WirelessLAN
Awirelesslocalareanetworkcoversarelativelysmallgeographicarea,suchasanofcebuildingorahouse.
Devicesbasedonthe802.11standardscanconnecttothisnetwork.
WirelessWAN
Awirelesswideareanetworkcoversabroadergeographicarea.Cellularnetworksareusedfordata
transmission,andaccessisprovidedbyawirelessservicecarrier.
Bluetooth
Oneofanumberoftechnologiesusedtocreateawirelesspersonalareanetwork.Bluetoothcanconnect
devicesashortdistancefromoneanother,andiscommonlyusedforconnectingperipheraldevicestoa
computer,transferringdatabetweenhand-helddevicesandPC,orremotelycontrollingandcommunicating
withdevicessuchasmobilephones.
WiMAX(WorldwideInteroperabilityforMicrowaveAccess)
Thislong-rangewirelessdatatransmissiontechnologybasedonthe802.16standard,isexpectedtoprovide
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”onpage42.
Note:Youcanpurchaseawirelessnetworkingcardasanoption.Formoreinformation,referto“Finding
ThinkPadoptions”onpage97
TipsforusingthewirelessLANfeature
•PlaceyourcomputersothatthereareasfewobstaclesaspossiblebetweenthewirelessLANaccess
pointandthecomputer.
•Toachievethebestwirelessconnection,openyourcomputerdisplaytoanangleslightlygreat erthan
90degrees.
•Ifyouusethewir elessfeature(the802.11standard)ofyourcomputersimultaneouslywithaBluetooth
option,datatransmissionspeedcanbedelayedandtheperformanceofthewirelessfeaturecanbe
degraded.
Wirelessnetworkingsetup
Tousethebuilt-inwirelessnetworkingcard(the802.11standard)tocommunicate,startAccessConnections.
ForWindows7:TostarttheAccessConnectionswizard,see“ AccessingapplicationsinWindows7”on
page15,andfollowtheinstructionsonthescreen.
ForWindowsXP:T ostarttheAccessConnectionswizard,clickStart➙AllPrograms➙ThinkVantage
➙AccessConnections,andfollowtheinstructionsonthescreen.
Chapter2.Usingyourcomputer35