How does WiFi work?

Answer

Like cell phones or a car stereo, WiFi, or wireless internet, works with radio waves. For wireless internet you need a WiFi router and a computer that are able to establish a wireless connection with each other. The router and computer can send messages to each other via radio waves, sending data from the internet to and from your computer.

To send a message from your wireless computer to the Internet, the wireless card in your computer converts the message into radio signals, and sends it through its antenna. In newer laptops, this card and antenna are built into the computer and the screen itself.

A wireless router can receive the radio signals, convert them back to data signals, and relay the digital messages to your wired Internet connection. The router thus acts as an intermediate station between the Internet and a wireless network. Information that comes from the Internet, and must be sent to your wireless computer, follows the reverse path from your router to your computer in a similar manner.