How does WiFi work to provide a wireless Internet connection?

When our Internet connection is permanently interrupted or slow at certain times, we do not realize it, but many times the problem is in our router, since it may have a frequency that is not correct.

It generally happens that in large cities the Internet speed is lower than for less densely populated areas. This happens due to the occupation and overlapping of the low-frequency channels of the routing equipment.

Next, we will show you everything you need to know so that you have the best Internet connection through a Wi-Fi network. With this article you will be able to know the difference between a router and a modem, as well as how the frequency influences the connection quality.

What is a WiFi router and what is it for?

A WiFi router is an electronic device whose mission is to choose the best route to receive and send data through radio waves, choosing a network based on a criterion of administrative distance.

Thanks to this protocol or set of routing rules, the hardware can connect two or more devices together and with this you can obtain the most appropriate route to efficiently manage the sending and receiving of data.

That is, the routing device acts on two planes, one is a control plane with which it seeks the most effective output of the data, and the other is a forwarding plane, due to this the router is responsible for receiving that data. and sending it to devices on another interface.

We do not have to confuse these two planes because forwarding consists of receiving a data packet and delivering it to the output indicated by a table, while the control plane is that it is the procedure of making that table.

Although it is true that the router has different uses, we will dedicate ourselves to the use of Internet distribution in our home or office.

In this way we can say that a WiFi router works as a wireless access door, that is, it is responsible for receiving the Internet through the modem and then distributes the signal through radio waves between the different nodes or components of a non-wired network. .

There are different types of router, but the most used today for homes is the mixed one, which has connections through cables and also wireless.

The speed of these devices is 2.4GHz and 5GHz providing a connection speed of up to 70 Mbps to 1 Gbps respectively. We will detail this topic in the last part of our post.

Where does the router internet come from?

Many people get confused believing that the router is the one that emits the Internet signal. This is not the case because the equipment in charge of this function is the modem, which receives Internet from our operator through a cable that can be coaxial, ADSL or fiber optic.

In other words, what the router does is convert the signal that comes from the modem and distribute that signal to the different devices that can be connected to it, while the modem is in charge of receiving the Internet.

In other words, the routing device receives and sends information by radio waves to our computer and at the same time receive instructions from our PC to encode them and send them to the server through an Ethernet cable.

Once the server has translated the requested data, it sends it back to our computer, but first it will have to go through the router that receives that information from the server through the Ethernet cable and will have to translate the information from the server.

How does the router work to create a wireless Internet signal?

We can say that the routing equipment is a translator and mediator between a device, which is connected to the WiFi network, and the server of the Internet page that we want to access.

The operation of a router to create an Internet signal has the following stages:

Connection establishment and authentication

At this time the wireless network devices connect and negotiate all the parameters to link through authentication protocols to identify the user.

Although authentication is not required, but it is recommended as rules are also used to set the encrypted password to access the router.

internet reception

The router is connected to the modem, which is responsible for receiving the Internet signal through an Ethernet cable. At this time, the routing hardware encrypts this data for later distribution.

Signal encoding protocol

Through a pre-established protocol, the PPP (for its acronym in English “Point to Point Protocol”) either Point-to-point protocolencodes the information, compresses it and authenticates it.

In this way, it is ready to deliver the data required by the different nodes of the wireless network.

Choosing the best route

When it has the conditions to be able to distribute the data, it begins to look for the best route, based on a criterion of administrative distance, for the delivery of the package. That is, it looks for the efficiency between the transmission and reception between the router and the device in charge of receiving the data.

Delivery of data packets

Chosen the best route, it delivers the data packets through radio waves to the computer or any device that made the information request to the Internet server.

reverse path

In the same way, when an electronic device needs an Internet connection, it communicates with the router, which, thanks to the set of routing rules, receives and sends the information, acting as a translator and mediator between the computer and the Internet server. the page.

What is the frequency of a WiFi signal and how much does it influence the quality of the connection?

The frequency of a WiFi signal is the speed with which they are transmitted and receivedfrom port to port, data packets between the different nodes of the wireless network. To control this transmission speed there are different protocols so that, when they are fulfilled, they can have greater efficiency.

Currently there are two widely used frequency bands, both work with 802.11 standards. These two bands are 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Where GHz is the unit of measurement that quantifies the oscillation period in a nanosecond and Hz is equal to 10 raised to the ninth power, that is, 1,000,000,000 (one billion).

If we have to talk about 2.4 GHz, we can say that it is the modulated signal that reaches the receiving devices based on 13 channels (plus 1 channel, which is the transfer center channel) of 22 MHz each. Being of low frequency, its range is greater and its speed is around 50 Mbps to 70 Mbps.

The characteristic of these channels is that they are narrow and often overlap with other channels of the same frequency. are close to our router.

In this way when there are many routers working in a nearby area, Internet speed and connection becomes slow since many data packets are being transmitted through the same channels. In this way we can say that WiFi frequency directly influences the quality of the Internet connection.

It must also be taken into account that there are different electronic equipment that are close to the routersuch as a wireless mouse or keyboard without a wired connection, which generally transmit on this low frequency, therefore, occupy some of the 13 channels of the 2.4 GHZ frequency, causing them to occupy even more of them. This congestion increases exponentially when it comes to densely populated places.

A different case is the other signal frequency which is 5 GHzwhere it works with standards equal to or greater than 802.11 n, that is, with 802.11ac. It works with 24 channels of 20 MHz, the channels can be used without any risk of interference.

This class of frequency, by transmitting with many more channels, prevents overlapping in urban areas. Its transmission speed can reach up to 1 Gbpsbut unlike the previous frequency it does not reach so far from the place where the router is located.

If we need to compare the actual speed we have at home with the one we contract with our service operator, we need to do a speed test.

This function is also very useful when we need to know if there are people or intruders connected to our network in an unauthorized way, because in this way they would occupy more space in the channels and generate a slow connection.

For these two situations there is an efficient and very practical tool, which is the speed test of our Internet connection. Thanks to this function we can know exactly what our connection speed is.

For this we leave you our speed test