Wirelessconnections
Wirelessconnectionisthetransferofdatawithouttheuseofcablesbymeansofradiowavesonly.
Dependingonthefrequencyusedfordatatransmission,theareacovered,orthetypeofthedeviceusedfor
datatransfer,thefollowingcategoriesofwirelessnetworksmaybeavailabletoyou:
WirelessLAN
Awirelesslocalareanetworkcoversarelativelysmallgeographicarea,suchasanofcebuildingorahouse.
Devicesbasedonthe802.11standardscanconnecttothisnetwork.
WirelessWAN
Awirelesswideareanetworkcoversabroadergeographicarea.Cellularnetworksareusedfordata
transmission,andaccessisprovidedbyawirelessservicecarrier.
Bluetooth
Oneofanumberoftechnologiesusedtocreateawirelesspersonalareanetwork.Bluetoothcanconnect
devicesashortdistancefromoneanother,andiscommonlyusedforconnectingperipheraldevicestoa
computer,transferringdatabetweenhand-helddevicesandPC,orremotelycontrollingandcommunicating
withdevicessuchasmobilephones.
WiMAX(WorldwideInteroperabilityforMicrowaveAccess)
Thislong-rangewirelessdatatransmissiontechnologybasedonthe802.16standardisexpectedtoprovide
theusera“lastmile”broadbandconnectivitysimilartothatprovidedbycableorADSL,butwithouttheneed
tophysicallyconnectacabletothePC.

MakingwirelessLANconnections

Yourcomputercomeswithabuilt-inwirelessnetworkingcardandacongurationutilitytohelpyoumake
wirelessconnectionsandmonitorthestatusofyourconnection,sothatyoucanstayconnectedtoyour
networkwhileyouareintheofce,inameetingroom,orathome,withnoneedforawiredconnection.
Attention:
•IfyoucarryyourcomputerwiththewirelessLANfeatureintoanairplane,checktheserviceswiththe
airlinebeforeboardingtheairplane.
•Iftherearerestrictionsontheuseofcomputersonanairplanewiththewirelessfeature,youneedto
disableitbeforeboarding.Todisableit,refertotheinstructionsin“Enablingordisablingthewireless
feature”onpage49.
Note:Youcanpurchaseawirelessnetworkingcardasanoption.Formoreinformation,referto“Finding
ThinkPadoptions”onpage149.
TipsforusingthewirelessLANfeature
•PlaceyourcomputersothatthereareasfewobstaclesaspossiblebetweenthewirelessLANaccess
pointandthecomputer .
•ForthebestconnectionofthewirelessLANfeature,openyourcomputerdisplaytoanangleofslightly
morethan90degr ees.
•Ifyouusethewirelessfeature(the802.11standard)ofyourcomputersimultaneouslywithaBluetooth
option,datatransmissionspeedcanbedelayedandtheperformanceofthewirelessfeaturecanbe
degraded.
Wirelessnetworkingsetup
Tousethebuilt-inwirelessnetworkingcard(the802.11standard)tocommunicate,startAccessConnections.
Chapter2.Usingyourcomputer43