Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tex Stuff from Hastaf.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm still on vacation, vacating which means that we're going
Speaker 1: to enjoy another classic episode of tech Stuff, but we're
Speaker 1: doing so for a specific reason because of a little
Speaker 1: listener mail. And this comes from Troy, who says, good afternoon.
Speaker 1: I've recently started to listen to your podcast as my
Speaker 1: tech interests begin to grow. I was hoping you could
Speaker 1: do an episode on WiFi versus Y Max would be
Speaker 1: great to learn about that. Well, Troy, way back in
Speaker 1: the day, I'm talking November of two thousand nine, Chris Pallette,
Speaker 1: my original co host, and I talked about WiFi and
Speaker 1: the different types of WiFi, and we also talked about
Speaker 1: Wi Max, which is not a type of WiFi. We
Speaker 1: grouped it under there because it was the easiest way
Speaker 1: to explain it to people who are unfamiliar with it.
Speaker 1: But I regret actually calling the episode the different types
Speaker 1: of WiFi, because why that's that's that's misleading. Why Max
Speaker 1: and WiFi are two different things. There are actually two
Speaker 1: different communications standards designed to transmit data wirelessly, So you
Speaker 1: can think of it as two different approaches to accomplish
Speaker 1: similar goals. Now, why MAX can transmit up to about
Speaker 1: a gigabit per second for fixed stations, in other words,
Speaker 1: a station that is in a fixed location, it's not
Speaker 1: moving around, and it can also transmit this at a
Speaker 1: much wider area than say WiFi could. Uh. That is
Speaker 1: why why Max is really being used in municipal wireless data.
Speaker 1: So in other words, it's it's kind of a a
Speaker 1: replacement for wired connections. You wouldn't use cables instead, you
Speaker 1: would have these towers that would transmit why MAX signals
Speaker 1: using this specific standard, and you could then provide internet
Speaker 1: connectivity to different to a large area, whereas WiFi tends
Speaker 1: to be much more localized, it doesn't have as broad
Speaker 1: a transmission range, but it can also go really fast.
Speaker 1: In fact, the the eight O two dot eleven a
Speaker 1: C standard is on the five giga Hurts band of frequencies,
Speaker 1: because WiFi uses two different frequency bands depending upon the
Speaker 1: standard you're using, and can also reach a gigabit per
Speaker 1: second or even theoretically faster than that. So the two
Speaker 1: are able to transmit data at similar speeds, but doing
Speaker 1: so in a different way, and I will now transfer
Speaker 1: this over to the episode where Chris and I talked
Speaker 1: more about these different types. Keeping in mind this goes
Speaker 1: back to two thousand nine and the standards have evolved
Speaker 1: considerably since then, So enjoy this episode. 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 Triple E,
Speaker 1: or as I always like to call them, a yeah right, 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: this string virtual. Yeah, there you go. That's all you
Speaker 1: need to know. There's the whole we're gonna alright, 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 h you'll see on things like outers
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've got to
Speaker 1: understand what I was getting ready to correct myself because
Speaker 1: I said, and that's not a frequency, no, No, it's
Speaker 1: just a designation. Is a designation? Yes, so so the
Speaker 1: I triple ey. They work on various designations for different
Speaker 1: UM networking solutions, and with the eight to two point
Speaker 1: one one, you have different working groups all working on
Speaker 1: different sets of standards to try and create the most
Speaker 1: stable and reliable form of wireless networking in this case
Speaker 1: wireless networking UM. And it's it's a little confusing because
Speaker 1: you have all these different groups working on working from
Speaker 1: the same basic set of standards, but they're all tweaking
Speaker 1: them in different ways to try and get different kinds
Speaker 1: of performance out of them. So let's try and go
Speaker 1: through some of these. It's really kind of complex, but
Speaker 1: um yeah. One of the things to uh that's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting about these different standards is, UH, as we
Speaker 1: start going through them, if we are going through them
Speaker 1: in alphabetical order, you will find that they do not
Speaker 1: necessarily uh go start from the bottom up, like if
Speaker 1: we start with eight eight O two dot eleven A. UH.
Speaker 1: This actually operates on the five gigga hurts frequency and
Speaker 1: can carry up to fifty four megabets of data per second. Uh,
Speaker 1: in contrast at two dot eleven B you'd figure 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 megabits 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 what do you think
Speaker 1: should we go by just by letter even though it's
Speaker 1: not logical progression necessarily, but just to make it easier
Speaker 1: to move from one to the other. Those two, those
Speaker 1: two do fit well together because they were the first
Speaker 1: two very common standards, at least in my experience. Well.
Speaker 1: ATO two point eleven B uses UH unregulated radio signal
Speaker 1: frequencies in the two point four gigga hurts range. So uh,
Speaker 1: here's something. Here's some things about the ATO two point
Speaker 1: one one B set standards. It's single ranges is pretty good,
Speaker 1: um in the two point four gigga Hurts range, and
Speaker 1: it's not going to have problems with obstructions that some
Speaker 1: other frequencies do. So, in other words, you might be
Speaker 1: able to use this kind of signal through walls things
Speaker 1: like that, you don't have to worry about losing signal
Speaker 1: as soon as you turn a corner some UH from
Speaker 1: the source of the the frequency UM, and it's not
Speaker 1: very expensive. The range is pretty good, UM, but it's
Speaker 1: not a very it's not very fast, as you pointed out,
Speaker 1: you know, compared to eight to two point eleven A.
Speaker 1: It's it's fairly slow. UM. And because it's an unregulated frequency,
Speaker 1: some other appliances that generate radio frequencies can cause interference
Speaker 1: within that wireless UH frequency because you have to remember
Speaker 1: the computer you're using whatever, Like if you have a
Speaker 1: wireless router that's broadcasting WiFi on this set of standards,
Speaker 1: if it's using unregulated radio frequencies, that means that it
Speaker 1: can fall within a wider range, and that things that
Speaker 1: also generate radio frequencies within that range. When you're using
Speaker 1: your computer, your computer doesn't know which one of those
Speaker 1: which of those signals are coming from your router and
Speaker 1: which are coming from other devices. So that's where you
Speaker 1: get your your interference. If you're saying, what kind of
Speaker 1: interference could you possibly be talking about? While we're talking
Speaker 1: about things like your cordless phone in your house, for example,
Speaker 1: or perhaps an alarm system where you have uh wireless
Speaker 1: UM the devices that go above your windows and doors,
Speaker 1: if you know, it uses radio frequencies to talk to
Speaker 1: the main box UM and baby monitors stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Those are all using you know, those radio frequencies in
Speaker 1: those ranges. And of course you can you can buy
Speaker 1: cordless phones and and not to over use that word
Speaker 1: range of different frequencies. UM. So you could try to
Speaker 1: get to to get around that. But that's one of
Speaker 1: those things that I think they've been trying to improve
Speaker 1: is is cut down on some of the interference. And
Speaker 1: that's why um ATO two eleven A uses the orthogonal
Speaker 1: frequency division multiplexing. Basically, it's it's just a system of
Speaker 1: splitting down that signal into a group of sub signals
Speaker 1: to kind of make it less likely that you're going
Speaker 1: to be interfered with. It breaks it down so that
Speaker 1: it's not all in one one signal, Right, so you're
Speaker 1: not gonna you're not gonna have the same interference issues.
Speaker 1: UM it's you shouldn't. And again, like we point out,
Speaker 1: it is faster. ATO two point eleven A is faster
Speaker 1: than NATO to a point eleven B. But it's also
Speaker 1: it's UM range is shorter, it's not it doesn't go
Speaker 1: as far, and because of the frequencies that uses UM,
Speaker 1: it's a little more easily obstructed, So you can't necessarily
Speaker 1: broadcast through several walls. If you have a large house
Speaker 1: and you've got a wireless router in the middle, then
Speaker 1: you may notice that as you move away you start
Speaker 1: having problems getting a signal. I also suggested you don't
Speaker 1: make 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. He's just easy, right, He's just standing around,
Speaker 1: staring at the walls and just mumbling hers. I can't
Speaker 1: even repeat the things that man says. He just a
Speaker 1: lot of mouth on that guy. At any rate. I
Speaker 1: had no idea that my little joke would turn so awry. No,
Speaker 1: but tell you what, green Lantern is awesome. You get
Speaker 1: a few drinks in him, so uh so, yeah, eight
Speaker 1: two point eleven. A faster, shorter range also was more expensive.
Speaker 1: Both A and B were being worked on at the
Speaker 1: same time, UM B was. Even though B was slower,
Speaker 1: it was less expensive and had a greater range, so
Speaker 1: it it caught on a lot faster than A did.
Speaker 1: UM A was much more expensive, so you didn't really
Speaker 1: see that getting adopted in home networks as much. But
Speaker 1: that brings us up to eight to two point eleven G. Yes,
Speaker 1: we skipped a few letters and specifications, yes, UM not that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you could. If you look up all these
Speaker 1: different numbers UH along with I E, you'll see that
Speaker 1: there are all these different working groups that are working
Speaker 1: on various projects that have different designations. But it gets
Speaker 1: way too complex to talk about all that, especially since
Speaker 1: it doesn't really relate to what we're talking about here
Speaker 1: with home networking. So ATO two yeah, that was A
Speaker 1: and B were popular together for a while, and then
Speaker 1: G was a good sized leap forward. I would say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, and it has been a standard. UM it's
Speaker 1: been widely adopted up until just recently, but we'll get
Speaker 1: into that in a moment. Um ATO two dot eleven
Speaker 1: G also uses the two point for giga hurts spectrum,
Speaker 1: just like ATO two dot eleven B. However, it is
Speaker 1: much faster band with up to fifty four megabits per
Speaker 1: second as I as I see before me, that's the
Speaker 1: figure I have. Yeah, that's the number I have as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's really fast speed. And it's actually the
Speaker 1: it has really much better range. It's not easily obstructed,
Speaker 1: so it's it's kind of taking the best of both
Speaker 1: worlds here. It's got the range and and uh and
Speaker 1: the penetration of ATO two point eleven B and the
Speaker 1: speed and um and and uh well, probably just the
Speaker 1: speed of two point eleven eight UM. But it it
Speaker 1: was a little it's a little more expensive, or at
Speaker 1: least it was more expensive than NATO two point eleven B.
Speaker 1: It took a while for that too kind of become
Speaker 1: the standard and home networks, but that did become the
Speaker 1: standard after shortly after it was introduced, and uh so
Speaker 1: you would look on routers and you would see if
Speaker 1: we know which which standards it was compatible within eight
Speaker 1: or two point eleven G became more and more common
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, again had another problem with the fact
Speaker 1: that it had the unregulated signal, just like eight O
Speaker 1: two point eleven B did. So again there were there
Speaker 1: was at least the potential for signals to have some
Speaker 1: interference issues if you had a lot of other wireless
Speaker 1: technologies running in the house, a lot of kids running
Speaker 1: around on walkie talkies or you know exactly, I'll never
Speaker 1: be over it. I'm never over kids over at my
Speaker 1: house walking is that is just the most distracting thing
Speaker 1: in the world, because especially because you don't have kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah that who are you people? How did you get
Speaker 1: into my house? Did Superman let you in? Has he
Speaker 1: not gotten over the lead walls thing yet? You know?
Speaker 1: Does that bring us up to two eleven N Yes?
Speaker 1: And up until very very recently, this was not an
Speaker 1: approved standard. However, UM, you know I have seen from
Speaker 1: looking at the WiFi Alliances website, UM that at two
Speaker 1: dot eleven and is actually an accepted specification at this time, UM,
Speaker 1: which was supposed to happen this year. So you know
Speaker 1: that those of you who are going, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: so where's the surprise in that. No, that's that's uh,
Speaker 1: that's right on time. They're supposed to do that this year. UM.
Speaker 1: And uh, basically you're supposed to be able to get
Speaker 1: a lot better range with at two dot eleven N
Speaker 1: and speed for that matter, Um. That was one of
Speaker 1: the things when I got UM. I got a new
Speaker 1: wireless access point UM a few months ago, and it
Speaker 1: had a 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 ranges great. Yeah, 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 wire. 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 ATO two
Speaker 1: dot eleven N is supposed to get you up to
Speaker 1: a hundred forty megabits per second, which is pretty speedy.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's considering I can't even get my my DSL
Speaker 1: connection near that fast. So you were asking Mark about
Speaker 1: the difficulties and networking. If you have different machines running
Speaker 1: on different uh that require different standards, Yes, that will
Speaker 1: be a problem because you have to have the right
Speaker 1: It's it's like an antenna. You have to the right
Speaker 1: kind of antenna 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. Sorry interrupt, No, no no, go ahead, You
Speaker 1: need to have something that will receive these 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 eight O two point eleven G wireless card and
Speaker 1: a laptop and you get an ETO two point eleven
Speaker 1: in router, it's not going to do any good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be able to access those faster
Speaker 1: speeds because you're limited by it's kind of the weakest
Speaker 1: link in the in the chain, kind of thing. Um,
Speaker 1: you're you're limited by whatever you are, Your least fast
Speaker 1: device is going to be uh in that in that
Speaker 1: chain from router to computer. So yeah, it can cause
Speaker 1: a little issue. It's not not as bad as you
Speaker 1: might think because most things that most have routers and
Speaker 1: modems that have been sold in the last few years
Speaker 1: have really kind of ironed out a lot of the
Speaker 1: compatibility issues. Um. But that's and you know, again, it's
Speaker 1: kind of confusing because the standards do evolve over time
Speaker 1: and the group is always working on different projects. That
Speaker 1: mean that you know, within another five or six years
Speaker 1: we may see something different. And not only that, but
Speaker 1: we have other networking technologies that also come into play
Speaker 1: that can be a little confusing. There's Bluetooth. Actually, it's
Speaker 1: funny you mentioned that. I was getting ready to mention.
Speaker 1: Please do um there are a couple different standards of
Speaker 1: Bluetooth technology now. Bluetooth UM in general has a shorter
Speaker 1: distance that you can use it a smaller range. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's what I meant. Thank you for fixing that. Um. Hey,
Speaker 1: who's the editor here? Yeah, well that would be me,
Speaker 1: except when I'm talking this is why I add it. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it actually operates on frequency of two point four five
Speaker 1: gigga hurts uh generally between two point four zero two
Speaker 1: and two point four eight zero. If you're you know
Speaker 1: split in hair for those notes. Yeah, yeah, and you
Speaker 1: can you know, connect up to eight devices, um you
Speaker 1: find I don't think a lot of people use Bluetooth
Speaker 1: to connect a lot of devices to their computer. Maybe
Speaker 1: like a wireless keyboard, er mouse maybe maybe or or yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe a printer, sometimes your phone. I had a phone
Speaker 1: that used Bluetooth, and I could drag and drop files
Speaker 1: over like if I wanted to change ring tones, I
Speaker 1: make an MP three and and you know, connect with it.
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 and it creates
Speaker 1: one network. You bring those two devices toward a third device,
Speaker 1: and you've got a new network. You take one device away.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a really flexible, uh 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 normally the headset and the and
Speaker 1: the phone the handset. Um, that's pretty much it. Or
Speaker 1: some of them are using some sort of handset and
Speaker 1: a car like the car that's Bluetooth enabled, so that
Speaker 1: the handset sinks with the car and they can listen
Speaker 1: to music, or they can use a EPs system something
Speaker 1: like that where or even use the cars sound system
Speaker 1: for a if they're taking on calls or things of
Speaker 1: that nature. But again it's still you're talking about a
Speaker 1: two device maximum there as opposed to what the real
Speaker 1: potential or Bluetooth is. I know somebody else is going
Speaker 1: to write into now that I think about it. Another
Speaker 1: device that you might see people use with their Bluetooth
Speaker 1: enabled computer and be a set of headphones. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's pretty common. That's true. That's true. That's 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 y 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 thirty miles right something like somewhere, and
Speaker 1: and so y max has a much larger ring change.
Speaker 1: And yes, you can get very fast uh down link
Speaker 1: and uplink speeds on y max are relatively fast in
Speaker 1: the way, about seventy megabits per seconds. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: pretty fast. I mean it's still not as fast, you know,
Speaker 1: eight two point eleven and but yes, but you're not
Speaker 1: going to get an eight or two down eleven and
Speaker 1: much past oh I don't know, like the street in
Speaker 1: front of your house. Yeah, you're not gonna That's the
Speaker 1: other thing is that when we talk about these speeds,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the maximum that those devices are capable
Speaker 1: of generating. That doesn't necessarily mean that's the speed you
Speaker 1: will experience. I will experience it based upon what your
Speaker 1: I s P provides to you. Actually, when I was
Speaker 1: saying a few minutes ago that my DSL struggles to
Speaker 1: reach one point five megabits per second, you know, I
Speaker 1: have a my router now is an eight or two
Speaker 1: down eleven N I'm never gonna see anything faster than
Speaker 1: one point five megabits per second because that's as fast
Speaker 1: as it's gonna go. Now, if I connect with another computer,
Speaker 1: if I have, you know, say my music library on
Speaker 1: one computer I want to move it to another, I
Speaker 1: can move it at that speed provided my cards in
Speaker 1: both computers will reach that speed. So data transfers within
Speaker 1: your network will go at at the ideal speed, right,
Speaker 1: But data coming into or moving out of your network
Speaker 1: to the outside world the Internet is going to move
Speaker 1: at whatever speed the Internet service provider has designated or
Speaker 1: what your current technology is capable of delivering. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the slowest point of connection in this case would be
Speaker 1: my you know, pipe to the outside world, and everything
Speaker 1: else is regulated by that, right, Everything inside super fast,
Speaker 1: everything outside not so fast. Still fast, just not nearly
Speaker 1: as fast as we sit there and think about how
Speaker 1: slow this is. But then we'd sit there and like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you remember that these bod modems. Okay, so it's
Speaker 1: very fast compared to dial up modems. So y max
Speaker 1: getting back to wy max um. Yeah, it's a totally
Speaker 1: different set of standards. Uh to dot one six. I
Speaker 1: like to I like to describe wy max the way
Speaker 1: I tried to describe it to someone, uh, and how
Speaker 1: it works if you if you want to try and
Speaker 1: visualize it within an analogy is imagine a big circular
Speaker 1: building that has a set number of doors along the
Speaker 1: perimeter of the building. So we'll say forty forty doors
Speaker 1: along the perimeter of the building. That means that forty
Speaker 1: people can walk in and out of that building, carrying
Speaker 1: stuff in and taking stuff out. So there's forty people
Speaker 1: that would be people connecting to the white Max tower
Speaker 1: 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 of that set of
Speaker 1: doors at the same time. So the more people are
Speaker 1: trying to access a WiFi spot, the slower you're going
Speaker 1: to experience, the slower the data rates will be, slower
Speaker 1: data transfer rates will be because it does not limit
Speaker 1: the number like y MAX does, so it's a different
Speaker 1: approach really. UM and y max, of course, is just
Speaker 1: one of the four G solutions that we're looking at
Speaker 1: in the in the future. There are others as well,
Speaker 1: such as LTE, which is long term evolution. Looks it
Speaker 1: looks like those two are going to be fighting it
Speaker 1: out to be that the four G standard. Depending on
Speaker 1: whom you ask and where and what what company you
Speaker 1: happen to be working for that is backing which standard.
Speaker 1: Right here in Atlanta we're actually seeing y max now
Speaker 1: UM and a few other cities in the United States
Speaker 1: also have y max now and more are expected to
Speaker 1: get it within the next year. Yeah, but LT is
Speaker 1: on its way, I'm I'm pretty sure. Yeah. And it's
Speaker 1: also that's also being giving the UH the fast track
Speaker 1: and development. I do want to clarify though, just to
Speaker 1: make certain that everyone understand hands that if you have
Speaker 1: a Wi Fi card A to two down eleven, a
Speaker 1: b G or n UM, those may or may not
Speaker 1: be compatible with you know, a a particular card or
Speaker 1: you know, some plug in for your computer. But Bluetooth
Speaker 1: and Wi max are going to require their own separate thing.
Speaker 1: They're not they're not related. You can't get one card,
Speaker 1: as far as I know, you can't get one card
Speaker 1: that will get all of those frequencies, you know, and
Speaker 1: one thing that you can plug into your machinery looking
Speaker 1: at probably three. Yeah, although I guess you could argue
Speaker 1: that y max could replace WiFi, except unless you're actually well,
Speaker 1: if you're doing home networking stuff, if you're trying to
Speaker 1: actually transfer data between machines in your home network, then
Speaker 1: you will need something. Because wy max it's it's reporting
Speaker 1: back to the internet service provider. It's not it's not
Speaker 1: a home networking solution. Well, okay, that's actually a good point, because, um,
Speaker 1: the the particular y max provider that is advertising in
Speaker 1: the Atlanta area shows off that you can have your
Speaker 1: laptop with you and get access anywhere and you could
Speaker 1: be on the bus, you could be you know, at
Speaker 1: an sidewalk cafe, you could be at your home and
Speaker 1: you're still going to get your winmax speed. Well that's great. However,
Speaker 1: if you're using basically what they're showing off as a
Speaker 1: as a dongle type card modem thing. Um, that's the
Speaker 1: scientific term for it, modem card thing. Yes, yes, I
Speaker 1: think it's on the box. Okay, okay, So anyway, you
Speaker 1: plug the thing in the side of your computer, you
Speaker 1: can get and you can go anywhere. What happens if
Speaker 1: you go home and you want to hook up, say
Speaker 1: your spouse is computer, Well, now you kind of need
Speaker 1: the internet. We'll see that's what's she 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 m X provider also offers a home modem and
Speaker 1: then you could plug that into wave WiFi connection. But
Speaker 1: if you want to get you know, the Wi Max
Speaker 1: all around town, you're going to have to have the portable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a difference. Does have night actually have a
Speaker 1: WiMAX and a WiFi Well, yeah, they Yeah, that's true,
Speaker 1: that's true. I've seen I've seen the packages I've seen
Speaker 1: usually involved you can get one of each. You can
Speaker 1: get one that's the home solution where you you hook
Speaker 1: that up to your router. So you have to buy
Speaker 1: both of them, Yes, but but there's some that's like
Speaker 1: a package deal though, so you're getting a discount as
Speaker 1: opposed to if you were buying each separately. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: so yes, you would still have to have your wireless router,
Speaker 1: which would that's working on the WiFi if you want
Speaker 1: to hook up all your computers, yes, exactly, and within
Speaker 1: your home, and then you would have the y max
Speaker 1: dongle for whichever computer you have designated as the the
Speaker 1: main one whenever you're heading outside the house and you
Speaker 1: want to be able to hook directly to your I
Speaker 1: s P. The nice thing about that is you don't
Speaker 1: have to pay for any other like WiFi services, any
Speaker 1: hotspots or anything like that, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: you don't have to depend upon no yeah, because with
Speaker 1: the yeah, you're connecting right to the Wi max thing tower,
Speaker 1: not not to WiFi UH networks. And so I know
Speaker 1: that's a big problem for us, us being me and
Speaker 1: my wife, we when we're traveling around UH town, we
Speaker 1: have to hope that wherever we're going has a WiFi
Speaker 1: network and that that hopefully it's a WiFi network where
Speaker 1: we 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 kse. 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. Okay, See,
Speaker 1: first of all, let's let's address a couple of things. Uh.
Speaker 1: Linux does not have a Unix base. Technically, it is not.
Speaker 1: It is it was inspired Lennox was inspired by Unix,
Speaker 1: or rather we should say Linus was inspired by Unix.
Speaker 1: Actually he was inspired by Umnix Minix, which in turn
Speaker 1: was a a kind of open source alternative to Unix.
Speaker 1: Yes see, you have Unix, you have the open source
Speaker 1: alternative to Unix called Minix. You had Linus Torvalds, who
Speaker 1: was then inspired by Minix to create Linux. So let's
Speaker 1: get that all the way. Um As for are they
Speaker 1: just naturally less susceptible? Not technically, I mean there, it's
Speaker 1: it's more challenging to create the uh something that exploits
Speaker 1: a vulnerability in Linux or Mac because you've got, within
Speaker 1: the case of Linux, you've got a community that is
Speaker 1: dedicated to finding these things out and fixing them before
Speaker 1: they become problems. It doesn't mean that it's impossible. It
Speaker 1: just means it's more challenging because you've you know, you've
Speaker 1: 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 situation
Speaker 1: from the hardware to the operating system. Even so, it
Speaker 1: is possible to create uh programs that exploit vulnerabilities. We've
Speaker 1: 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 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 Macrolnox just
Speaker 1: because there are more people using Windows out there than
Speaker 1: the alternatives. But if you look at some of the
Speaker 1: vulnerabilities that exploit servers off where that's all Linux based stuff. Yeah,
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. Um.
Speaker 1: Actually I think snow Leppard came with some anti virus
Speaker 1: in under the hood. Yeah, it's it's sort of invisible. Actually,
Speaker 1: not like I've actually noticed it, let me put it
Speaker 1: that way. Um, but but yeah, I mean, and and
Speaker 1: the one, the one I would say that is arguable, argue,
Speaker 1: I believe the largest. Um it's a company called Intigo.
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 in some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that I've read because they go, oh, yeah, well
Speaker 1: you guys are the ones writing this saw where of
Speaker 1: course that's what happens when Symantec or or McAfee also
Speaker 1: points out that there are vulnerabilities out there. I mean,
Speaker 1: they 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 MAAC 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. Uh yeah, Max and Lennox machines
Speaker 1: aren't gonna experience them as often as windows are uh,
Speaker 1: just in general, but it's it's not outside the realm
Speaker 1: of possibility. I hope you enjoyed that look back. I
Speaker 1: will remind you that things have changed quite a bit
Speaker 1: since two thousand nine. We have seen improvements in both
Speaker 1: y Max and WiFi over that time, as well as
Speaker 1: improvements to Bluetooth and other wireless transmission technologies. No big
Speaker 1: surprise there. You would imagine that we would continue to
Speaker 1: improve on those. But I hope that gives you the
Speaker 1: basics that you needed to understand the differences and what
Speaker 1: these things do and what they're intended for. And if
Speaker 1: you guys have any suggestions for future episodes, First of all,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be back in the studio very soon, so
Speaker 1: definitely let me know what you want to hear about,
Speaker 1: because I'll be ready to record as soon as I
Speaker 1: get back. Whether that happens to be a specific technology,
Speaker 1: or it's a person or a company, or maybe you
Speaker 1: have a specific guest host in mind. You would love
Speaker 1: to have a guest host come in and talk about
Speaker 1: a particular subject, let me know. Send me an email
Speaker 1: that addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Will draw me a line on Twitter, Facebook, for Tumbler.
Speaker 1: At all three, I am tech stuff hs W, and
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. For more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, staff works dot com