WiFi comes from 'Wireless Fidelity', that is, 'wireless fidelity'.It is a wireless data transmission technology used for the Internet -mainly- and that is based on the 802.11 standard.But what is it really, and how does it work?In most cases it is used in the domestic sphere, for connecting devices to a local network, but it is far from the only possible practical application, and the details of its operation are much more complex and interesting than a priori. Could appeared.Whenever possible, it is most convenient to connect by cable.It is the best guarantee of speed and stability;however, there are cases where only WiFi connection is possible.And its advantage is precisely there, in that WiFi can reach where the wired connection does not, just as it happens with mobile networks in relation to fiber optic broadband infrastructure.In addition, in terms of installation cost it is also cheaper than a wired network.WiFi is a technology that allows wireless connection between electronic devices, computers, smartphones, tablets, televisions, game consoles, etc.Wi-Fi is a brand of the Wi-Fi Alliance or Alianza Wi-Fi, the organization that promotes this technology and is responsible for certifying all products that comply with established standards of interoperability.A technology that arose from the need to establish a way of wireless connection that was compatible with different devices.Therefore, the objective of the Alliance was to design a brand that would make it easier to promote wireless technology and ensure compatibility between devices.WiFi is based on radio waves, exactly like the radio itself, mobile telephony or television.Therefore, Wi-Fi networks transmit information over the air using radio waves.However, the frequencies used for this wireless connectivity technology are different, specifically 2.4 GHz up to the 802.11 n standard and 5 GHz in 802.11 ac.Currently, although 5 GHz provides superior performance, both frequencies are used and, furthermore, in higher performance equipment, data transfer is combined by both bands.Therefore, when we go to download a file or request certain information through a WiFi network, our router receives the data from the Internet through our connection and later converts it into radio waves.In this way, the router emits these waves and the wireless device that has requested the download of that file or information captures and decodes them.However, these waves can be interrupted by certain interference caused by other WiFi networks or by different electronic devices such as microwave ovens, refrigerators, televisions or cordless phones, among others.That is why we always insist on carefully analyzing where we are going to place our router at home to have the best possible wireless connection and avoid certain interferences.In a WiFi connection we have a wireless adapter in a computer -or other device- that translates the data into a radio signal and, through an antenna, transmits it 'over the air'.And a router, also wireless, which is in charge of receiving the signal and decoding it.And once this is done, through a physical connection, by cable, through Ethernet, it sends the information through the Internet to other servers.Obviously, this whole process happens exactly the same, but in reverse, when it is the 'client' who has to receive information from the Internet.The wireless router receives data that it translates into a radio signal and sends to the wireless adapter.All this can happen in 2.4 or 5 GHz, as we mentioned before, and on the 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac standards.There is backward compatibility between adapter and access point standards, and in the latest specifications it can transmit simultaneously on two bands for higher data transfer speeds.There are various types of WiFi based on an IEEE 802.11 standard.that the Alliance itself certifies and that consists of a series of wireless standards created by the Institute of Engineers and Electronics (IEEE).Among the most important standards, it is worth highlighting:To put it in some way, it is the base standard for wireless network communications.It does not go back there in the late 90s and allowed to transfer data at 1Mbps.The first revision of the 802.11 standard was born back in 1999 and operates on the 5 GHz frequency band, with a maximum speed of 54 Mbps, despite still offering the problem of excessive attenuation in the air due to the band in which that operated, so it was necessary to study the expansion to new frequency bands.The 802.11b revision soon began to enjoy wide acceptance in general because operating in the 2.4 GHz band reduced attenuation, eliminating much interference, improving the quality of the Wi-Fi signal.The transmission speed it offered was established at a theoretical 11 Mbit/second, but its main drawback was that indoor coverage was limited to a radius of 50 meters.Without leaving the 2.4 GHz bandwidth, the Wi-Fi g approved in 2003 matched the theoretical maximum transmission speed of 54 Mbit/sec to the a standard but also improved the indoor and outdoor coverage offered by the b standard, which caused the popularization of teams that implemented it throughout the world.Also known as WiFi 4. Undoubtedly one of the great turning points in wireless connections, thanks to the implementation of MIMO networks in the Wi-Fi standard, since although these antennas were already present in 802.11g equipment, they began here normalize thanks to the advantages of this technology.In addition to being compatible with the previous standards, Wi-Fi 802.11n covers transfer speeds of between 150 and 600 Mbps, guaranteeing stable connection speeds of 300 Mbps in the latter case.Besides.MIMO technology makes use of several antennas installed in the router to send and receive data simultaneously.Applied to this standard, it helps to achieve coverage of up to 120 meters indoors and 300 meters outdoors.Also known as WiFi 5 or WiFi Gigabit, the new WiGig standard brought great speeds to wireless connections and proof of this is the progress made with Wi-Fi 802.11ac.Thanks to beamforming technology to focus radio signals, the range of these wireless networks is greater even despite operating in the 5 GHz band and at much higher speeds thanks to multiple antennas –up to a maximum of 4-.In this case, the theoretical speed is fixed at up to 1,300 Mbps.This revision is also known under the name of HaLow, This revision known as "HaLow" has been the last to arrive and it does so willing to propose a serious alternative to Bluetooth in order to exploit the Internet of Things sector and channel connections of connected devices in the home tomorrow.In this case, we are talking about a bandwidth of 900 MHz, which is why it offers a greater range than networks that operate on 2.4 GHz as well as helping to lighten said band by directing the connection traffic of the connected devices in the home.Also known as WiFi 6 and designed to operate in the 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrums. In addition to using MIMO and MU-MIMO, this new standard introduces OFDMA to improve overall spectral efficiency and deliver higher throughput.It is backwards compatible with previous protocols and offers a theoretical maximum speed of 10 Gbps.An access point is an area with wireless connectivity through this technology.This area or access point creates a local wireless network (WLAN) to which we can connect from other devices.Our router is a WiFi access point, for example, as long as it has this technology, and public networks in cafes, airports and other establishments are too.However, a wide variety of wireless network adapters can share WiFi if they are connected to another network that allows them to access the Internet.In fact, smartphones can take advantage of wireless connectivity with mobile networks in this way and, therefore, we can share WiFi with Android and iPhone.WiFi security is variable, mainly depending on the encryption applied to communications between the router and the wireless adapters.There are several options, and they can be divided into secure and non-secure based on their technical characteristics:Wireless connectivity is becoming more widespread and has undoubtedly changed our lives completely.We live in a technological age in which we live connected and that is, in large part, due to the large number of WiFi connections that we can access wherever we go.However, although this type of connection offers certain advantages, we can also find certain drawbacks.Among the main advantages that WIFI offers us, it is worth highlighting:However, they also offer certain disadvantages or inconveniences with respect to wired networks:The quality of a WiFi network depends on several factors that, on the other hand, can be difficult to control.The characteristics of the router, its location, its orientation, the configuration of the network... all these factors are what determine the speed and quality of the signal, which ultimately translates into the quality of the Internet connection, and determines to what extent we take advantage of the maximum of our network.This TP-Link software offers us just that, all the details related to Wi-Fi.We can find third-party software dedicated to the analysis and optimization of a WiFi network, both professional solutions and those aimed at the particular field.This TP-Link software, as you will see in the screenshot that accompanies the article, allows you to configure a heat map of a WiFi network, in which we can know the signal intensity in great detail.In this way, we can diagnose possible problems and, obviously, solve them by relocating the router, modifying the orientation of its antennas, and so on.In addition, it also offers us more interesting details in the professional field, such as the analysis of download and upload traffic from the different access points of the same wireless connection.Thus, we not only have software for optimizing the WiFi network, but also for monitoring activity on all Internet access from wireless points. Reviewing the new TP-Link software in greater detail, we find, as You can see in the following screenshot, with a panel dedicated to the statistics of use of the WiFi network.In this previous one, with detailed graphs, we can see an analysis of traffic and clients connected to the WiFi network.Again, we are talking about functions oriented to the professional field.In any case, the option proposed by TP-Link is reminiscent of Google OnHub software, another interesting option for managing a wireless network.