's just a system of splitting down that signal
Speaker 1: into a group of sub signals to kind of make
Speaker 1: it UH less likely that you're going to be interfered with,
Speaker 1: and breaks it down so that it's not all in
Speaker 1: in one UH one signal right, so you're not gonna
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have the same interference issues. UM, it's
Speaker 1: you shouldn't. And again, like we point out, it is
Speaker 1: faster at two point eleven A is faster than NATO
Speaker 1: to a point eleven B. But it's also it's UM
Speaker 1: range is shorter, it's not it doesn't go as far.
Speaker 1: And because of the frequencies that uses UM, it's a
Speaker 1: little more easily obstructed. So you can't necessarily broadcast through
Speaker 1: several walls. If you have a large house and you've
Speaker 1: got a wireless router in the middle, then you may
Speaker 1: notice that as you move away you start having problems
Speaker 1: getting a signal. I also suggest that you don't make
Speaker 1: your walls out of lead. Yeah, I um, never again,
Speaker 1: never again. I tell you one thing. You know what,
Speaker 1: You make your walls out of lead, and you invite
Speaker 1: Superman over. The dude is just a total jerk face
Speaker 1: the entire time. Well he's just hes right, he's just
Speaker 1: standing around, staring at the walls and just mumbling curses.
Speaker 1: I can't even repeat the things that man says. He
Speaker 1: just Oh what a mouth on that guy. At any rate,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that my little joke would turn
Speaker 1: so awry. No, but tell you what, green lantern is awesome.
Speaker 1: You get a few drinks in him. So uh so
Speaker 1: yeah eight to two point eleven A faster, shorter range,
Speaker 1: also was more expensive. Both A and B were being
Speaker 1: worked on at the same time. UM B was even
Speaker 1: though B was slower, it was less expensive and had
Speaker 1: a greater range, so it it caught on a lot
Speaker 1: faster than A did. Um A was much more expensive,
Speaker 1: so you didn't really see that getting adopted in home
Speaker 1: networks as much. But that brings us up to ATO
Speaker 1: two point eleven. G. Yes, we skipped a few letters
Speaker 1: and specifications, yes, um not that. Yeah, I mean you could.
Speaker 1: If you look up all these different numbers, uh along
Speaker 1: with I E. You'll see that there are all these
Speaker 1: different working groups that are working on various projects that
Speaker 1: have different designations. But it gets way too complex to
Speaker 1: talk about all that, especially since it doesn't really relate
Speaker 1: to what we're talking about here with home networking. So
Speaker 1: ATO two point eleven. Yeah, that was A and B
Speaker 1: were popular together for a while, and then G was
Speaker 1: a good sized leap forward. I would say, yeah, I agree,
Speaker 1: and it has been the standard. Um it's been widely
Speaker 1: adopted up until just recently, but we'll get into that
Speaker 1: in a moment. Um ATO two dot eleven G also
Speaker 1: uses the two point for giga hurts spectrum, just like
Speaker 1: at two dot eleven B. However, it is much faster
Speaker 1: band with up to fifty four megabits per second as
Speaker 1: I as I see before me, that's the figure I
Speaker 1: have as well. So yeah, that's really fast speed. And
Speaker 1: it's actually the it has really much better range. It's
Speaker 1: not easily obstructed, so it's it's kind of taking the
Speaker 1: best of both worlds here. It's got the range and
Speaker 1: and uh and the penetration of ATO two point eleven
Speaker 1: B and the speed and um and and uh well
Speaker 1: probably just the speed of two point eleven A UM.
Speaker 1: But it it was a little it's a little more expensive,
Speaker 1: or at least it was more expensive than ATO two
Speaker 1: point eleven B. It took a while for that to
Speaker 1: kind of become the standard and home networks, but that
Speaker 1: did become the standard after shortly after it was introduced.
Speaker 1: And uh so you would look on routers and you
Speaker 1: would see if we know which which, then it was
Speaker 1: compatible within eight or two point eleven G became more
Speaker 1: and more common and uh yeah, again had another problem
Speaker 1: with the fact that it had the unregulated signal, just
Speaker 1: like a two point eleven B did. So again there
Speaker 1: were there was at least the potential for signals to
Speaker 1: have some interference issues if you had a lot of
Speaker 1: other wireless technologies running in the house, a lot of
Speaker 1: kids running around on walkie talkies or you know exactly,
Speaker 1: I'll never be over it. I'm never over kids over
Speaker 1: at my house walkie talkies. That is just the most
Speaker 1: distracting thing in the world, because especially because you don't
Speaker 1: have kids. Yeah that people, how did you get into
Speaker 1: my house? Did Superman let you in? Has he not
Speaker 1: gotten over the lead walls thing? Yet? Does that bring
Speaker 1: us up to two eleven in? Yes? And up until
Speaker 1: very very recently, this was not an approved standard. However,
Speaker 1: UM know I have seen from looking at the WiFi
Speaker 1: Alliance's website, UM that ATO two dot eleven and is
Speaker 1: actually an accepted specification at this time, um, which was
Speaker 1: supposed to happen this year. So you know that those
Speaker 1: of you who are going, yeah, okay, so where's the
Speaker 1: surprise in that. No, that's that's uh, that's right on time.
Speaker 1: They're supposed to do that this year. Um. And UH,
Speaker 1: basically you're supposed to be able to get a lot
Speaker 1: better range with ATO two dot eleven and and speed
Speaker 1: for that matter. UM, that was one of the things
Speaker 1: when I got UM. I got a new wireless access
Speaker 1: point UM a few months ago, and it had a
Speaker 1: proposed ATO two dot eleven and specification in it. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, since I am sitting right next to or
Speaker 1: almost right next to the the access point, I find
Speaker 1: the range is great. But yeah, you are right next
Speaker 1: to it as if you could actually plug your device
Speaker 1: into it with a physical are how great the range
Speaker 1: of details details? Actually? Um, when I was down the hall,
Speaker 1: I actually moved the computer since then, UM no, it
Speaker 1: was it was giving me a much better range than
Speaker 1: the old one, so UM, so you know it was
Speaker 1: it was an improvement. Um. But yeah, the eight to
Speaker 1: two dot eleven N is supposed to get you up
Speaker 1: to a hundred forty megabits per second, which is pretty speedy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's considering I can't even get my my DSL connection
Speaker 1: near that fast. So you were asking Mark about the
Speaker 1: difficulties in networking if you have different machines running on
Speaker 1: different uh that require different standards. Yes, that will be
Speaker 1: a problem because you have to have the right it's
Speaker 1: it's like an antenna. You have to the right kind
Speaker 1: of antend to pick up the right kind of frequency.
Speaker 1: And um, it sort of depends on what kind of
Speaker 1: card you have sorright interrupt No, no, go ahead. You
Speaker 1: need to have something that will receive the signals in
Speaker 1: your computer. Um. And uh, you know you can get
Speaker 1: cards that are built right in. And there are also
Speaker 1: different kinds of cards that you can add on an
Speaker 1: aftermarket depending on what kind of computer you have. UM.
Speaker 1: And many of these cards can actually accept more than
Speaker 1: one standard, like they'll they'll say it'll be you know,
Speaker 1: you'll see like a B slash in or something like that,
Speaker 1: or in slash G or Yeah. The chances are actually
Speaker 1: if you go out and buy whatever off the shelf,
Speaker 1: now it's going to be end compatible and backwards compatible
Speaker 1: with the other three standards, which is great. I mean
Speaker 1: if you don't have those compatible ones, then obviously if
Speaker 1: you were to get if you were to have an
Speaker 1: old ATO two point eleven G wireless card and a
Speaker 1: laptop and you got an ATO two point eleven in router,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna do any good. Yeah, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to access those faster speeds because you're limited
Speaker 1: by it's kind of the weakest link in the in
Speaker 1: the chain kind of thing. Um, you're you're limited by
Speaker 1: whatever you are, your least fast device is going to
Speaker 1: be uh in that in that chain from router to computer.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it can cause a little issue. It's not
Speaker 1: not as bad as you might think because most things
Speaker 1: that are most of routers and modems that have been
Speaker 1: sold in the last few years have really kind of
Speaker 1: ironed out a lot of the compatibility issues. Um. But
Speaker 1: that's and you know, again it's kind of confusing because
Speaker 1: the standards do evolve over time and the group is
Speaker 1: always working on different projects. That mean that you know,
Speaker 1: within another five or six years we may see something different.
Speaker 1: And not only that, but we have other networking technologies
Speaker 1: that also come into play that can be a little confusing.
Speaker 1: There's Bluetooth. Actually, it's funny you mentioned that I was
Speaker 1: getting ready to mention please do um. There are a
Speaker 1: couple different standards of Bluetooth technology. Now. Bluetooth UM in
Speaker 1: general has a shorter distance that you can use a
Speaker 1: smaller range. Yes, that's what I meant thank you for
Speaker 1: fixing that. Um hey, who's the editor here? Yeah, well
Speaker 1: that would be me, except when I'm talking. This is
Speaker 1: why I edit. Um. Yeah. It actually operates on frequency
Speaker 1: of two point four five giga hurts. Uh, generally between
Speaker 1: two point four zero two and two point four eight
Speaker 1: zero if you're you know split in hair for those
Speaker 1: of you taking notes, Yeah, yeah, and you can you know,
Speaker 1: connect up to eight devices. Um you find I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot of people use Bluetooth to connect a
Speaker 1: lot of devices to their computer. Exp maybe like a
Speaker 1: wireless keyboarder mouse maybe maybe or or yeah, maybe a printer,
Speaker 1: sometimes your phone. I had a phone that used Bluetooth,
Speaker 1: and I could drag and drop files over like if
Speaker 1: I wanted to change ring tones, I make an MP
Speaker 1: three and and you know, connect with it. The wireless
Speaker 1: The promise of Bluetooth is really really cool in the
Speaker 1: sense that you can have this personal area network and
Speaker 1: you know, you the network would constantly be changing depending
Speaker 1: on what devices you brought within the scope of that network.
Speaker 1: So you can bring two devices together, it creates one network.
Speaker 1: You bring those two devices toward a third device, and
Speaker 1: you've got a new network. You take one device away.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a really flexible UM and and dynamic system.
Speaker 1: It's really really cool. I don't think anyone uses it
Speaker 1: to the to its potential really. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know one I know of uses Bluetooth. Like the people
Speaker 1: who use Bluetooth that I know are using the very
Speaker 1: very basic. So it's the headset and the and the
Speaker 1: phone the handset. Um that's pretty much it. Or some
Speaker 1: of them are using some sort of handset and a
Speaker 1: car like the car that's Bluetooth enabled so that the
Speaker 1: handset sinks with the car and they can listen to music,
Speaker 1: or they can use a GPS system something like that
Speaker 1: where or even use the cars sound system for a
Speaker 1: if they're taking on calls or things of that nature.
Speaker 1: But again it's still you're talking about a two device
Speaker 1: maximum there as opposed to what the real potential or
Speaker 1: Bluetooth is. I know somebody else is going to write
Speaker 1: into now that I think about it. Another device that
Speaker 1: you might see people use with their Bluetooth enabled computer
Speaker 1: and be a set of headphones. Yeah, that's that's pretty common.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. That is another common one. Um
Speaker 1: and another thing we're another kind of wireless standard. Was
Speaker 1: going to talk about y max. So y max and
Speaker 1: WiFi are two different things. They are not the You
Speaker 1: often will see the media reference why max is saying
Speaker 1: something like WiFi on steroids, which is I mean it's
Speaker 1: an oversimplification. Yeah, it's definitely an oversimplification. Yes, y max
Speaker 1: has a greater range than WiFi standards because it can
Speaker 1: reach up to a thirty miles right, something like somewhere.
Speaker 1: And so wy max has a much larger range. And yes,
Speaker 1: you can get very fast. Uh, down link and uplink
Speaker 1: speeds on y max are relatively fast anyway, about megabits
Speaker 1: per seconds. So yeah, that's pretty fast. I mean it's
Speaker 1: still not as fast as you know, eight or two
Speaker 1: point eleven and but yes, but you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: eight or two down eleven and much past I don't know,
Speaker 1: like the street in front of your house. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna That's the other thing is that when we
Speaker 1: talk about these speeds, we're talking about the maximum that
Speaker 1: those devices are capable of generating. That doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 1: that's the speed you will experience. That will experience it
Speaker 1: based upon what your I s P provides to you.
Speaker 1: Actually when I was saying a few minutes ago that
Speaker 1: my DSL struggles to reach one point five megabet per second.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a my router now is an
Speaker 1: eight or two data eleven n I'm never gonna see
Speaker 1: anything faster than one point five megabets per second, because
Speaker 1: that's as fast as it's gonna go out. Now, if
Speaker 1: I connect with another computer, if I have, you know, say,
Speaker 1: my music library at one computer I want to move
Speaker 1: it to another, I can move it at that speed
Speaker 1: provided my cards in both computers will reach that speed.
Speaker 1: So data transfers within your network will go at at
Speaker 1: the ideal speed, right, But data coming into or moving
Speaker 1: out of your network to the outside world the Internet,
Speaker 1: is going to move at whatever speed the Internet service
Speaker 1: provider has designated, or what your current technology is capable
Speaker 1: of delivering. Yeah, so the slowest point of connect in
Speaker 1: this case would be my you know, pipe to the
Speaker 1: outside world, and everything else is regulated by that, right,
Speaker 1: Everything inside super fast, everything outside not so fast. Still fast,
Speaker 1: just not nearly as fast. As we sit there and
Speaker 1: think about how slow this is. But then we sit
Speaker 1: there and like, hey, do you remember that there's bod modems? Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's very fast compared to dial up modems. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so so wy max getting back to wymax. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a totally different set of standards. Uh, dot one six.
Speaker 1: I like to I like to describe wy max the
Speaker 1: way I tried to describe it to someone, uh, and
Speaker 1: how it works if you if you want to try
Speaker 1: and visualize it within an analogy is imagine a big
Speaker 1: circular building that has a set number of doors along
Speaker 1: the perimeter of the building. So we'll say forty forty
Speaker 1: doors are along the perimeter of the building. That means
Speaker 1: that forty people can walk in and out of that building,
Speaker 1: carrying stuff in and taking stuff out. So there's forty
Speaker 1: people that would be people connecting to the y max
Speaker 1: tower to get data. So home networks necessary pretty much. Um.
Speaker 1: And after the after those forty doors are taken up
Speaker 1: by the various people, that's it. It's not going to
Speaker 1: accept any more people on that tower, which means that
Speaker 1: every single person is going to still get the speeds
Speaker 1: that they were promised. You know, there's no choking because
Speaker 1: there's no bottleneck there because the tower has cut off
Speaker 1: the number of people who can connect to it. WiFi
Speaker 1: is different. WiFi. People just keep piling in and out.
Speaker 1: There's like one big set of doors and everyone is
Speaker 1: trying to get in and out that set of doors
Speaker 1: at the same time. So the more people are trying
Speaker 1: to access a WiFi spot, the slower you're going to experience.
Speaker 1: The slower the data rates will be slower, data transfer
Speaker 1: rates will be um because it does not limit the
Speaker 1: number like y max does, So it's a different approach
Speaker 1: rely UM and why MAX of course, is just one
Speaker 1: of the four G solutions that we're looking at in
Speaker 1: the in in the future. There are others as well
Speaker 1: as LT, which is long term evolution. Looks it looks
Speaker 1: like those two are going to be fighting it out
Speaker 1: to be the four G standard, depending on on whom
Speaker 1: you ask and where and what what company you happen
Speaker 1: to be working for that is backing which standard. Here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta we're actually seeing WiMAX now up and a
Speaker 1: few other cities in the United States also have Wi
Speaker 1: max now and more are expected to get it within
Speaker 1: the next year. YEP, but LT is on its way,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pretty sure. And it's also that's also being
Speaker 1: giving the UH the fast track and development. I do
Speaker 1: want to clarify though, just to make certain that everyone
Speaker 1: understands that if you have a Wi Fi card, a
Speaker 1: O two, DON eleven, a b G or n UM,
Speaker 1: those may or may not be compatible with you know,
Speaker 1: a a particular card, or you know, some plug in
Speaker 1: for your computer. But Bluetooth and Wi Max are going
Speaker 1: to require their own separate thing. They're not they're not related.
Speaker 1: You can't get one card, as far as I know,
Speaker 1: you can't get one card that will get all of
Speaker 1: those frequencies you know, in one thing that you can
Speaker 1: plug into your machine. You're looking at probably three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: although I guess you could argue that y max could
Speaker 1: replace WiFi, except unless you're actually, well, if you're doing
Speaker 1: home networking stuff, if you're trying to actually transfer data
Speaker 1: between machines in your home network, then you will need something.
Speaker 1: Because y max it's it's reporting back to the internet
Speaker 1: service provider. It's not it's not a home networking solution. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: that's actually a good point, because, um, the the particular
Speaker 1: y Max provider that is advertising in the Atlanta area
Speaker 1: shows off that you can have your laptop with you
Speaker 1: and get access anywhere. You could be on the bus,
Speaker 1: you could be you know, at an sidewalk cafe, you
Speaker 1: could be at your home and you're still going to
Speaker 1: get your wy max speed. Well that's great. However, if
Speaker 1: you're using basically what they're showing off as a as
Speaker 1: a dongle type card modem thing. Um, that's the scientific
Speaker 1: term for it, type mode them card thing. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I think it's on the box. Okay, okay, So anyway,
Speaker 1: you plug the thing in the side of your computer,
Speaker 1: you can get it and you can go anywhere. What
Speaker 1: happens if you go home and you want to hook up,
Speaker 1: say your spouse is computer, Well, now you kind of
Speaker 1: need the internet. We'll see, that's that's going to do
Speaker 1: with it. Okay, So then you're stuck. That's no, no
Speaker 1: more home networking if all you have is that one
Speaker 1: type of you know, connectivity, you know, they offer this
Speaker 1: the wmax provider also offers a home modem and then
Speaker 1: you can plug that into wave WiFi connection. But if
Speaker 1: you want to get you know, the y max all
Speaker 1: around town, you're gonna have to have the portable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's that's a difference. Does have it might actually
Speaker 1: have a WiMAX and a WiFi Well yeah, they Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true, that's true. I've seen I've seen the packages
Speaker 1: I've seen usually involved you can get one of each.
Speaker 1: You can get one that's the home solution where you
Speaker 1: you hook that up to your router. So you have
Speaker 1: to buy both of them, yes, but but it's there's
Speaker 1: some that's like a package deal though, so you're getting
Speaker 1: a discount as opposed to if you were buying each separately. Yes, yes, so, yes,
Speaker 1: you would still have to have your wireless router, which
Speaker 1: would that's working on the WiFi if you want to
Speaker 1: hook up all your computers, yes, exactly, and within your home,
Speaker 1: and then you would have the y max dongle for
Speaker 1: whichever computer you have designated as the the main one
Speaker 1: whenever you're heading outside the house and you want to
Speaker 1: be able to hook directly to your I s P.
Speaker 1: The nice thing about that is you don't have to
Speaker 1: pay for any other like WiFi services, any hotspots or
Speaker 1: anything like that, and you don't have to you don't
Speaker 1: have to depend upon no. Yeah, because with the wax range, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're connecting right to the Wi max thing tower, not
Speaker 1: not to WiFi networks. And so I know that's a
Speaker 1: big problem for us us, being me and my wife,
Speaker 1: we when we're traveling around UH town, we have to
Speaker 1: hope that wherever we're going has a WiFi network and
Speaker 1: that that hopefully it's a why find network where we
Speaker 1: don't have to pay extra to get attached to it,
Speaker 1: because when you're already paying uh an internet service provider
Speaker 1: to get access to the internet, you kind of hate
Speaker 1: the thought of having to pay again because you're like,
Speaker 1: if we were home, we could access this based on
Speaker 1: our plan, we wouldn't have to pay extra. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we get a little yeah, mightily miffed. Great was the
Speaker 1: message thereof all right, well I think that that pretty
Speaker 1: much covers the whole WiFi angle. Yeah. I'm sure we've
Speaker 1: confused everyone by now. I know I'm more confused than
Speaker 1: when we started, so good job. Um well, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess that means that it's time to wrap things
Speaker 1: up with a little a listener mail. This listener mail
Speaker 1: comes from Casey. Hey, guys, I love the podcast. I
Speaker 1: had a quick question for you. I've heard that Mac
Speaker 1: and Linux operating systems don't get viruses like Windows computers do.
Speaker 1: As far as I can tell, I haven't even heard
Speaker 1: of a virus protection software from my Leopard running operating system.
Speaker 1: Is this because the Unix base that Mac and Lenox
Speaker 1: were built on is less susceptible, or because Windows is
Speaker 1: a little easier to target because of how mainstream they
Speaker 1: are operating system is? Keep up the good work, and
Speaker 1: I would love to hear the answer to this sometime,
Speaker 1: o K. See. First of all, let's let's address a
Speaker 1: couple of things. UH. Linux does not have a Unix
Speaker 1: base technically, it is it was inspired Lennox was inspired
Speaker 1: by Unix, or rather we should say Linus was inspired
Speaker 1: by Unix. Actually he was inspired by um minix Minix,
Speaker 1: which in turn was a a kind of open source
Speaker 1: alternative to Unix. See, you have Unix, you had the
Speaker 1: open source alternative to Unix called Minix. You had Lenis
Speaker 1: Torvald's who was then inspired by Minix to create Linux.
Speaker 1: So let's get that all the way. UM As for
Speaker 1: are they just naturally less susceptible? Not technically, I mean there,
Speaker 1: it's it's more challenging to create the UH something that
Speaker 1: exploits a vulnerability in Linux or Mac because you've got,
Speaker 1: within the case of Linux, you've got a community that
Speaker 1: is dedicated to finding these things out and fixing them
Speaker 1: before they become problems. It doesn't mean that it's impossible.
Speaker 1: It just means it's more challenging because you've you know,
Speaker 1: you've got the entire worldwide Linux community working on this stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: Even though there are various distributions, and each distribution is
Speaker 1: slightly different from each other distribution Mac, you've got a
Speaker 1: closed system which is harder to get into and learn
Speaker 1: how that works because Apple controls the whole Mac UH
Speaker 1: situation from the hardware to the operating system. Even so,
Speaker 1: it is possible to create UH programs that exploit vulnerabilities.
Speaker 1: We've seen that both in MAX and in Linux systems. Recently,
Speaker 1: we've seen some that went as that that even exploit
Speaker 1: vulnerabilities or could exploit of vulnerability within the Linux kernel itself. Um,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that there as vulnerable as a Windows system.
Speaker 1: Your question of is Windows more vulnerable because it's more
Speaker 1: popular In a way, Yes, it's certainly more popular with
Speaker 1: hackers for one thing. I mean it's it's more accessible. Also,
Speaker 1: more people are using Windows. So therefore your target is
Speaker 1: You've got a target rich environment is what our friends
Speaker 1: in the military would call it. It's it means that
Speaker 1: if you do write some malicious software, you're gonna hit
Speaker 1: way more victims if you do it for Windows, then
Speaker 1: you're gonna hit if you use it for macor Linux,
Speaker 1: just because there are more people using Windows out there
Speaker 1: than the alternatives. But if you look at some of
Speaker 1: the vulnerabilities that exploit server software, that's all Linux based stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean almost all of it. Not not all of it.
Speaker 1: Don't write me I know, not all of it, but
Speaker 1: a great deal of it. So it is possible, it's
Speaker 1: just not as common. Yeah, And there are there are
Speaker 1: a couple of security providers who have written uh mac
Speaker 1: virus software and has been out for many many years now.
Speaker 1: Um at Actually I think snow Leppard came with some
Speaker 1: anti virus in under the hood. Yeah, it's it's sort
Speaker 1: of invisible. Actually, not like I've actually noticed that, let
Speaker 1: me put it that way. Um, but but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: and and the one, the one I would say that
Speaker 1: is arguable arguably the largest. Um it's a company called Intego,
Speaker 1: And they're the ones who always draw attention to vulnerabilities
Speaker 1: when they are pointed out, and um, they usually get
Speaker 1: sort of picked on. Uh and and uh, some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that I've read, because they go, oh, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you guys are the ones writing the software. Of course,
Speaker 1: that's what happens when samantech or or McAfee also points
Speaker 1: out that there are vulnerabilities out there, I mean, they
Speaker 1: have a vested interest in keeping that um in mind.
Speaker 1: But a lot of and a lot of cases to
Speaker 1: the Mac stuff scans for Windows uh um malware as well,
Speaker 1: which is useful if you're running an Intel Mac and
Speaker 1: happen to be running and happen to have an installation
Speaker 1: of Windows and the Mac operating system on your Mac UM.
Speaker 1: So you know, it can be handy. But a lot
Speaker 1: of people in the Mac world still believe that their
Speaker 1: position is very secure and do not use any virus
Speaker 1: software right now. That does not mean if you have
Speaker 1: a Mac or Linux machine that you should go clicking
Speaker 1: on every single link and and installing every single application
Speaker 1: you come across, because you never know when that that
Speaker 1: vulnerability will be discovered and exploited. Uh. Here's the tricky
Speaker 1: thing about hackers who find vulnerabilities. Some of them don't
Speaker 1: make it public knowledge, and so it may be you
Speaker 1: know that it's constantly a game of let's catch up
Speaker 1: to what the hackers know and uh and then patch it.
Speaker 1: So just be careful. Yeah, Max and Lenox machines aren't
Speaker 1: gonna experience them as often as windows are, uh, just
Speaker 1: in general. But it's it's not outside the realm of possibility.
Speaker 1: It's like to throw this one last thing out there. Um,
Speaker 1: for everybody who is using any kind of computer on
Speaker 1: any kind of operating system, keep in mind their vulnerabilities
Speaker 1: in the operating system and uh, security software patch is
Speaker 1: there to protect you from malware that has been discovered.
Speaker 1: But as long as there's a vulnerability, anything that hasn't
Speaker 1: been discovered, that's right. As long as there's a vulnerability
Speaker 1: and someone is there to exploit it and nobody knows
Speaker 1: about it yet, so it's best to keep up your
Speaker 1: guard and pay attention to what you're doing. That is
Speaker 1: the best security procedure you can have. Why is words
Speaker 1: to live My from tech stuff. Thanks Casey. If any
Speaker 1: of you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions for podcasts,
Speaker 1: please write us. We love getting the mail. I know
Speaker 1: that I've been a little slow answering mail recently, but
Speaker 1: we do read each end every single email that comes in.
Speaker 1: You can email us our address is tech stuff at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and Crispy and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon for moral this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com And be sure to check out the new tech
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