No Wires Required

Estimated Completion Time
1 min
No Wires Required
Image: Cultura RM/J J D/Cultura/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They're also unobtrusive -- unless you're on the lookout for a place to use your laptop, you may not even notice when you're in a hotspot. But as you’ll find out in this quiz, there’s a lot more to them than meets the eye.
Wireless networking, or Wi-Fi, can be used to connect computers in a home, and many cities are using the technology to offer free or low-cost Internet access to residents. What's another name for Wi-Fi?
801.12 networking
801.22 networking
802.11 networking
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Wi-Fi is also referred to as 802.11 networking. No matter what you call it, it's pretty flexible as far as Internet connections go: It requires no wires.

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A wireless network uses ___ waves to transmit signals.
mechanical
radio
sound
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Like cell phones, TVs and radios, a wireless network uses radio waves to transmit signals. Communication across wireless networks is pretty comparable to two-way radio communication.

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What device sends and receives radio signals in a wireless network?
modem
digital translator
router
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Your computer, smartphone and other gadgets communicate with the wireless router using radio signals.

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At what frequencies do Wi-Fi radios make transmissions?
3 GHz or 8 GHz
2.4 GHz or 5 GHz
2 GHz or 7.3 GHz
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Wi-Fi radios transmit signals at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. These high frequencies allow the signal to carry more data.

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Of the following networking standards, which is not used in Wi-Fi data transmissions?
802.11g
802.11q
802.11b
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

802.11c isn't used as a networking standard -- but 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n are used.

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Which networking standard is the slowest and least expensive?
802.11a
802.11b
802.11n
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The slowest and least expensive networking standard is 802.11b. It transmits in the 2.4 GHz frequency band of the radio spectrum and carries up to 11 megabits of data per second.

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Which networking standard was the first to use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) as a coding technique?
802.11g
802.11a
802.11n
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

All three of these standards use OFDM, a coding technique that splits signals into sub-signals before they reach a receiver to reduce interference, but 802.11a was the first.

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Which short-range wireless standard is used for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs)?
802.16
802.15
802.13
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The wireless standard used for WPANs is 802.15 -- it's also commonly used for Bluetooth technology.

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If your laptop doesn't have a built-in wireless transmitter, you can buy a wireless adapter that plugs into all of the following except:
headphone jack
USB port
PC card slot
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Wireless adapters plug into USB ports and PC card slots. Most new laptops have built-in wireless adapters. If you'll be accessing a wireless network with your desktop, you can insert an adapter into the PCI slot inside the computer's case.

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You can change the settings on your wireless router through a Web interface. One option you can change is channel. What channel do routers use by default?
2
7
6
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Routers use channel 6 by default -- if you live in an apartment complex and your neighbors are using this same channel, you can sometimes get some interference. In addition to changing the channel, other settings you may wish to change include the name of your network and your router's security options.

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You Got:
/10
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