Picking the right wireless laptop standards
Question:
I’m buying a laptop. As far as this wireless networking stuff is concerned. What do I have to look for to make sure a laptop will connect properly to our wireless (or any wireless for that matter)?
Answer:
So you want to know about wireless standards, and how to pick a laptop with the right wireless standard configuration? You want to look for two things, both of which come standard in most laptops made recently:
1) The laptop’s wireless description should be “integrated wireless” or “built-in wireless” or “internal wireless”. This is just a way of saying that the wireless capability is part of the laptop itself – you don’t need to purchase a separate device to get wireless to work.
2) Wireless communications uses different protocols, or languages. You may see references to “Wireless A”, “Wireless B”, “Wireless G”, or a combination of these, like “Wireless A/G”. Right now, the most popular wireless standard is “Wireless G”. So make sure your laptop supports “Wireless G”. Note that you may also see references to “Wireless N”. This is also acceptable, as N is an upgraded version of G, so any laptop with Wireless-N capability will be able to talk on a Wireless-G network.
